A Fire Upon the Deep

Vernor Vinge, 1992



Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function. Nobody knows what strange force partitioned space into these "regions of thought," but when the warring Straumli realm use an ancient Transcendent artifact as a weapon, they unwittingly unleash an awesome power that destroys thousands of worlds and enslaves all natural and artificial intelligence.

Fleeing the threat, a family of scientists, including two children, are taken captive by the Tines, an alien race with a harsh medieval culture, and used as pawns in a ruthless power struggle. A rescue mission, not entirely composed of humans, must rescue the children-and a secret that may save the rest of interstellar civilization.

Vernor Vinge (Wikipedia)
Vernor Vinge (Salon article, 1999)

A Fire Upon the Deep (Wikipedia)
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Woken Furies

Richard Morgan, 2005



This is the latest Takeshi Kovacs novel and it's better than Broken Angels but not as good as Altered Carbon.

Once a gang member, then a marine, then a galaxy-hopping Envoy trained to wreak slaughter and suppression across the stars, a bleeding, wounded Kovacs was chilling out in a New Hokkaido bar when some so-called holy men descended on a slim beauty with tangled, hyperwired hair. An act of quixotic chivalry later and Kovacs was in deep: mixed up with a woman with two names, many powers, and one explosive history.

In a world where the real and virtual are one and the same and the dead can come back to life, the damsel in distress may be none other than the infamous Quellcrist Falconer, the vaporized symbol of a freedom now gone from Harlan’s World. Kovacs can deal with the madness of AI. He can do his part in a battle against biomachines gone wild, search for a three-centuries-old missing weapons system, and live with a blood feud with the yakuza, and even with the betrayal of people he once trusted. But when his relationship with “the” Falconer brings him an enemy specially designed to destroy him, he knows it’s time to be afraid.

After all, the guy sent to kill him is himself: but younger, stronger, and straight out of hell.

Richard Morgan (homepage)
Richard Morgan (Wikipedia)

Woken Furies (Wikipedia)
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Woken Furies (Bokfynd)

Woken Furies (review at SF Reviews)

Fallen Dragon

Peter F. Hamilton, 2001



I'd say that this is Hamilton's best book. And it's only a single volume as well!

As a child, Lawrence Newton wanted nothing more than to fly starships and explore the galaxy, like his fictional heroes. But on the colony world of Amethi in the twenty-fourth century, Lawrence is living in the wrong era: the age of human starflight is drawing to a close. So, like many another teenage hothead, he rebels and runs away.

Twenty years later, he's the seargent of a washed-out platoon taking part in the bungled invasion of another world. The giant corporations who own the remaining starships euphamistically call such campaigns 'asset realization'. In practice it's simple piracy.

But while he's on the ground, being shot at and firebombed by disturbingly effective resistance forces, Lawrence hears stories about the Temple of the Fallen Dragon - the holy place of a sect devoted to the worship of a mythical creature that fell from the sky millenia before the arrival of humans. More importantly, its priests are said to guard a hoard of treasure large enough to buy lifelong happiness for any man, and that information alone is enough to prompt him to mount a small private-enterprise operation of his own.

Peter F. Hamilton (homepage)
Peter F. Hamilton (Wikipedia)

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City

Clifford D. Simak, 1952



Far, far in the future, Man is but a myth. The ruling race on the Earth are the Dogs. Not warhounds, mind you; intelligent, caring dogs. And the legend of Man is passed among dogs from father to son, in eight stories that are more likely to be legend than truth - or so the dogs think, anyway.

Clifford D. Simak (Wikipedia)

City (Wikipedia)
City (Amazon)
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City (review by Tal Cohen)

Look to Windward

Iain M. Banks, 2000



It was one of the less glorious incidents of the Idiran wars that led to the destruction of two suns and the billions of lives they supported. Now, eight hundred years later, the light from the first of those ancient deaths has reached the Culture's Masaq' Orbital. For the Hub Mind, overseer of the massive bracelet world, its arrival is particularly poignant. But it may still be eclipsed by events from the Culture's more recent past.
When the Chelgrian Ziller, a composer of great renown now living in self-imposed exile, learns that an emissary from his home world is being sent to Masaq' Orbital, he fears the worst: that the Chelgrians want him to return. A considerable debt is owed to the Chelgrians, but Ziller is an honoured guest on their world and the Culture would not force him to leave.They know that they are facing a slight diplomatic problem. However, Ziller is not the only thing on the Chelgrian emissary's mind. If his mission is successful, it will illuminate the Culture's future as well as its past.

Ian M Banks (homepage)
Ian M Banks (Wikipedia)

Look to Windward (Wikipedia)
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Look to Windward (review NYTimes)
Look to Windward (review SF site)
Look to Windward (review Strange Horizons)