A Deepness in the Sky
A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vingeby Vernor Vinge
Hacker ApprovedShares rank 22 of 179 science fiction novels by recommenders
Recommended as a far-future science fiction novel with memorable alien characters and inventive ideas, praised as one of Vinge's best.
Recommended as a far-future science fiction novel with memorable alien characters and inventive ideas, praised as one of Vinge's best.
22 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 21
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 95%
Recommended in 9 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 21 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 21 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 9 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Among favorite books of recommenders
“a book and a character I already enjoy a ton”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]” “It just might be my most favorite book.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Ask HN: What fiction books would you recommend for programmers?” “That's one of my favorite books :)”
Comment from 20 Apr 2026 in “10 years ago, someone wrote a test for servo that included an expiry in 2026” Far-future setting and spider civilization
“IMO actually the superior story. It plays in the far future of humanity.”
Comment from 31 Mar 2026 in “Ollama is now powered by MLX on Apple Silicon in preview” “the whole spider civilization angle is so fun”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Newly discovered spider builds spring loaded snare to catch ants” Ideas like focus and control
“It's a good book and you can see how the concept of controlling ubiquitous tech is a thing he tries to do”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Prevent cognitive debt by manually retyping LLM-generated code” “Vernor Vinge's concept of "focus" in "A deepness in the sky" really clicked with me”
Comment from 4 Aug 2026 in “Prevent cognitive debt by manually retyping LLM-generated code” “Vinge put into mere footnotes what others would use to write entire novels”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “We've made the world too complicated” Believable alien and memorable characters
“didn't feel like a human wearing an alien suit”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Wikipedia in read-only mode following mass admin account compromise” “one of favorite characters in fiction”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “The Legend of von Neumann (1973) [pdf]”
Other science fiction novels people recommend
The four most recommended other science fiction novels, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Project Hail Maryby Andy Weir | 117 | 24 | 83% | 12 | — | Approved |
| There Is No Antimemetics Divisionby qntm | 98 | 34 | 74% | 9 | 1.5 yrs6 owners | Approved |
| Blindsightby Peter Watts | 96 | 27 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Duneby Frank Herbert | 82 | 25 | 77% | 12 | — | Approved |
| A Deepness in the Skyby Vernor VingeThis page | 21 | 1 | 95% | 9 | — | Approved |
What people said
19 of the 26 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the spiders freezing in A Deepness in the Sky by Vinge”
“a book and a character I already enjoy a ton”
“one of favorite characters in fiction”
“Oooh those are really good!”
“Vinge didn't write much, but what he did write I think is very special indeed.”
“It's a good book and you can see how the concept of controlling ubiquitous tech is a thing he tries to do”
“Vernor Vinge's concept of "focus" in "A deepness in the sky" really clicked with me”
“the whole spider civilization angle is so fun”
“a pretty great read and definitely recommended”
“I wish I had read Deepness first”
“Vinge put into mere footnotes what others would use to write entire novels”
“That's one of my favorite books :)”
“the prequel A Deepness In The Sky is even better”
“Vernor Vinge's trilogy: A Deepness in the Sky, A Fire Upon the Deep, Across Realtime.”
“IMO actually the superior story. It plays in the far future of humanity.”
“didn't feel like a human wearing an alien suit”
“There's a little throwaway thing in the book that I always liked”
“It just might be my most favorite book.”
“I'm finding A Deepness in the Sky pretty drudging to be honest.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.