The Books Insiderthe data-driven audiobook guide
Cover of A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

A Fire upon the Deep: Audiobook

As an audiobook, A Fire upon the Deep runs an estimated 17.9 hours (about 11.9 hours at 1.5× playback speed).

17.9est. listening hrs
4.3★72 ratings
Science Fictiongenre
Free with trial

The instrumentWhen will you finish it?

Based on 17.9 hours of listening (estimated).

Days to finish A Fire upon the Deep at common listening paces
Your paceYou'll finish in
30 min / day36 days
1 hour / day18 days
2 hours / day9 days
1 hour / day at 1.5×12 days

What our data says

  • At 17.9 hours (estimated), it runs longer than 93% of the science fiction audiobooks we measured.
  • That's 70% longer than the average science fiction audiobook (10.5 hrs across 820 titles in our dataset).

Computed from science fiction audiobooks in The Books Insider dataset (build ); listening time estimated from page count. Methodology.

Who is this for?

Best for science fiction listeners: a long-haul epic at 17.9 hours (estimated).

About the book

A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. 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.

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Questions listeners ask

How long is A Fire upon the Deep as an audiobook?

A Fire upon the Deep runs about 17.9 hours, our estimate from its 605 pages at a typical narration pace. At 1.5× speed that drops to roughly 11.9 hours.

Can I listen to A Fire upon the Deep free?

Yes, with the audiobooks.com free trial. Start the trial, get A Fire upon the Deep included, and cancel anytime; the trial stays free.

Is A Fire upon the Deep worth listening to at 1.5× speed?

At 1.5× you'd finish in about 11.9 hours, saving 6 hours. Most listeners adjust to 1.25–1.5× within a chapter or two.

When was A Fire upon the Deep first published?

A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge was first published in 1992.