The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge

The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge brings together the science fiction short fiction of American writer Vernor Vinge. The book covers his published short stories from 1966 through 2001, with the exceptions of "True Names" and "Grimm's Story."

In "Bookworm, Run!", first appearing in Analog Science Fiction Science Fact in 1966, the U.S. government connects a chimpanzee named Norman Simmons to an electronic memory bank to amplify his intelligence. A mistake links the experimental computer to the government's main databank, giving Norman access to all U.S. government information, including fictional stories. Fearing punishment, he uses this access to escape the lab. He remains remotely linked to the government computers, which cannot disconnect him due to their own security.

Using stories stored in his mind, he plans to flee to Canada with help from nearby Soviet agents. The Soviets are captured; Norman runs but strays too far from the computer link, reverting to a normal animal. The Americans decide against trying this experiment on a human, worried that an augmented human could conquer the world. The captured Russians have their memories read and erased, revealing the USSR already enhanced a dog with similar results and plans to enhance one of its leaders next. The Americans feel they must now do the same to keep pace.

"The Accomplice," from Worlds of If Science Fiction in 1967, follows Bob Royce, CEO of Royce Technology, and his security officer Arnold Su. They discover that an employee, Howard Prentice, a 90-something renaissance man doing computer science research, has embezzled four million dollars' worth of computer time. Prentice reveals he used the computers to create a four-hour computer-generated film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, the culmination of a 30-year project with his wife Moira to make film an art form producible by individual artists.

"The Peddler's Apprentice," co-written with Joan D. Vinge and published in Analog Science Fiction Science Fact in 1975, describes a peddler named Jagit Katchetooriantz who travels into the future by placing himself in a stasis field and emerging periodically. He sells items from previous civilizations to current ones, relying on changing civilizations to create demand. On one visit, he encounters a planetary government that prevents change by keeping most of humanity at subsistence level. The government captures Jagit and tries to interrogate him using its global computer network. However, the people running the government and network survived from Jagit's last visit, and he knows the passwords and codes to control it. He uses this power to destroy the network and government, freeing humanity. He returns to his stasis field to continue his journey.

"The Ungoverned," from Far Frontiers in 1985, is set in the Across Realtime series between The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. It takes place in a future market anarchist American society made up of independent individuals and private organizations. Security and police services come from groups like Al's Protection Racket and Michigan State Police. One remaining nation-state, the Republic of New Mexico, has territorial ambitions on Kansas. The invasion is repelled through cooperation between the MSP and private individuals defending their interests.

"Long Shot," from Analog Science Fiction Science Fact in 1972, describes a voyage from Earth to Alpha Centauri by an automated, AI-controlled colony ship. The ship is launched as a "long shot" to preserve humanity because the Earth will be destroyed by a rapidly expanding sun. The AI, Ilse, carries human zygotes on a ten-thousand-year trip to find a suitable planet around Alpha Centauri. Despite deteriorating hardware that causes her to forget the mission's purpose, she uses inferences and remaining functional components to complete it. Vinge expressed interest in writing a sequel about the lives of the humans born on that world.

"Apartness," first published in New Worlds SF in 1965, is set in a world where the Northern Hemisphere was devastated by nuclear war, and Southern Hemisphere nations are dominant. A scientific fleet from the Southern American Empire investigates Antarctica and discovers an isolated tribe of humans. The tribe is descended from the only group of Afrikaners to escape South Africa after a genocide of all white Africans following the northern hemisphere's nuclear war. This was Vinge's first story accepted for publication.

"Conquest by Default," from Analog Science Fiction Science Fact in 1968, is set in the same world as "Apartness" but further in the future. An alien civilization called the Mikin makes contact with Earth. The Mikin culture is newly star-faring, profit-driven, and anarchic. Their technology is far more advanced than humanity's, and their culture is incredibly diverse due to an ingrained acceptance of differences.

"The Whirligig of Time" continues the collection.