The Sky People The Sky People The Sky People is an alternate history science fiction novel by American writer S. M. Stirling. It was first published by Tor Books in hardcover in November 2006, with a book club edition co-published with the Science Fiction Book Club following in December of the same year. Tor issued paperback, ebook and trade paperback editions in October 2007, April 2010 and May 2010, respectively. Audiobook editions were published by Tantor Media in January 2007. The book takes place on the planet Venus in an alternate solar system where probes from the United States of America and the
A Deepness in the Sky halo and is populated by incomprehensibly vast and powerful posthuman entities. "A Deepness in the Sky" takes place in the Slow Zone, though Vinge does not explain the connections, and the characters in the story remain unaware of the zones' existence. The sun's inexplicably strange behavior, the unusual planetary system (with only a solitary planet and several asteroid-sized diamonds), and the discovery of "cavorite" on the planet may indicate the system originated in the Transcend, though it is currently moving outward from the Unthinking Depths. Vinge's characters speculate that the Spiders descend from an ancient star-faring civilization, and that the