A Deepness in the Sky

Thirty thousand years before A Fire Upon the Deep, Pham Nuwen lives a quiet life in an interstellar trading fleet. Their journey brings them to the planet Arachna, where a dormant civilization known as the Spiders is about to awaken. But as Arachna prepares for a golden age, a sinister group called the Emergents arrives with destructive intentions, threatening both the Spiders and the Qeng Ho fleet. Pham must rally the survivors for a desperate fight against the Emergents and their devastating attacks.