Author and professor of mathematics Vernor Vinge, best known for his "gripping hard science fiction" and introducing the concept of the technological singularity (AKA the Singularity)," died March 20 at age 79, Locus <https://locusmag.com/2024/03/vernor-vinge-1944-2024/> magazine reported. Vinge s debut novel, Grimm s World, was published in 1969. A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), the first book in the Zones of Thought series, won the Hugo Award, while the second title in the series, A Deepness in the Sky (1999), took the Hugo Award