Rating: 
Summary: Excellent read, better than the sequel.
Review: Originally appearing as a serial in Analog May - August 1984, this book combines intriguing characters, imaginative politics, and a fascinating physics concept - the bobble, a spherical force-field which is impenetrable from the outside and freezes time for anyone/anything inside. The sequel, Marooned in Real Time, was also a good read but less intense.
Rating: 
Summary: A really good read, by a good author.
Review: Read this book years ago, and have been looking for my own copy ever since. Please bring it back into print! Possibly better than the "Fire Upon the Deep", but either way a rare and good book.
Well worth tracking down.... now where is my credit card!
Rating:
Summary: All Bobbled Up
Review: Stumbling upon this book in my local library, I decided to once again enter a world created by Vernor Vinge. Several years ago I read both of Vinge's awarding winning books: A Fire Upon the Deep & A Deepness in the Sky. Simply put, I have yet to be disappointed by Vinge.In The Peace War, a rogue research group, later calling itself the Peace Authority, takes control of the world after perfecting the art of conjuring and projecting bobbles...impenetrable spherical force-fields. Fifty years after they've taken down nearly every national government on the planet by negating the governments' every weapon with the bobble, a rebellion is finally stirring, a rebellion led by Paul Naismith...a Tinker whose mastery of Banned technology (high-tech stuff was banned by the Authority because it presents a threat to the Authority's power...namely the sole proprietorship of the bobble technology) puts Naismith in the perfect position to help bring about an end (with the help of his fellow Tinkers) to the Peace Authority's tyrannical rule. But Naismith is an elderly man (around 80), and knows his time is waning. Because of this, Naismith takes on an apprentice, someone he can pass his Tinker secrets to...an heir. He chooses (or has thrust upon him, depending on the point of view) Wili Wachendon...for most intents and purposes a thief...but also a mathematical genesis of the highest caliber -- once Naismith instructs him on some fundamentals anyway. Naismith and Wachendon, along with their Tinker friends and a few others, ultimately confront the Peace Authority on their own turf...in more ways than one...where nothing short of the fate of the world lies in the hands of Naismith, Wachendon, and their friends. Once one puts aside the unbelievability factor -- conqueroring every government in the world, even with a technology as incredible as the bobble -- the book is really quite good. The bobble is an interesting concept that Vinge handles quite adeptly...for instance, in the shadows of the large bobbles that surround entire cities, the surrounding ecosystem is dramatically altered because of a change in climactic patterns brought forcefully on by the bobbles. I found this to be a very plausible and common-sense consequence of using the bobbles that I'm not sure every author would have considered. Also, I found it interesting that at least one of Naismith's devices (I won't say which, because it is one of the minor mysteries that gets solved early on in the book) seems to be an "ancestor" to one of the devices used in A Deepness in the Sky written about 15 years later. Overall, The Peace War is certainly worth reading if you are a fan of Vinge, a techy, or are just plain interested in good scifi.
Rating:
Summary: All Bobbled Up
Review: Stumbling upon this book in my local library, I decided to once again enter a world created by Vernor Vinge. Several years ago I read both of Vinge's awarding winning books: A Fire Upon the Deep & A Deepness in the Sky. Simply put, I have yet to be disappointed by Vinge. In The Peace War, a rogue research group, later calling itself the Peace Authority, takes control of the world after perfecting the art of conjuring and projecting bobbles...impenetrable spherical force-fields. Fifty years after they've taken down nearly every national government on the planet by negating the governments' every weapon with the bobble, a rebellion is finally stirring, a rebellion led by Paul Naismith...a Tinker whose mastery of Banned technology (high-tech stuff was banned by the Authority because it presents a threat to the Authority's power...namely the sole proprietorship of the bobble technology) puts Naismith in the perfect position to help bring about an end (with the help of his fellow Tinkers) to the Peace Authority's tyrannical rule. But Naismith is an elderly man (around 80), and knows his time is waning. Because of this, Naismith takes on an apprentice, someone he can pass his Tinker secrets to...an heir. He chooses (or has thrust upon him, depending on the point of view) Wili Wachendon...for most intents and purposes a thief...but also a mathematical genesis of the highest caliber -- once Naismith instructs him on some fundamentals anyway. Naismith and Wachendon, along with their Tinker friends and a few others, ultimately confront the Peace Authority on their own turf...in more ways than one...where nothing short of the fate of the world lies in the hands of Naismith, Wachendon, and their friends. Once one puts aside the unbelievability factor -- conqueroring every government in the world, even with a technology as incredible as the bobble -- the book is really quite good. The bobble is an interesting concept that Vinge handles quite adeptly...for instance, in the shadows of the large bobbles that surround entire cities, the surrounding ecosystem is dramatically altered because of a change in climactic patterns brought forcefully on by the bobbles. I found this to be a very plausible and common-sense consequence of using the bobbles that I'm not sure every author would have considered. Also, I found it interesting that at least one of Naismith's devices (I won't say which, because it is one of the minor mysteries that gets solved early on in the book) seems to be an "ancestor" to one of the devices used in A Deepness in the Sky written about 15 years later. Overall, The Peace War is certainly worth reading if you are a fan of Vinge, a techy, or are just plain interested in good scifi.
Rating:
Summary: All Bobbled Up
Review: Stumbling upon this book in my local library, I decided to once again enter a world created by Vernor Vinge. Several years ago I read both of Vinge's awarding winning books: A Fire Upon the Deep & A Deepness in the Sky. Simply put, I have yet to be disappointed by Vinge. In The Peace War, a rogue research group, later calling itself the Peace Authority, takes control of the world after perfecting the art of conjuring and projecting bobbles...impenetrable spherical force-fields. Fifty years after they've taken down nearly every national government on the planet by negating the governments' every weapon with the bobble, a rebellion is finally stirring, a rebellion led by Paul Naismith...a Tinker whose mastery of Banned technology (high-tech stuff was banned by the Authority because it presents a threat to the Authority's power...namely the sole proprietorship of the bobble technology) puts Naismith in the perfect position to help bring about an end (with the help of his fellow Tinkers) to the Peace Authority's tyrannical rule. But Naismith is an elderly man (around 80), and knows his time is waning. Because of this, Naismith takes on an apprentice, someone he can pass his Tinker secrets to...an heir. He chooses (or has thrust upon him, depending on the point of view) Wili Wachendon...for most intents and purposes a thief...but also a mathematical genesis of the highest caliber -- once Naismith instructs him on some fundamentals anyway. Naismith and Wachendon, along with their Tinker friends and a few others, ultimately confront the Peace Authority on their own turf...in more ways than one...where nothing short of the fate of the world lies in the hands of Naismith, Wachendon, and their friends. Once one puts aside the unbelievability factor -- conqueroring every government in the world, even with a technology as incredible as the bobble -- the book is really quite good. The bobble is an interesting concept that Vinge handles quite adeptly...for instance, in the shadows of the large bobbles that surround entire cities, the surrounding ecosystem is dramatically altered because of a change in climactic patterns brought forcefully on by the bobbles. I found this to be a very plausible and common-sense consequence of using the bobbles that I'm not sure every author would have considered. Also, I found it interesting that at least one of Naismith's devices (I won't say which, because it is one of the minor mysteries that gets solved early on in the book) seems to be an "ancestor" to one of the devices used in A Deepness in the Sky written about 15 years later. Overall, The Peace War is certainly worth reading if you are a fan of Vinge, a techy, or are just plain interested in good scifi.
Rating: 
Summary: Still in Print, I think
Review: There's a book available that combines 'The Peace War' and 'Marooned in Real-Time' called "Across real-time" or something like that. Check into it.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Hard SF.
Review: This book reminds me of "The Ringworld Engineers" in that it is
one of the only science fiction stories that I've read that
really tries to make its imaginary world function in a believable
way. Vinge holds a doctorate in computer science, and it really shows.
There is a certain undeniable logic and elegance to his ideas. This book is the first introduction of Vinge's idea of the Singularity (google for it, it's worth it).
Rating:
Summary: Light, but very entertaining
Review: This is a very entertaining hard-scifi novel set in the near future. Vinge imagines our world with a single technological advancement -- the bobble -- introduced. The imagined future is sufficiently credible to make this an entertaining story.
The characters are interesting, but insufficiently fleshed out. We read an "explanation" of Miguel's motivations, but that explanation seems a little to facile. Allison notes that Paul seems to want her to leave, but we don't really get into the internal conflicts that must be racing through Paul to give her that impression. That Della would fall for Miguel seems only to move the story, not to reveal Della's heart. The examples could continue.
The plot, however, is briskly paced and well structured, with victory wrapped around defeat, wrapped around victory, in an interesting overlay.
There are some minor problems with timing. Della seems to contact Avery while still under Wili's quarrantine. And Avery doesn't seem to have enough time after he fully understood the bobble to use that knowledge in the Renaissance plan.
Don't look for deep insights into philosophy, science, politics, or the human person in this book. (Contrast it with Jablokov's "Carve the Sky," which is a moving, poetic meditation on the significance of aesthetics.) Instead, it is a well-paced, entertaining visit to a fairly credible future.
Rating:
Summary: A fictional explanation
Review: This was Vernor Vinge's fictional working out of the concept of the "technological singularity". This may or may not be a truth of reality, it seems like it probably is, but this is an important work just for being where he developed the concept. (His arguments for believing it to be accurate are made elsewhere.) I HIGHLY recommend this book, and even more his recent short story "Lobsters" (if you can find it). Also "True Names", though that may now be slightly dated...or perhaps not (as technical advances happen, possibilities appear, and disappear, and then sometimes reappear in slightly different forms).
Rating:
Summary: A fictional explanation
Review: This was Vernor Vinge's fictional working out of the concept of the "technological singularity". This may or may not be a truth of reality, it seems like it probably is, but this is an important work just for being where he developed the concept. (His arguments for believing it to be accurate are made elsewhere.) I HIGHLY recommend this book, and even more his recent short story "Lobsters" (if you can find it). Also "True Names", though that may now be slightly dated...or perhaps not (as technical advances happen, possibilities appear, and disappear, and then sometimes reappear in slightly different forms).
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