The Peace War
by Vernor Vinge
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Book Summary Information
Author: Vernor VingeEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-12-01
ISBN: 0765308835
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Tor Books
Book Reviews of The Peace War
Book Review: Should be more popular
Summary: 5 Stars
Vernor Vinge is an extremely talented writer and mathematician. I say he's a very talented writer because he writes detailed, deep, believable characters that you can relate to very well and he introduces mathematics into his writing.
This is one of two books that I know of that deal with a mathematical concept that Vinge invented called the "BOBBLE." In the not so far future, some scientists discover that using novel technologies and lots of power they can create these things called bobbles which are giant bubbles that can be used to encapsulate cars, cities, pretty much anything. The bobbles are roughly spherical aberrations of space time - nothing can get inside a bobble and nothing can get out, not light, not air, not a nuclear blast -- nothing can destroy a bobble. Bobbles reflect light and heat perfectly and are perfectly smooth (no dents or anything) and has no friction...if a human puts his hand on a bobble's surface, it feels warm not because the bobble is warm but because it reflects the warmth of the hand that rests on its surface. If the contents inside a bobble are lighter than the outside, it floats, etc. Bobbles can't be built inside bobbles and they can't intersect each other. The concept is dizzyingly cool and makes for a great science fiction premise.
These scientists who invent the bobbles decide to end all wars and as such they set out to bobble up nuclear silos, cities, anything that can be used to wage war. In the end they wind up bobbling most of the major metropolises of the world - thereby killing hundreds of millions of people who were trapped in the bobbles and there is writing in the book that poses some conjecture about how those poor people must've perished inside the bobbles soon after they were encapsulated.
The book Peace War then is about the inventor of the bobbles technology who did not agree with its use and who escapes early after the "Peace War Started," and this scientist is a leader of a resistance against the Peacers, as they are called. I particularly love how Vinge uses mathematics to find shortcuts which is so very in line with how mathematicians think - what wonderful minds they have.
I won't give much more away just save to know that bobbles are much more complex mathematically than I described above and there are many secrets and peculiarities that Vernor Vinge comes up with as the book progresses.
Overall, I found the concept very attractive and I found the characters warm, comfortable, and very believable - its one of the best sci fi finds in quite some time.
This book is from an earlier era of science fiction maybe middle 80s when publishers and the market rewarded writers who came up with unique and wondrous ideas for sci fi settings.
Lets just say that Peace War is great. There's a second book called Marooned in Realtime and the both were once put into a omnibus titled Across Realtime. I purchased and read Across Realtime - a title which gives away some other fantastic properties of bobbles.
So:
The Peace War is the book of how the Peace Authority (the ones who bobbled up the cities and war machines of the world) are brought down by a rebellion.
Marooned in Realtime - is a detective story about a crime that is committed in a very unusual way using bobble technology. Also worth reading but very different from the Peace War
Across Realtime - is the omnibus that includes both The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime.
Good luck exploring bobbles.
Summary of The Peace War
The Peace War is quintessential hard-science adventure. The Peace Authority conquered the world with a weapon that never should have been a weapon--the "bobble," a spherical force-field impenetrable by any force known to mankind. Encasing governmental installations and military bases in bobbles, the Authority becomes virtually omnipotent. But they've never caught Paul Hoehler, the maverick who invented the technology, and who has been working quietly for decades to develop a way to defeat the Authority. With the help of an underground network of determined, independent scientists and a teenager who may be the apprentice genius he's needed for so long, he will shake the world, in the fast-paced hard-science thriller that garnered Vinge the first of his four Hugo nominations for best novel.
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