Status
Available
Call number
Description
The novel that garnered Vinge his first "Best Novel" Hugo Finalist nomination, back in print after thirteen years. With a combination of hard-SF concepts, tight plotting, and appealing characters, Vinge tells a now-classic story of the Few triumphing over the Many. The Peace Authority, wielding a new state-of-the-art weapon, takes over the world, and claims to be "maintaining the peace" while really controlling the scattered survivors of the new world. The inventor of their weapon, which was never meant to be a weapon at all, leads a resistance of high-tech "tinkers" who fight to defeat the "Peace."
Pages
304
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |
Language
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1985)
Prometheus Award (Nominee — Novel — 1985)
Series
User reviews
LibraryThing member rufty
Someone invents a perfect forcefield and uses it as a weapon - opposing armies are neutralised, nuke weapons are useless.
A new order arises and peace is achieved for the first time in human history and peace not through force but the removal of any possible force.
All this sounds perfect, but far
Things get interesting when these forcefields (that were assumed to last indefinitly) start to fail and suddenly events of the past are catching up with the current order.
Simply put, a good example of exploration of a technological breakthrough and its effect on society. Vernor takes what is a seemingly simple technology and plays with it and the associated power struggles such a technology engenders.
A new order arises and peace is achieved for the first time in human history and peace not through force but the removal of any possible force.
All this sounds perfect, but far
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from it peace isn;t all it's cracked up to be - when someone else is dictating terms and holding back research to stop anyone else threatening their power/the peace.Things get interesting when these forcefields (that were assumed to last indefinitly) start to fail and suddenly events of the past are catching up with the current order.
Simply put, a good example of exploration of a technological breakthrough and its effect on society. Vernor takes what is a seemingly simple technology and plays with it and the associated power struggles such a technology engenders.
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LibraryThing member bradsucks
Good, better than most sci-fi but the bobbling premise was a little far-fetched. Still, entertaining otherwise though.
LibraryThing member joeydag
Very well plotted drama of tinkerers vs bureaucrats in a world with a typical Vinge SF element, impregnable time stasis spheres.
LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
While not Vinge's most impressive novel (I'll give ‘A Fire Upon the Deep' that designation), The Peace War is a very competent, effective post-apocalyptic/science fiction novel.
Some years ago, at the outbreak of international war, someone invented the ‘bobble' – spherical containment fields
The war was terribly destructive anyway, and now a level of reduced technology is enforced by mob-style governments. However, a technological underground resistance exists – including the brilliant scientist who invented this field. When he finds a ghetto urchin who may be a natural math genius, he finally agrees to take on an apprentice.
But the situation is becoming more hazardous for the underground, because it seems that someone else has discovered the secret of the bobble.
Some years ago, at the outbreak of international war, someone invented the ‘bobble' – spherical containment fields
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which could eliminate threats by creating an unbreakable barrier around a weapon, or battalion...The war was terribly destructive anyway, and now a level of reduced technology is enforced by mob-style governments. However, a technological underground resistance exists – including the brilliant scientist who invented this field. When he finds a ghetto urchin who may be a natural math genius, he finally agrees to take on an apprentice.
But the situation is becoming more hazardous for the underground, because it seems that someone else has discovered the secret of the bobble.
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LibraryThing member thegreatape
A hundred pages in, I didn't really care about any of the characters, how the world worked, or really what was going to happen next. Hopefully not just damning something for a slow start, but I think I'm putting this one down.
Publication
Tor Books (2003), Edition: 1st, 304 pages
Media reviews
NBD/Biblion (via BOL.com)
Verhaal, spelend in het Californië van na de 3e Wereldoorlog. De mensen wonen verspreid in kleine dorpjes en hebben een hoog ontwikkelde micro-techniek. De VN is vervangen door de Vredesmacht, die elke tegenstand "inbobbelt" in energiebellen, een wereldpolitiemacht. Een begaafde tiener en een oude
(NBD|Biblion recensie, F.Th. de Rijk)
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man (van voor de oorlog) proberen de "bobbels" en daarmee de greep van de "Vredesmacht" te breken. Een spannend verhaal, goed uitgewerkt scenario. Realistische omschrijving van de "naoorlogse" samenleving en technische apparatuur. Personages goed uitgewerkt. In het begin nog twee verhalen, wordt het later knap in een gevlochten. Slot helaas wat tam. Kleine letter.(NBD|Biblion recensie, F.Th. de Rijk)
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Subjects
Original language
English
Original publication date
1984-08
Physical description
304 p.; 8.5 inches
ISBN
9780765308832