Story: 6 / 10
Characters: 7
Setting: 7
Prose: 7

The "bobble" is a solid concept and "The Peace War" explores its implications fully in a clever, steampunk dystopia. The most important theme in the book is the balance between progress (science) and peace. However, the story is simply not sufficiently engaging.
Recommended only for anyone who has already read all of Vernor Vinge's others novels. ( )

I've enjoyed all of the Vernor Vinge books I've read. They are always a bit different, and very imaginative. But he manages to draw me in and make the stories seem real, even when they are about dog-like people who can only exist as groups forming a single entity.

This one, the first of a series of 2 or 3 (evidently, the 2nd is not really an important part of the series) was a bit more conventional, but still very interesting. It's a post-apocalyptical story of a world that is politically very different from ours. We don't know exactly what happened, or even who the bad guys are in some ways, but it seems that science is mostly blamed for the problem, so people are now controlled fairly strictly, and forbidden to have many modern conveniences.

I'm looking forward to reading the next book; I think I will skip the middle "interlude" for now, and perhaps read it later. ( )

I liked this but I realize more & more that I expect more from a novel than for it to have an interesting plot premise & an engaging & quick-moving narration, etc. Supposedly this bk got the 1st of 4 Hugo Awards for the author. Is the selection out there THAT weak?!

A plot outline of this is that a device called a Bobbler is invented wch encloses threats to peace - at wch point the people inside are hypothesized to die from suffocation. A "Peace Authority" becomes the new world government of sorts & they monitor technological development to ensure that it no longer reaches a point where Mutually Assured Destruction is possible. Humanity is mostly wiped out by plagues & suchlike & humans stabilize at a much smaller population using horses & wagons, etc.. Tinkers develop cottage technology. Eventually, the Tinkers revolt against the Peace Authority's dictatorship.

Anarchy is mentioned 3 times: page 99:

"In the years that followed the great collapse, the Authority had stripped the rest of the world of high-energy technology. The most dangerous governments-such as that of the United States-were destroyed, and their territories left in a state that ranged from the village anarchy of Middle California, to the medievalism of Aztlán, to the fascism of New Mexico."

Ok, fair enuf, the description of the "village anarchy" is mostly family oriented but one cd call it organized in terms of affinity groups. However, it's patriarichal, so, no, I wdn't REALLY call it anarchist. Page 142:

"The Peace kept most of the continent in a state of anarchy."

Uh, duh, dude, the "Peace" is at the top of a hierarchy. Therefore, there is no "anarchy" given that they're in charge. By page 303, at the end of the bk, the Authority has been partially defeated:

""With the Authority gone, most of America-outside of the Southwest-has no government at all. It's fallen back into anarchy.""

Ok, Vinge, wch is it? Did the Authority keep the world in a state of anarchy or did its demise result in anarchy? Vinge has a protaganist working toward structuring the post-Authority of the world around the 'democratic model' of New Mexico. Uh.. not that long ago, New Mexico was "fascist", now it's the world's new "democratic" model!! Yes, what we have here is a New World Odor novel. Basically, Vinge is a political idiot, not a bad novelist but the politics are weak - to say the least.

( )

I almost pushed this one down to a three star rating on my reread, but by the end I got over the mildly racist overtones against hispanics and blacks and got into the actual war effort.

Honestly, even though this is definitely SF with all its discussion of high-tech versus slightly lower-tech population, it actually reads like an OLD STYLE fantasy, complete with old wizard and an underprivileged apprentice siding with the underdog portion of society, the "Tinkers", against the Peace Authority, who holds the high tech "bobbles". I didn't like that so much. It was old had, but this did get released back in 1984, so it might be just dated in my own head.

I liked the idea behind the "bobbles". Stasis bubbles, impenetrable force fields that can capture nuclear blasts as they happen and protect the populace. This is what brings our civilization to its knees, oddly enough. Unfortunately, I felt like I had to slog through half the novel before we got to the revolution overthrowing the Peace Authority. That was just fine. Lots of action and battles, heroic deeds and whatnot.

If it hadn't been for the slower pace of the beginning, I would have thought this would have been pretty rip-roaring fun.

It is, unfortunately, my least favorite of Mr. Vinge's works, and because of such high expectations, I wanted to judge this novel on his subsequent delights.

That would be very unfortunate, though, and I will therefore back-off and let this novel stand on its own.

It isn't fantastic, but it is worth reading for the ideas, if not for the somewhat mediocre story. ( )

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.