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The Old California Shopping Center was the Santa Ynez Police Company's biggest account-and one of Miguel Rosas' most enjoyable beats. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
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.
I also found the characters a bit thin. Paul, Wili, and the rest just don't seem real to me. I don't have a sense of how these people got to where they are now. So, Paul is a genius, and has something to do with the origins of the bobbles. Great, but what happened to him in the 50 years that the bobbles have been around? How did he get to where he is? Unanswered questions.
Overall, I'd skip this and stick with the other two books I mentioned.
As a scientist, I have to admit that I really liked the idea of scientists forcing peace on the world through their inventions. And, no doubt, it would be a disaster if this were to occur in real life...
The only quip I have with the book is that none of the characters were very compelling, due to a lack of development. Superior character development is one of the biggest reasons why I would recommend reading "Fire" and "Deepness" before this one.
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