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Vernor Vinge
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Across Realtime Hardcover – November 1, 1986

by Vernor Vinge (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 77 ratings
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Fifty years ago, back in 1997, the Pace Authority eliminated war. In one smashing worldwide coup, the Authority removed missiles, armies, goverments, entire citiex - everything that could oppose peace. The Peace Authority's weapon was - and still is - the "bobble," a unique spherical state of stasis that can encapsulate an object in an impenetrable force field. Nothing can get in our out of a bobble, not even light or air; it's a prison - perfect, even beautiful. And permanent. Since the "peace war," all high technology has been banned, and civilization has fallen into a semi-feudal state. What has replaced war is tyranny, but as Peace Authority Director Hamilton Avery would add, it is a benign tyranny, isn't it? A small price to pay for permanent peace. Only old-timers like Paul Naismith, the reclusive leader of the Tinker underground, can recall a time before the Authority's reign. A mathematical genius, he's spent 50 years secretly developing his own extraordinary, illegal, technology, far surpassing that of the Authority, hoping to strike back some day. But nothing can defeat the Authority's bobbler. Until now. Something is happening to the bobbles . . . something that the theory said could never occur. And it means Paul can launch his revolution. He has a 16-year-old vagabond for help - a natural genius as brilliant as himself - plus the network of Tinker misfits, and a secret about the bobbles the Authority does not guess. He also has a traitor in his midst. . . . Comprising THE PEACE WAR and MAROONED IN REALTIME, ACROSS REALTIME melds brilliant hard-science and all-too-possible social speculation into a gripping depiction of a revolution against "peace," a revolution that will continue beyond Earth's time . . . on a near-deserted Earth 50 million years in the future . . . among a small group of survivors faced with a murder that only someone - one of their own number - skilled with a bobbler could commit.
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  1. Print length
    532 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Nelson Doubleday / SFBC
  4. Publication date
    November 1, 1986
  5. See all details
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00070W9XO
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Nelson Doubleday / SFBC; Book Club edition (November 1, 1986)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 532 pages
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.4 pounds
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 77 ratings

About the author

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Vernor Vinge

Vernor Vinge

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Vernor Steffen Vinge (Listeni/ˈvɜːrnər ˈvɪndʒiː/; born October 2, 1944) is a retired San Diego State University (SDSU) Professor of Mathematics, computer scientist, and science fiction author. He is best known for his Hugo Award-winning novels and novellas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), Rainbows End (2006), Fast Times at Fairmont High (2002), and The Cookie Monster (2004), as well as for his 1984 novel The Peace War and his 1993 essay "The Coming Technological Singularity", in which he argues that the creation of superhuman artificial intelligence will mark the point at which "the human era will be ended", such that no current models of reality are sufficient to predict beyond it.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Raul654, Maarten1980, Zanaq (Eigen werk Self-made, Image:Vernor Vinge.jpg) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
77 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

B
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024
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I have a version of this that is older than I want to admit, but its been read and abused for so long that it's missing a couple pages in the middle. REALLY happy to see this being republished. On Kindle its broken into two books: The Peace War books 1 & 2.
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Chrisbuyer
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a great hard science fiction series.
Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2023
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I bought this because I can't find my original copy and I really still enjoy reading it. I got a kick out of his apology for slowing down the rate of progression of human society and knowledge in order to have time in his novels for the action to take place. The first novel is The Peace War. A group of scientists at Lawrence Livermore have a secret lab and develop what the call a "Bobble" which creates and absolutely impenetrable spherical surface wherever they decide something needs to be stopped. Like all the military vehicles and bombs and such. They do it to every countries military all over the world. They think they have killed everyone inside the bobbles but we find out in the second novel that it ain't so. (LOL). They also thought they were forever. Also not so. Marooned in Real Time, the second novel tells the story of what happens when they start popping (for want of a better word). Including one that was put in place in the microseconds between a nuclear bomb going off and the explosion actually happening. That made a mess. It also covers the strange "singularity" that happens sometime after the "peace war" happens when most of mankind installs bio-ware and connectivity is right there in their heads and they find out they can become a hive mind and then they disappear from the point of view of the folks who are being revived by the popping of the bobbles. Also in the second novel is a murder mystery. One of the enhanced people who did not leave is left outside of her bobbles that they use to jump forward in time and she dies because there's no way to access her technology. She's "Marooned in Real Time" hence the title of the second novel. Way good reading and I am not going to spoil any other parts. Buy it, read it.
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DW
5.0 out of 5 stars What happens
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2021
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When people who mean well have the power to force you to do what they have decided is best?
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NM
4.0 out of 5 stars Great book, although the versions are a bit confusing.
Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2022
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Only had The Peace War in paperback, and was looking to purchase the rest. Would of loved to have gotten this as a hardcover, but from what I understand, the various hardcover editions probably lack the short story The Ungoverned, so went with purchasing the version of the paperback one reviewer mentioned contains not only The Peace War and Marooned in Real Time, but also The Ungoverned. This would be great for Audible to pick up, but while some of the author's titles exist as audio books, alas no Bobbles on Audible (yet?).
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AsimovFan
5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Purchase!
Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021
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My favorite SF series! I received it in great shape, thirty years after publication! It was well packaged.
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Robert H.
2.0 out of 5 stars Book was in much poorer condition than expected
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2021
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Great book, but it was listed as “very good” condition and when received, pages were falling out, cover was quite frayed and basically in poor condition.
One person found this helpful
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Roy H. Williams
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the most underrated talent of our generation
Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2001
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Issac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Terry Goodkind, J.R.R. Tolkien... the name of Vernor Vinge belongs with these. If you can usually figure out what's going to happen in a story and you hunger for that rare author who can keep you in a continual state of amazement, read Vernor Vinge. I have a library of nearly 2,000 books and Across Realtime is definitely one of my top ten favorites. My only criticism of the man is that he hasn't written more for you and me to read.
13 people found this helpful
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David Coats
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2011
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Marooned in Realtime is a must read. Never before or since have I seen a detective mystery in which each suspects represents a philosophical view on the ultimate fate of human civilization.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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J. Finch
5.0 out of 5 stars Two volumes in one
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2024
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Peace War and Marooned in Realtime in one book.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great series
Reviewed in Canada on April 7, 2019
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Bought this to replace the one my son lost on me. I found it two days before this arrived.
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Max
5.0 out of 5 stars Zeitreise mal ganz anders
Reviewed in Germany on December 25, 2015
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Eine beeindruckende Story, die wie immer bei Vernore Vinge, etwas braucht bis sie richtig Fahrt aufnimmt. Wie die Zeitreise hier umgesetzt ist und was die Konsequenzen sind, das, so muss ich gestehen, hat imho etwas sehr emotional berührendes.
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D. Kerridge
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best sci-fi books I have read for a long time
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2016
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One of the best sci-fi books I have read for a long time. Feels a little slow at the start but stick with it, it becomes a page turner.
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Yatima
5.0 out of 5 stars Ground-breaking science fiction
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2000
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Vinge has come up with the some of the core concepts of modern science fiction yet his books have always been criminally hard to find. Get these two novels in this new imprint while you can. A superb tale of life across a longer timescale, crucially introducing the concept of 'the singularity' in human affairs- an idea way ahead of it's time, now starting to loom large in the real-life human world. In short, a superb read, and an enlightening experience - essential for properly informed living in a rapidly advancing human society.
5 people found this helpful
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