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Across Realtime Hardcover – November 1, 1986
- Print length532 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNelson Doubleday / SFBC
- Publication dateNovember 1, 1986
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Product details
- ASIN : B00070W9XO
- Publisher : Nelson Doubleday / SFBC
- Publication date : November 1, 1986
- Edition : Book Club
- Language : English
- Print length : 532 pages
- Item Weight : 1.37 pounds
- Best Sellers Rank: #460,055 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #27,646 in Science Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

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
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Customers find the book beautifully written and consider it a great series in one volume. The storytelling receives mixed reactions, with one customer describing it as a great hard science fiction series while another finds the narrative plodding.
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Customers find the book easy to read and beautifully written.
"...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." Read more
"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..." Read more
"I read this book multiple times as a child. It’s a great go-to book that’s more of a character study with fantastical things happening." Read more
"...Beautifully written." Read more
Customers enjoy the book series, with one describing it as a great collection of stories in one volume and another praising it as their favorite science fiction series.
"My favorite SF series! I received it in great shape, thirty years after publication! It was well packaged." Read more
"A Great Classic..." Read more
"Great series in one book..." Read more
Customers have mixed opinions about the storytelling in the book, with one describing it as a great hard science fiction series, while another finds the narrative plodding.
"...It examines a fictional setting in which some alien civilizations have reached their Singulatiry transition but not all members have followed their..." Read more
"The Peace War part was fantastic but it got a lot less interesting in the second book. Still good read." Read more
"It's a very imaginative novel, and philosophic, and highly reflective of the immense reach of geologic time. Beautifully written." Read more
"...Marooned in Realtime offered the same plodding narrative, so I stopped reading it much sooner. Very much not recommended." Read more
Top reviews from the United States
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- Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2023Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseI 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on April 11, 2024Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseI 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2021Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseWhen people who mean well have the power to force you to do what they have decided is best?
- Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2022Only 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?).
- Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2021My favorite SF series! I received it in great shape, thirty years after publication! It was well packaged.
- Reviewed in the United States on June 2, 2025I first read The Peace War in the 90s and loved it. A group at LLNL create bobbles, which separate whatever is inside from the rest of realtime. They then assume control of the world as the Peace Authority. What the scientists who stole the work from one of their own didn't know is that bobbles aren't forever and what's inside is actually in stasis. The biggest threat to them is the man who actually created the tech and who is going to end up, with others, leading a war against The Peace Authority which ends their tyranny.
Then there is a short story set about 60 years after the events of the Peace War called The Ungoverned. Honestly, you buy this book FOR THIS STORY. The novels are fantastic but that short story should be mandatory reading. I'm not going to give any of it away, just trust me.
The third story is the second novel, Marooned In Realtime. At some point in the early 23rd century, humans disappeared from the solar system. There were a few very advanced and wealthy people who, prior to the Singularity, bobbled up to help those who had been shanghai'd, bobbled up into the distant future with nothing to support them. These advanced travelers, gathered all the 'lo techs' together millions of years in the future to determine what they should do. There is a murder mystery in all this and the reappearance of one of the most evil characters from the Peace War. It's a fantastic read.
Buy this book. You won't regret it. It's especially interesting if you do live in the Bay Area and ever have to go into Livermore from the South Bay. You'll understand why after you read it.
- Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2021Great 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.
- Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2001Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseIssac 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.
Top reviews from other countries
- YatimaReviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2000
5.0 out of 5 stars Ground-breaking science fiction
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseVinge 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.
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MaxReviewed in Germany on December 25, 2015
5.0 out of 5 stars Zeitreise mal ganz anders
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseEine 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.
- Amazon CustomerReviewed in Canada on April 7, 2019
5.0 out of 5 stars Great series
Format: HardcoverVerified PurchaseBought this to replace the one my son lost on me. I found it two days before this arrived.
- D. KerridgeReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2016
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best sci-fi books I have read for a long time
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchaseOne 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.
- J. FinchReviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2024
5.0 out of 5 stars Two volumes in one
Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified PurchasePeace War and Marooned in Realtime in one book.