The Peace War

The Peace War by Vernor Vinge is a science fiction novel in which wars on Earth are over. A faction called Peace Authority has taken over the world thanks to a device called Bobbler that creates spherical, mirror-surfaced force fields that are seemingly affected only by gravity. By trapping military units, missiles in the air, even whole cities, permanently in bobbles, the Peace Authority is able to defeat everyone opposing them.

I recently also read A View from the Stars, a collection of short stories and essays by Liu Cixin. The essays are the best part of the book, Mr. Liu writing about stuff like the state of (Chinese) science fiction and literature in general. He notes how works of science fiction, even the classics, are like tap beer: they need to be enjoyed then and there before they go flat. I can sign that notion in a lot of cases: where are mobile phones in Neuromancer?

The Peace War, however, doesn't quite feel like it was published all the way back in 1984 (as a serial at first). I guess it's because the Peace Authority has outlawed technological progress and things have remained the same. General quality of life is pretty poor because the Authority keeps governments and such crippled. There is technological advancement as well, though, and it doesn't feel all that dated even when read now in 2026.

The Tinkers are a rebel faction, opposing the Authority in secret, and slowly building up a world-wide resistance. Their de facto leader, under an alias, is no other than the man who invented the bobbler technology, Paul Hoehler/Naismith. The Tinkers have sort of a breakthrough when they happenstance get to recruit Wili Wachendon, a young mathematical savant who was about to be lost to a life of crime. Wili is able to hack the Authority's satellite network as well as harness and advance the bobbler tech to be used by the Tinkers.

I didn't find The Peace War a particularly noteworthy story but I will still probably read its sequel, Marooned in Realtime.