The Peace War

An enjoyable if rather light work that crams in a lot of interesting ideas into a narrative that is well paced but thin. In this version of the 1990's, a technology called 'Bobbling' is discovered by researchers at the Laurence Livermore lab, which creates perfectly spherical force fields at range with the help of gigajoules of energy. Under the guise of protecting humanity from itself, a group of power-hungry authoritarian scientists (later referred to as 'The Peace') bobble untold amounts of military installations, government buildings, and other structures of power around the world, seizing control in the ensuing power vacuum and banning any kind of technological research or fabrication. A biochemical plague is then released either by the Peace themselves or by a rebelling group of biochemical engineers, which kills billions of people around the world. The story begins 50 years after these events, where the Peace rules over a civilization is threadbare and tiny in size. Local feudal lords rule and squabble over fiefs that leave many in abject poverty, and secretive communities of lingering engineers work on advancing technology past the barriers that surround them. We follow a group of dissenters lead by the man whole created the bobble technology in the first place, and wunderkin child that he finds by chance as they try to overthrow the Peace and restore

The implications of the bobble technology are fully realized, both as burgeoning weapon of war, and as it relates the environment. Some of these bobbles are so large that they create their own weather, causing formerly dry environments to develop into rainforests.

That being said, the prose itself, the narrative, and the characters were lacking in many ways. The whole boy genius trope is so trite that I have a hard time taking it seriously. Wili is so perfect that it grows annoying over the course of the narrative. I found the relationship arc between Lu and Marcos to be far too convenient to the plot, underdeveloped, and unplausible. The institutional sexism and overt segregation don't serve a purpose besides adding baggage and coloring my opinion of Vinge himself, though I do acknowledge that women and minorities serve as some of the strongest leads in the story.

Despite its flaws, The Peace War has good pace and tension that kept me reading even when I found myself annoyed. There's a certain level of popcorn entertainment to the work, similar to an 80's action flick but with better ideas. I'm under the impression that this is not Vinge's best work, and I hope that's the case even though I enjoyed my time with it.