Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

  • List Price: $17.99
  • Save: $2.12 (12%)
FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
The Peace War has been added to your Cart
Want it Monday, Oct. 17? Order within and choose Two-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Ship to:
To see addresses, please
or
Please enter a valid US zip code.
or
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Condition: Used: Very Good
Comment: We sell gently used books that MAY contain ex-library markings, some light highlighting, textual notations, and/or underlining. Text is still easily readable. Books may also have different covers than the images displayed on Amazon, but rest assured, they are the same books! We never sell books that can't be enjoyed! Save Money. Save Time. Buy Used and Get Reading!

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

Book 1 of 2 in the Peace War Series

The Peace War Paperback – December 1, 2003

4.0 out of 5 stars 71 customer reviews
Book 1 of 2 in the Peace War Series

See all 12 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
Paperback
"Please retry"
$15.87
$4.99 $0.01

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
Soon To Be A Major Movie Staring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.
An award-winning collection from one of today's most lauded writers, Stories of Your Life and Others is a contemporary classic. Learn more | See related books
$15.87 FREE Shipping on orders with at least $25 of books. In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • The Peace War
  • +
  • Marooned in Realtime (Peace War)
  • +
  • The Children of the Sky (Zones of Thought)
Total price: $37.75
Buy the selected items together


If you buy a new print edition of this book (or purchased one in the past), you can buy the Kindle edition for only $2.99 (Save 63%). Print edition purchase must be sold by Amazon. Learn more.
For thousands of qualifying books, your past, present, and future print-edition purchases now lets you buy the Kindle edition for $2.99 or less. (Textbooks available for $9.99 or less.)
  • Thousands of books are eligible, including current and former best sellers.
  • Look for the Kindle MatchBook icon on print and Kindle book detail pages of qualifying books. You can also see more Kindle MatchBook titles here or look up all of your Kindle MatchBook titles here.
  • Read the Kindle edition on any Kindle device or with a free Kindle Reading App.
  • Print edition must be purchased new and sold by Amazon.com.
  • Gifting of the Kindle edition at the Kindle MatchBook price is not available.
Learn more about Kindle MatchBook.

New York Times best sellers
Browse the New York Times best sellers in popular categories like Fiction, Nonfiction, Picture Books and more. See more

Product Details

  • Series: Peace War (Book 1)
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (December 1, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0765308835
  • ISBN-13: 978-0765308832
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.7 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (71 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #432,755 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Paperback
Stumbling upon this book in my local library, I decided to once again enter a world created by Vernor Vinge. Several years ago I read both of Vinge's awarding winning books: A Fire Upon the Deep & A Deepness in the Sky. Simply put, I have yet to be disappointed by Vinge.
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.
Read more ›
2 Comments 51 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Paperback
Vernor Vinge is an extremely talented writer and mathematician. I say he's a very talented writer because he writes detailed, deep, believable characters that you can relate to very well and he introduces mathematics into his writing.

This is one of two books that I know of that deal with a mathematical concept that Vinge invented called the "BOBBLE." In the not so far future, some scientists discover that using novel technologies and lots of power they can create these things called bobbles which are giant bubbles that can be used to encapsulate cars, cities, pretty much anything. The bobbles are roughly spherical aberrations of space time - nothing can get inside a bobble and nothing can get out, not light, not air, not a nuclear blast -- nothing can destroy a bobble. Bobbles reflect light and heat perfectly and are perfectly smooth (no dents or anything) and has no friction...if a human puts his hand on a bobble's surface, it feels warm not because the bobble is warm but because it reflects the warmth of the hand that rests on its surface. If the contents inside a bobble are lighter than the outside, it floats, etc. Bobbles can't be built inside bobbles and they can't intersect each other. The concept is dizzyingly cool and makes for a great science fiction premise.

These scientists who invent the bobbles decide to end all wars and as such they set out to bobble up nuclear silos, cities, anything that can be used to wage war. In the end they wind up bobbling most of the major metropolises of the world - thereby killing hundreds of millions of people who were trapped in the bobbles and there is writing in the book that poses some conjecture about how those poor people must've perished inside the bobbles soon after they were encapsulated.
Read more ›
1 Comment 4 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
On the positive side, this slightly dated dystopian novel of the near future is suspenseful and for the most part, easy to read and compelling, once the reader accepts the hypothetical world in which it takes place. Of the two principal chartacters, the young prodigy, Wili is the more captivating. The older Paul is the old-style romantic genius scientist on a one-man quest to save the world from evil, and not incidentally, get even with someone he's hated for fifty years. As such, he's not as belevable as Wili.

Even less believable is the entire story line. The principal bit of technology around which it's based seems more like magic than science - even the supposed experts have no idea why or how it works. I also had trouble reconciling the world of 2050 envisioned by the author, though it might have played better thirty years ago when he wrote it. It just didn't seem viable to me. And I was a bit disappointed that after all the philosophical and moral buildup, the climax of the story revolved around a pretty garden-variety chase and thrill scene that turned out fairly predictably. On the whole I found the ending less than satisfying.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
It is incredible given how old this book is that the science part of the sci-fi holds up so well. Vinge wrote this in the early eighties and while some of the event didn't come to pass (as they are dated in the 1990s in the book), you could just move some of those dates forward and the book would be almost entirely cohesive with present day. If only all Sci-fi could be this good.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

The Peace War
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: The Peace War

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

Pages with Related Products. See and discover other items: battletech books