MAROONED IN REALTIME PDF, EPUB, EBOOK

Vernor Vinge | 288 pages | 30 Oct 2004 | Tor Books | 9780765308849 | English | New York, NY, United States Marooned in Realtime by - WebScription Ebook

Of course, nothing marred its surface. A typical bobble, in an untypical place. In a few months, the molten lake would freeze over, and an unprotected man could walk right to the side of the Peacer bobble. For a few years there would be brilliant sunsets and unusually cool weather. In a century or two, nature would have forgotten this affront, and the Peacer bobble would reflect forest green. Yet it would be unknown thousands of years before the bobble burst, and the men and women within could join the colony. As usual, the Korolevs had a plan. Home 1 Books 2. Read an excerpt of this book! Add to Wishlist. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Members save with free shipping everyday! See details. Overview Multiple winner Vernor Vinge takes readers on a fifty-million- year trip to a future where humanity's fate will be decided in a dangerous game of high-tech survival. In this taut thriller, a Hugo finalist for Best Novel, nobody knows why there are only three hundred humans left alive on the Earth fifty million years from now. Opinion is fiercely divided on whether to settle in and plant the seed of mankind anew, or to continue using high-energy stasis fields, or "bobbles," in venturing into the future. When somebody is murdered, it's obvious someone has a secret he or she is willing to kill to preserve. The murder intensifies the rift between the two factions, threatening the survival of the human race. It's up to 21st century detective Wil Brierson, the only cop left in the world, to find the culprit, a diabolical fiend whose lust for power could cause the utter extinction of man. Filled with excitement and adventure, Vinge's tense SF puzzler will satisfy readers with its sense of wonder and engaging characters, one of whom is a murderer with a unique modus operandi. About the Author. Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to his , he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in of his novella "True Names," which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction. Read an Excerpt Headline: Everyone agreed that the show had been impressive. filters. Sort order. Start your review of Marooned in Realtime Across Realtime, 2. Jul 10, Michael rated it really liked it Shelves: artificial-intelligence , mystery , apocalyptic , post-apocalyptic , fiction , time-travel. This one hit the sweet spot for me. An imaginative tale of desperate missions of individual lives colliding with the compelling need to work collaboratively to save the human race, all placed in the frame on an unusual murder mystery. The plot there involved a government, the Peace Federation, taking over by bobbling up armies, nukes, government head This one hit the sweet spot for me. The plot there involved a government, the Peace Federation, taking over by bobbling up armies, nukes, government headquarters of their enemies for an extended stay, and a plucky band that leads an heroic revolt against this tyranny. This book continues to harness the bobble tech in a myriad more brilliant ways. As a police detective he made some enemies and ended up getting bobbled into a distant future in a subversion of official government uses of the technology. The problem with these exports of problem people is that their emergence from the bobbles beyond a few centuries finds an earth devoid of people, with only theories as to what happened to the human race. Wil ends up at a million year future staging point for people bobbling forward over the span of three centuries before the Singularity. The leader of a high tech faction, Yelen Korolev, is starting a colony to rebuild the race and needs to recruit at least more people to reach the required for sufficient genetic diversity to assure success in rebooting humanity. A bobble from the former Peace Federation is discovered, timed to open a 1, years hence. The saboteur responsible is no less than a murderer. Solving it is expected to have the larger benefit of netting people whose aim is to make sure the colony effort fails. If that seems quite an astounding set up for a murder mystery, the nailing down of motive, means, and opportunity among a bizarre range of suspects reaches even more into remarkable territory. One high-tech faction wants to bobble along into the future like tourists and keep going to witness the end of the universe. One artist nature lover may want all humans exterminated. One man, with possible accolytes, believes humanity disappeared with the Rapture of the Second Coming and expects another chance. Another faction believes an alien attack accounts for both the Singularity and threats to the band of survivors. For the investigation Wil is assigned the help of Della, a 9, year old soldier woman who has spent many years exploring galactic space for possible alien enemies. Meanwhile, the militaristic Peace Federation shows signs of wanting to take over the running of the motley band. The characters may be a bit simplistic for many and the dialog a bit wooden, but I was well satisfied with the rich play of ideas for harnessing tech advances to save the future. It seemed sad but true that even with species survival at stake, the human proclivity for intrigue and scheming for power would remain such a challenge as portrayed here. Still we get a hopeful feeling out of the tale and not the grim dog-eat-dog crumble of civilization in many an apocalyptic or dystopian story written in recent years. View 2 comments. Jun 15, Peter Tillman rated it really liked it. This novel holds up really well, almost 35 years on. Back already? OK, what she said. The Singularity stuff: the idea that it might actually happen in RL is less popular now, but as an sfnal plot device, it's brilliant. And Vinge sets his fictional singularity in the early 23rd century, far enough off that, who knows? The bobbles, spherical stasis-fields that stop time inside them for a preset length if reread. The bobbles, spherical stasis-fields that stop time inside them for a preset length if that feature works right , are another wonderful Vinge invention, that he uses to great effect here. He was working for a small family firm, manufacturing antimatter on the surface of the sun, by the kiloton What could possibly go wrong? The writing and characterizations are pretty good, and that's what cost the book its fifth star on this third I think reread. It remains an excellent comfort-read for this reader. If you missed this one, or if it's been awhile, and you've like Vinge's other books, don't miss this one. Strong 4 stars. But you don't need to have read tPW first, and this one is a whole lot better, I think. View all 4 comments. Sep 16, Sam rated it it was amazing Recommends it for: scifi fans. Shelves: fiction. This was a fantastic little book. Curious - i was taken in by a little glitch in the system because in our library catalog, the book has a pub date of , which i completely believed, all through the book. Actually, it was written in , prior to many of the most significant developments of the internet age. Yet Vinge's predictions as to the development of technology over the course of time seemed right on track. Part of the history of the story involves a war that took place in - a fac This was a fantastic little book. Part of the history of the story involves a war that took place in - a fact that i thought odd, but took in stride. There's no rule that a novel has to take place in the future of this particular timeline, after all. The story is that of Wil Brierson, a cop from the 21st century who is shanghaied into the future, past a mysterious event that wipes out almost the entire human race. When he comes out of stasis, he finds out that there are perhaps human beings left. It gets more complex, and hard to describe - essentially, humans can put themselves in stasis for any amount of time. When the stasis is removed, it's as though nothing had happened to them, but the world around them has continued onwards. The stasis fields they use are called "bobbles" and are impenetrable by any means, even being plunged into a star. So, the survivors of humanity move forward through time, looking for a good time to settle down and try to rebuild. They decide on 50 million years in the future - a place in time where one bobble known to contain almost people is known to be scheduled to open. Amidst this, one of the leaders and great minds behind the rebuilding process is murdered in a very interesting way - when the rest of the people go into their stasis for a century, she is left outside. With no one on Earth to talk to, and no way to break the bobbles or communicate with those inside, she lives by herself for forty years before dying. Wil Brierson, the only policeman on Earth, is hired to find her killer. Lately I've really come to enjoy a good mystery. But I haven't forgotten the sweet joy of great scifi, and it's a tremendous thing to find the two rolled together into one book. Marooned in Realtime is excellent fiction, chock full of great ideas about the near and distant future. Lovely lovely. View 1 comment. Jul 09, Toby rated it liked it Shelves: sci-fi , whodunnit. Sharing a fair similarity in style and content to Asimov's classic Robots of Dawn, a far future human colony requires a famous detective to investigate the murder of one of their founders and is loosely partnered with a nine thousand year old partner. It meanders a bit but has a lot of interesting world descriptions, the characters are not exactly rounded but the protagonist is at least interesting. Vinge merges the golden age mystery with far future science fiction very well but I found myself Sharing a fair similarity in style and content to Asimov's classic Robots of Dawn, a far future human colony requires a famous detective to investigate the murder of one of their founders and is loosely partnered with a nine thousand year old partner. Vinge merges the golden age mystery with far future science fiction very well but I found myself looking for some kind of substance to all of it, unlike Asimov there was almost no commentary of societal or philosophical issues, preferring to focus on space battles across a hundred thousand years instead. Oct 14, prcardi rated it liked it Shelves: series , science-fiction , robots , evolution , pg , hugo-finalist , post-apocalyptic , mystery , prometheus- winner. Surprise one was that it didn't do what sequels normally do: follow up on the foreshadowed crises of the last book. What it did instead was rather fun. Vinge gave consideration to the repercussions of the technological introductions he made in the first book. One can generally criticize authors for plotholes and overlooking details when they introduce technology; it is difficult to see the unexpected and unforeseen consequences when presenting novel ideas. Vinge obviously gave his technology a lot of thought, and the resulting world we get is full of novel ramifications and possibilities that weren't even under consideration as of the last book. Surprise two was that Vinge abandoned the political action-adventure in lieu of a murder mystery. I liked the direction of the first book better, though the background ideas and world in this one were so intriguing that any plot laid atop would have been sufficient. Everything else about the book was just that: sufficient. The characters mostly performed their necessary roles, the action gave us the needed adrenaline rush, the world building gave the barest suggestions of wonder, and the resolution of it satisfactorily answered all the requisite questions. Besides the technological repercussions following from the first book, there was little here that suggested passion, scrutiny, or delight on the part of the author. It was an enjoyable sequel remarkable for only a very few things, not offensive or inane enough to engender any real ill-will. View all 3 comments. Mar 30, Luke Burrage rated it liked it Shelves: ebook , recommended-by-sfbrp-listeners , reviewed-on-the-sfbrp. Feb 08, David rated it liked it Shelves: science-fiction , mystery. I clicked on 3 stars for the rating, but it deserves a bit more than that. The book has interesting portrayals of how different groups of people might perceive and choose to exist in a far future. I had a number of reservations about it. Each of the works in omnibus had some threads connecting them to the other, but I didn't think they made a cohesive unit. Rightly or wrongly, I was I clicked on 3 stars for the rating, but it deserves a bit more than that. Rightly or wrongly, I was expecting more than an anthology of works placed in a common conceptual universe, and it didn't really work out as expected. But for my tastes, this was overly complex. The mystery itself is confused by various factional disputes among humans, various fanatics a self-declared prophet of the third coming of Jesus, a guy warning of aliens planning to wipe out humans, etc. There's so much more going on than a number of people with grudges against the victim, and more to the resolution than finding the killer. And because there's so much more, the book goes a bit beyond the naming of the murderer - and yet leaves so many other things unfinished. And it may appeal more to those who like greater complexity. And it will help if you don't mind not having everything wrapped up and put away at the end. Oct 01, Christopher rated it liked it. Not long after our time, scientists had discovered a way to create "bobbles", indestructible stasis fields in which time doesn't pass. For science-fiction aficionados, these are similar to the Slaver stasis fields in 's Known Space books. Bobbles were used to send a variety of people into the future: investors who wanted to "instantly" get rich by taking advantage of centuries of economic growth, criminals who were punished by the ultimate exile from everything dear to them, and even terrorists who thought they could win in the future even if defeated in the present. All of them leave the bobbles centuries or millennia from now to find Earth completely deserted, with no sign of the human race except other bobble survivors. As they try to rebuild civilization, one of them is murdered in an exotic fashion, and it falls to Wil Brierson, once a detective in the late 21st century, to find the criminal. The survivors disagree on what exactly happened to the human race, apparently in the midrd century. Some believe that Man destroyed himself, his warlike tendencies leading to extinction. Others suspect alien invasion and mass extermination. Human beings perhaps evolved to some other plane, and no longer needed to maintain a residence on Earth. That might have been a tad optimistic. Still, his view of the future and human-computer interaction is perhaps more fresh than the cyberpunk genre with its now-dated focus on people hanging out in some 3D virtual reality. Indeed, it was a shock to me, after finishing the novel, to see again the era in which he wrote: Vinge's prose isn't very good and a great many of the characters aren't believable people, being either cardboard cutouts or taking turns that don't make any sense. Aug 14, Greg Curtis rated it really liked it. The sequel to the peace war, this is very definately a different book to it. In Marooned, that entire episode in human history has gone, and we are now travelling with a bunch of survivors from and Earth that was destroyed in some mysterious fashion none of the survivors know how , towards an unknown future using the same technology as a lifeboat. In the midst of this, as people bobbl The sequel to the peace war, this is very definately a different book to it. In the midst of this, as people bobble in and out for thousands of years at a time, we have a murder to solve and a detective to figure out who did it and why. We come across all sorts of suspects, including one monster dictator in disguise, and an assorted host of weirdness. This is a good story, though as a detective novel it falls short since the clues given could never allow the reader to guess the killer since you simply don't have that information about things like P and P available to you. And though it uses science fiction as its back drop and the explanation for the truly weird society of refugees fleeing the end of the human race, its not really a science fiction novel either. Its more a simple mystery made possible by weird science, and an exodus novel rolled together. For all that its a good read. Sep 13, Tudor Ciocarlie rated it it was amazing. Only three hundred humans left on earth. A murder mystery across fifty million years. A meditation on deep time and evolution, on civilization and intelligence. What more could you want? A very good book. Mar 04, Thom rated it liked it Shelves: fiction- series. Enjoyed the first book, rating brought down by several elements that didn't belong. Those are gone here, but this murder mystery isn't as good. Both books were released together adding a short story between in one volume later on. Unlike the other two, this novel would not stand on its own. The tale kicks off with little introduction, nearly in media res. I fumbled to figure out whether Will was Wili no and Della was Della yes , and where they fit in this timeline. Turns out they are now a L Enjoyed the first book, rating brought down by several elements that didn't belong. She is left stranded in "realtime", cut off from all advanced technology. Worse, the hacker has extended the duration of the bobbling far beyond what was intended, and Marta dies alone on a deserted Earth. Della Lu, a high-tech who was an agent of the Peace Authority during The Peace War , agrees to assist Brierson with the technical aspects of the case. In the millions of years since the singularity, Della had spent most of her 9, years alone, exploring the galaxy. She discovered that intelligent life is extremely rare, and there were parallel vanishings in the few civilizations she found, but no definitive proof of the cause. The singularity is implied to be an explanation for the Fermi Paradox. The novel thus deals with the investigation of two parallel locked room mysteries : the murder of Marta Korelev, and the "locked planet" mystery of the disappearance of the human race. Brierson interviews each of the high-techs, seeking evidence of any motive for murder while discussing their views on why the human race vanished. When the killer thinks Brierson is getting too close, Brierson, Korolev and Della Lu are horrified to discover that the criminal is able to gain control of all of the high-tech systems, except for Della's, and attacks. Della manages to defeat their combined forces, but at a ruinous cost: much of their equipment and about half of what remains of humanity are lost. Brierson, however, not only unmasks the murderer, he reveals the identity of another monster in their midst and finds a way to restore a second chance for mankind. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Marooned in Realtime Cover of first edition hardcover. Worlds Without End. Marooned in Realtime – Vernor Vinge | Ultimate

The Earth has been long abandoned — something happened in the 23rd century which caused all humans to disappear — and several bobbles which were created in The Peace War and the centuries afterward are finally beginning to unfreeze. The survivors of these bobbles find themselves stranded in a desolate place, and slowly begin to rebuild civilization in the empty world. In order to increase the population size, this group of survivors periodically bobbles itself for periods of time, looking for new survivors every time it unfreezes. Although for the group no time has passed at all, Marta has been trapped alone for many decades, and when the bobble finally dissipates, the group finds her long dead. Quickly it is discovered that this is no accident, and that someone has done this intentionally. This is effectively murder, made particularly malevolent by the fact in the empty Earth, every human is extremely precious. Who is doing this, and why? This is the premise to Marooned in Realtime. Unlike its predecessor, the book is a murder mystery, and a very good one. Although it is based on The Peace War, it very different in story and tone. However, as before, the story is well written and the characters are well developed: one really starts feeling for them. Marooned in Realtime also discusses a secondary mystery: why did humanity vanish? But I haven't forgotten the sweet joy of great scifi, and it's a tremendous thing to find the two rolled together into one book. Marooned in Realtime is excellent fiction, chock full of great ideas about the near and distant future. Lovely lovely. View 1 comment. Jul 09, Toby rated it liked it Shelves: sci-fi , whodunnit. Sharing a fair similarity in style and content to Asimov's classic Robots of Dawn, a far future human colony requires a famous detective to investigate the murder of one of their founders and is loosely partnered with a nine thousand year old partner. It meanders a bit but has a lot of interesting world descriptions, the characters are not exactly rounded but the protagonist is at least interesting. Vinge merges the golden age mystery with far future science fiction very well but I found myself Sharing a fair similarity in style and content to Asimov's classic Robots of Dawn, a far future human colony requires a famous detective to investigate the murder of one of their founders and is loosely partnered with a nine thousand year old partner. Vinge merges the golden age mystery with far future science fiction very well but I found myself looking for some kind of substance to all of it, unlike Asimov there was almost no commentary of societal or philosophical issues, preferring to focus on space battles across a hundred thousand years instead. Oct 14, prcardi rated it liked it Shelves: series , science-fiction , robots , evolution , pg , hugo-finalist , post-apocalyptic , mystery , prometheus-winner. Surprise one was that it didn't do what sequels normally do: follow up on the foreshadowed crises of the last book. What it did instead was rather fun. Vinge gave consideration to the repercussions of the technological introductions he made in the first book. One can generally criticize authors for plotholes and overlooking details when they introduce technology; it is difficult to see the unexpected and unforeseen consequences when presenting novel ideas. Vinge obviously gave his technology a lot of thought, and the resulting world we get is full of novel ramifications and possibilities that weren't even under consideration as of the last book. Surprise two was that Vinge abandoned the political action-adventure in lieu of a murder mystery. I liked the direction of the first book better, though the background ideas and world in this one were so intriguing that any plot laid atop would have been sufficient. Everything else about the book was just that: sufficient. The characters mostly performed their necessary roles, the action gave us the needed adrenaline rush, the world building gave the barest suggestions of wonder, and the resolution of it satisfactorily answered all the requisite questions. Besides the technological repercussions following from the first book, there was little here that suggested passion, scrutiny, or delight on the part of the author. It was an enjoyable sequel remarkable for only a very few things, not offensive or inane enough to engender any real ill-will. View all 3 comments. Mar 30, Luke Burrage rated it liked it Shelves: ebook , recommended-by-sfbrp-listeners , reviewed-on-the-sfbrp. Feb 08, David rated it liked it Shelves: science-fiction , mystery. I clicked on 3 stars for the rating, but it deserves a bit more than that. The book has interesting portrayals of how different groups of people might perceive and choose to exist in a far future. I had a number of reservations about it. Each of the works in omnibus had some threads connecting them to the other, but I didn't think they made a cohesive unit. Rightly or wrongly, I was I clicked on 3 stars for the rating, but it deserves a bit more than that. Rightly or wrongly, I was expecting more than an anthology of works placed in a common conceptual universe, and it didn't really work out as expected. But for my tastes, this was overly complex. The mystery itself is confused by various factional disputes among humans, various fanatics a self-declared prophet of the third coming of Jesus, a guy warning of aliens planning to wipe out humans, etc. There's so much more going on than a number of people with grudges against the victim, and more to the resolution than finding the killer. And because there's so much more, the book goes a bit beyond the naming of the murderer - and yet leaves so many other things unfinished. And it may appeal more to those who like greater complexity. And it will help if you don't mind not having everything wrapped up and put away at the end. Oct 01, Christopher rated it liked it. Not long after our time, scientists had discovered a way to create "bobbles", indestructible stasis fields in which time doesn't pass. For science-fiction aficionados, these are similar to the Slaver stasis fields in Larry Niven's Known Space books. Bobbles were used to send a variety of people into the future: investors who wanted to "instantly" get rich by taking advantage of centuries of economic growth, criminals who were punished by the ultimate exile from everything dear to them, and even terrorists who thought they could win in the future even if defeated in the present. All of them leave the bobbles centuries or millennia from now to find Earth completely deserted, with no sign of the human race except other bobble survivors. As they try to rebuild civilization, one of them is murdered in an exotic fashion, and it falls to Wil Brierson, once a detective in the late 21st century, to find the criminal. The survivors disagree on what exactly happened to the human race, apparently in the midrd century. Some believe that Man destroyed himself, his warlike tendencies leading to extinction. Others suspect alien invasion and mass extermination. Human beings perhaps evolved to some other plane, and no longer needed to maintain a residence on Earth. That might have been a tad optimistic. Still, his view of the future and human-computer interaction is perhaps more fresh than the cyberpunk genre with its now-dated focus on people hanging out in some 3D virtual reality. Indeed, it was a shock to me, after finishing the novel, to see again the era in which he wrote: Vinge's prose isn't very good and a great many of the characters aren't believable people, being either cardboard cutouts or taking turns that don't make any sense. Aug 14, Greg Curtis rated it really liked it. The sequel to the peace war, this is very definately a different book to it. In Marooned, that entire episode in human history has gone, and we are now travelling with a bunch of survivors from and Earth that was destroyed in some mysterious fashion none of the survivors know how , towards an unknown future using the same technology as a lifeboat. In the midst of this, as people bobbl The sequel to the peace war, this is very definately a different book to it. In the midst of this, as people bobble in and out for thousands of years at a time, we have a murder to solve and a detective to figure out who did it and why. We come across all sorts of suspects, including one monster dictator in disguise, and an assorted host of weirdness. This is a good story, though as a detective novel it falls short since the clues given could never allow the reader to guess the killer since you simply don't have that information about things like P and P available to you. And though it uses science fiction as its back drop and the explanation for the truly weird society of refugees fleeing the end of the human race, its not really a science fiction novel either. Its more a simple mystery made possible by weird science, and an exodus novel rolled together. For all that its a good read. Sep 13, Tudor Ciocarlie rated it it was amazing. Only three hundred humans left on earth. A murder mystery across fifty million years. A meditation on deep time and evolution, on civilization and intelligence. What more could you want? A very good book. Mar 04, Thom rated it liked it Shelves: fiction-series. Enjoyed the first book, rating brought down by several elements that didn't belong. Those are gone here, but this murder mystery isn't as good. Both books were released together adding a short story between in one volume later on. Unlike the other two, this novel would not stand on its own. The tale kicks off with little introduction, nearly in media res. I fumbled to figure out whether Will was Wili no and Della was Della yes , and where they fit in this timeline. Turns out they are now a L Enjoyed the first book, rating brought down by several elements that didn't belong. Turns out they are now a LONG ways past the time of the first novel, and that past is eventually explored. Will is a cop, a police detective, and was a pretty good one. After he disappeared, his son wrote stories about him, making him out to be Sherlock Holmes. This element would have been great to introduce earlier. If you haven't figured out from the previous paragraph, time plays a major role in this novel, and time travel is only one way - downstream. This is an interesting aspect, and the author uses this to discuss the end of humanity - were we taken out by an enemy or did we "move on" due to the singularity? The author's views seem clear by the end of the book. He also published an essay a few years later titled "The Coming Technological Singularity". This book, the first book, the series - all good, but not great. The author is more well known for his trilogy starting with "A Fire Upon the Deep" and his short stories. I rated his collection "True Names and other Dangers" five stars, and would recommend anyone start there. Dec 08, Lior rated it really liked it. Marooned in Realtime takes the premise, ideas and some of the characters established in The Peace War and expands on them to create a fascinating novel which is much better than its predecessor in terms of pacing and character development. And of course, what makes Marooned so effective is the fact it revolves around a murder mystery which is the linchpin that ties it all together. Wil Brierson is a "low-tech" basically an ordinary citizen like you and me who served as a cop in a previous life Marooned in Realtime takes the premise, ideas and some of the characters established in The Peace War and expands on them to create a fascinating novel which is much better than its predecessor in terms of pacing and character development. Wil Brierson is a "low-tech" basically an ordinary citizen like you and me who served as a cop in a previous life, 50 million years ago! Realtime, as opposed to Bobbletime, the stasis fields used by the last remnants of humanity in order to gallop through the ages, unaffected by time. At stake is nothing short than the survival of the human race. Vinge's biggest stroke of genius here is to bring back Della Lu from the previous novel, where she was an ancillary, mostly antagonistic character, and turn her into Jan 17, Doug Luke rated it liked it. Nice to go back and revisit a favorite book from when I was younger. Great central SF concept, somewhat interesting mystery, fairly uninteresting characters. Probably 3. Nov 24, Peter rated it really liked it Shelves: especially-recommended. Wil Brierson is a detective, maybe the last one. Sometime in the twenty-second century, every human on Earth disappeared. The only ones left are those who were, at the time, encased in "bobbles", spheres of absolute stasis that many used to jump ahead through the years Nobody knows what happened to the rest. But that's not Wil's case. Nor is it h Wil Brierson is a detective, maybe the last one. Nor is it his case to find the person who bobbled him for over a hundred years without his consent and separated him from his family forever No, his case is to solve a murder of one of the few survivors left, who was murdered by being left outside of the bobbles, marooned in realtime, when everyone else jumped a century into the future. Murder by old age. But since the victim is one of the key people trying to keep the human race viable, it's a crime that everyone's got a stake in. This is technically a sequel the The Peace War , but I feel like it stands alone. So much so that for this reread, I didn't bother to read the first book, which does introduce the bobbling technology, certain elements of the backstory, and one main character who is changed almost to unrecognizeability by a long time gap , but is a completely different type of book, and, in my opinion, a far less interesting and lower quality one. Vernor Vinge is one of the greats of SF, and the line between where he was worthy of that title and where he was an okay author with a some really cool ideas is right between the The Peace War and Marooned in Realtime. Even to completeists I'd hesitate to recommend the other book, just because they might not think it's worth moving on to the second Of course, it should be noted that the book DOES spoil the Peace War, so if you do think you might read both, you probably should do it in order, but if you read only one, read this one. It's not one of Vinge's best, perhaps, but it's still damn good, and it has its own story to tell that doesn't require reading The Peace War, which is good but may appeal more to dedicated SF readers. There's so much to love in this book There are some twists that are cool, but the story doesn't depend on them, it's built on the characters and, to a degree, the worldbuilding. Worldbuilding is a big factor here, but the world in question is Earth It was vivid, believable, and compelling. And more, the long diary of the victim, telling as she tries to survive and reach help while everyone she knows is bobbled up and completely unaware of her plight, is riveting. Reading about a person reading someone else's story should not be this good. The book does have flaws, and there were times as they were approaching the climax that I felt it started to lose stream in trying to get across a lot of complicated action and motivations, but what it does well, it does so well that I'm happy to forgive it. This was my first reread of the book, and I already know I want to reread it again somewhere down the line. An amazing work indeed. The Bobble series for want of a better label consists of The Peace War , a novella titled "The Ungoverned", and the present book. When I first read this book, which I believe I did shortly after it first was first published, I loved it for the ideas but didn't see it as strongly connected to The Peace War. Kube-McDowell 's Enigma , all of which came out about the same time, didn't slavishly follow the shape of their predecessors. This time, though, I could see the connections with The Peace War more strongly. Indeed, it even carries over a couple of characters, though that isn't clear at first. The Peace War was something of a conventional near-future post-holocaust story, though it was told with some vigor. Marooned In Realtime isn't the conventional sort of sequel; despite the connections, it takes place millions of years after the first book. It's a murder mystery set in a future when no traces of human civilization remain, among a tiny community of people who missed the vanishing of human civilization. The best thing about the book is the ideas; Vinge spelled out what we now call the Singularity, and presented its implications very convincingly. It also deals with significant ideas about humanity, intelligence, Fermi's paradox, and what immortality would do to human beings. Finished rereading EDT Oct 14, Roger rated it liked it Shelves: sf-fantasy. It is ironic that I read the The Peace War by Vinge so that I could read this book, a sequel, because I heard that this book was great. But I liked the Peace War much more. You could call them the Bobble series. Marooned was interesting, and I think I would read it again if I could go back in time. The use of bobbles was extremely imaginative. But the story was a bit flimsy, and the characters were not really developed. I felt like I hardly knew the villains, and they were interchangeable. Nevertheless it was a good read, and after reaching the mid point, I could not put the book down. Of course, the Singularity plays a large role in this story, larger than in the others of his works I have read. The Singularity is the point at which machines become smarter than humans after an ever-increasing rate of technological progress, and it is a point beyond which we cannot foresee, an idea that Vinge himself coined the word for. Vinge's technological insights also explain a feature of all of Vinge's books that is shared by Marooned: his uncanny view of the future never getting outdated. Marooned was written in the 's, before the internet, before smart phones, and before so many more technological innovations, but his stories never seem dated. His future back in the s is still our future in The problem with Vinge's books is that there are too few of them. That does not sound like what I am looking for. What we really need is more Vinge space operas. While waiting for that, the Bobble series is a good substitute. Jun 02, Nate rated it it was amazing Shelves: best-books-i-ever-read , science-fiction , apocalyptic , anarchistica. The premise is brilliant and the prose is so smooth, it just poured off the page. A book like this is far too rare these days. It's a sequel to The Peace War only in so far as it's set in the same world, so same tech, same history etc. But it is otherwise completely at right angles to the first book, which is an "Orphan Child is the TechnoJesus" adventure with observant but I first have to say, this book is going straight to the poolroom Best Books I Every Read Ever Ever list, because I love it. But it is otherwise completely at right angles to the first book, which is an "Orphan Child is the TechnoJesus" adventure with observant but also prescient commentary on the world we are currently witnessing the end of haha! How the fuck is that man President? In this book, we get the same magic device, but in a murder mystery, set billions of years into the future, and now everything's WEIRD! I'm specifically thinking of Reeds Marrow but even The Great Ship stories had a lot of this sort of bleh. This Vinge book does it nice and fast. This novel length story reads like a novella, it's so quick it flashes by. The circumstances of the story are really clever. The only other writer I think who used this theme as well is Alastair Reynolds in House of Suns which you should also read. That book is spectacular. This book is better. Nov 10, Jason rated it really liked it. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What if we could place people, buildings, or whole cities in frozen balls of time to open years, centuries, even hundreds of thousands of years in the future as if no time had passed for them at all? A private investigator is bobbled in to the future by a panicked criminal. Years later in what feels like moments later to him he finds himself in a world where all but a couple hundred of t What if we could place people, buildings, or whole cities in frozen balls of time to open years, centuries, even hundreds of thousands of years in the future as if no time had passed for them at all? Years later in what feels like moments later to him he finds himself in a world where all but a couple hundred of the human race have been destroyed or disappeared. While bobbling ahead to await the opening of a massive bobble that has kept another hundred or so people in stasis since the 21st century and therefore provide a large enough genetic pool to re-start the human race one of the two organizers of humanity's last best hope is trapped outside of the her bobble and forced to live the remaining years of her life alone and without technology. The focus of the rest of the book involves this private investigator researching her "murder". The final third of this book was wonderful. Exciting, interesting, creative, good hard sci-fi. The problem I had was getting through the first two thirds. While I say it all paid off in the final acts, I felt like the book took far too long to get off the ground. It's possible that the last third wouldn't have been as rewarding without the long, patient setup before it. But I can't help but think the first sections of the book would have benefited from being tightened up a bit. But as a whole, the book explores great ideas and themes such as the rapid progress of technology, elective immortality, the singularity, and the ability to jump forward in time Even in his earlier works, Vernor Vinge fails to disappoint. Feb 19, Jennifer Mcgown rated it it was amazing. I really enjoyed Marooned in Realtime. The premise is that time travel is possible, but only in one direction - forward. The mechanism is called bobbling and it puts a whole area and everything inside it in statis. The statis area is protected by a non-permeable bubble that has a mirror finish. The technology in this world has been around since the early s. It has been used by various people to escape their present fates, make money or to get rid of people. At the present is this book, the I really enjoyed Marooned in Realtime. At the present is this book, the world is empty except for about about survivors from before , when humanity seems to have disappeared. There are various theories for this but no one knows for sure. The population is split into two groups - high tech and low tech. The high tech have all sorts of weapons and machines and access to data banks but they can't run them forever. Then added to the science fiction, there is a murder mystery when one of the most important high techs, Marta is marooned in the real time while the rest of the settlement is bobbled forward. The system was set to check every 3 months to make sure that everything was ok. But instead that was changed to never, so Marta had to survive on her own till she was found. This did happen so she died and she left a diary of her life. Marta's partner Yelen asks W. Bierson a policeman in his former life to find out who arranged for Marta to be left behind. I loved the mystery and also the class divisions as well as the political wrangling to restart civilization. Shelves: scifi , bookclub , series , scifi-apocalyptic. Definitely should be read with — and after — the somewhat better The Peace War , which takes place in the same timestream and introduces some elements important to this book. The novella The Ungoverned online here connects that earlier book and introduces the central character used here. Editions of Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge

Marooned in Realtime is a murder mystery and time-travel science fiction novel by Vernor Vinge , about a small, time-displaced group of people who may be the only "survivors" of technological singularity or alien invasion. Both novels and the novella were collected in Across Realtime. In the story, a device exists which can create a "bobble", a spherical stasis field in which time stands still, allowing one-way time travel into the future. These frictionless, perfectly reflective spheres are also used as weapons, as shields against other weapons, for storage, for space travel combined with nuclear pulse propulsion , and other purposes. People whose bobbles open up after a certain date in the 23rd century find the Earth completely devoid of human life. All living humans have disappeared, with only ambiguous archaeological clues for the reasons, and only those who were inside bobbles during the event survive into the future. The "low-techs" — those who were bobbled soon after the original invention of bobbles — have roughly lateth-century technology. The "high-techs" — those who were bobbled later in time in the period of accelerating technological progress leading up to the singularity — have vastly superior technology, including cybernetic enhancements , faster and thought-controlled bobblers, personal automaton extensions of self, space ships , medical technology to allow immortality , and individual arsenals comparable to entire countries of the 20th century. Indeed, those who were bobbled at slightly different times leading up to the singularity, have vastly different technology levels. The protagonist is Wil Brierson, a detective who also was the protagonist of the preceding novella " The Ungoverned ". Some time after the events in "The Ungoverned", Brierson was forcibly bobbled 10, years into the future to prevent his testimony in a case, effectively murdering him. As a punishment, the law enforcement of his time period bobbled criminals for a slightly longer amount of time than their victims, with a message explaining the crime and allowing future law enforcement to provide more specific punishment or revenge , after the true fate of the victim can be determined. Marooned in Realtime Hardcover. Marooned in Realtime ebook. La Captive du temps perdu Paperback. I naufraghi del tempo Mass Market Paperback. Vittorio Curtoni translator. Gestrand in de realitijd Paperback. Mike Grothaus translator. Gestrandet in der Realzeit Across Realtime, 2. Rosemarie Hundertmarck Translator. Gestrandet in der Realzeit: Roman Kindle Edition. I naufraghi del tempo Kindle Edition. When first published, The Beast Master was a new kind of science fiction adventure, featuring The time is the future, when . After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an After thousands of years searching, humans stand on the verge of first contact with an alien race. Two human groups: the Qeng Ho, a culture of free traders, and the Emergents, a ruthless society based on the technological enslavement of Power duo Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason team up in Kill Zone, a perilous Anderson and Doug Beason team up in Kill Zone, a perilous disaster thriller for the modern age. Deep within a mountain in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a Cold War-era nuclear weapons storage facility is being used to A high fantasy following a young woman's defiance of her culture as she undertakes a A high fantasy following a young woman's defiance of her culture as she undertakes a dangerous quest to restore her world's lost magic in Ilana C. Myer's Last Song Before Night. Her name was Kimbralin Amaristoth: sister to a cruel : A Scientific Romance. Humanity has spread to every star within light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the Humanity has spread to every star within light-years of its half-forgotten origin, coloring the sky with a haze of habitats. Societies rise and fall. Incautious experiments burn fast and fade. On the fringes, less modified humans get on with Shadows of the New Sun: Stories in Honor. Perhaps no living author of imaginative fiction has earned the awards, accolades, respect, and literary Perhaps no living author of imaginative fiction has earned the awards, accolades, respect, and literary reputation of Gene Wolfe.

Marooned in Realtime (Across Realtime, #2) by Vernor Vinge

What the Peace Authority did not know is that these force fields eventually dissipate, thus, releasing their contents to the world. The length of the stasis can range from a few hours to thousands of years. The story begins in the very far future: some 50 million years from now. The Earth has been long abandoned — something happened in the 23rd century which caused all humans to disappear — and several bobbles which were created in The Peace War and the centuries afterward are finally beginning to unfreeze. The survivors of these bobbles find themselves stranded in a desolate place, and slowly begin to rebuild civilization in the empty world. In order to increase the population size, this group of survivors periodically bobbles itself for periods of time, looking for new survivors every time it unfreezes. Although for the group no time has passed at all, Marta has been trapped alone for many decades, and when the bobble finally dissipates, the group finds her long dead. Quickly it is discovered that this is no accident, and that someone has done this intentionally. This is effectively murder, made particularly malevolent by the fact in the empty Earth, every human is extremely precious. Who is doing this, and why? This is the premise to Marooned in Realtime. Unlike its predecessor, the book is a murder mystery, and a very good one. The protagonist is Wil Brierson, a detective who also was the protagonist of the preceding novella, The Ungoverned. Some time after the events in The Ungoverned , Brierson was unwillingly bobbled 10, years into the future while he was investigating a routine theft, cutting him off forever from his wife and children. They calculate that they will have just enough genetic diversity to pull it off once the bobble containing about a hundred members of the Peace Authority bursts. Before one of their routine bobbles while waiting for that bobble to expire, the Korolevs' computers are hacked , and Marta is excluded from the automated bobbling. She is left stranded in "realtime", cut off from all advanced technology. Worse, the hacker has extended the duration of the bobbling far beyond what was intended, and Marta dies alone on a deserted Earth. Della Lu, a high-tech who was an agent of the Peace Authority during The Peace War , agrees to assist Brierson with the technical aspects of the case. In the millions of years since the singularity, Della had spent most of her 9, years alone, exploring the galaxy. She discovered that intelligent life is extremely rare, and there were parallel vanishings in the few civilizations she found, but no definitive proof of the cause. The singularity is implied to be an explanation for the Fermi Paradox. The novel thus deals with the investigation of two parallel locked room mysteries : the murder of Marta Korelev, and the "locked planet" mystery of the disappearance of the human race. Brierson interviews each of the high-techs, seeking evidence of any motive for murder while discussing their views on why the human race vanished. When the killer thinks Brierson is getting too close, Brierson, Korolev and Della Lu are horrified to discover that the criminal is able to gain control of all of the high-tech systems, except for Della's, and attacks. Della manages to defeat their combined forces, but at a ruinous cost: much of their equipment and about half of what remains of humanity are lost. Brierson, however, not only unmasks the murderer, he reveals the identity of another monster in their midst and finds a way to restore a second chance for mankind. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Marooned in Realtime Cover of first edition hardcover. Worlds Without End. Retrieved Prometheus Best Novel Award. Wheels Within Wheels by F. https://static.s123-cdn-static.com/uploads/4640400/normal_601fdbdd491f1.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9586083/UploadedFiles/B1D8E07E-1D49-CDF8-52B1-CFD7DF1BE698.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9587064/UploadedFiles/4DEF942E-9DBB-0CCD-2750-03DA207F4B7C.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9591327/UploadedFiles/F95AF972-BE47-6610-D772-FF99CDD243ED.pdf https://files8.webydo.com/9586661/UploadedFiles/5D34FCAD-E307-C248-1069-ED36167F9EE2.pdf