Across Realtime by Vernor Vinge

This is two books on the inside– the first, The Peace War, was a reread, though it has been a while. I liked it still– it’s an interesting world, the Peace Authority makes sense [though I’m really curious about those first weeks dismantling the old world], and the path to the book’s present is fascinating. The devastated low population world is quirky and unique. The struggle and Paul’s legendary skills seem a bit much at times, but it all works out well.

The second book, Across Realtime, expands on the bobble concept and seizes on it as a method of passing into the future– just bobble ahead and see what the world’s like when you get there. But everything is gone when the novel starts– some time after 2209 the human race disappears, and everyone coming out of their bobbles finds a wasteland. The book develops into an interesting hop across time, a big murder mystery with advanced technology, and a war between leftover fanatics. While the “low techs” are mostly undifferentiated, the high techs are all interestingly developed.