Marooned In Realtime - Short Review

Marooned In Realtime was the first Vinge book I read and it has prompted me to start looking for all his others.

A small number of time travellers (that can only go forward) awaken to find out humanity is gone. Amid a plan to gather all the other travellers together and kick start the human race one of the more powerful techs dies in odd circumstances, a 9000 year old traveller returns, aliens might be waiting to finish us off and an ex-detective is ordered to lead a manhunt to find out just what happened to the projects architect and biggest supporter (who may have been murdered by old age). Oh and people of different backgrounds don’t get on. So some of it is familiar :)

It’s also worth noting that this is actually a sequel to The Peace War (which I’ve yet to read) but it stands alone as a riveting read. The combination of sci-fi and detective story is a favourite of mine and this one is a top notch example of how to do it right.

Summary: humanity is almost finished, a few of the survivors have all too powerful technology, a possible murder might have been committed and one of the lo-techs is roped in to find it. If I had a checklist this book would tick most of them. 7/10.