This is in some ways a sequel to Vinge's Peace War, in that it features some of the same characters and the same central feature, bobbles. But it stands alone quite well, although it helps to have read Peace War first.

To quickly recap, Vinge takes an old concept, force fields, and uses it in many creative ways. In his spherical, impenetrable fields, nicknamed bobbles, no time passes. So that, among other things, they can be used as one-way time travel devices (future only!). In Peace War, we see how they can be used as offensive weapons. Here, the main emphasis is on time travel, millions of years into the future.

It seems that sometime around 2230, mankind disappeared. It is not known why, but it comes as a big surprise to those time traveling via bobble who come out after that point. The Korolovs, Yelena and Marta, attack the problem by trying to gather up all of the travelers to form a stable, viable human community in the future. A number of time travelers are non-intentional. That is, they were bobbled against their will or accidently, and are "rescued" by the Korolevs. The biggest prize, as the story opens, is an enclave of about 200 people accidently bobbled for 50,000,000 years. The idea is, with the addition of these people, a viable community can be built.

It's not that easy, of course. Difficulties beset them. But the biggest one, and to me the biggest strength of the book, is the murder mystery that develops. Yes, the book in part is a straight-ahead, whodunit murder mystery. And it is very well done. The murder weapon is simple and elegant. The victim, Marta Korolev, is "locked out" of the community for 100 years. The town "bobbles up" and she is left outside. She has to survive in the wilderness of a future earth. She does a remarkable job, and survives for about forty years. Her diary of that experience is a facinating narrative of the time, and forms a central source of clues for the detective trying to solve the murder. It seems a fairly famous police detective, Wil Brierson, is along with the group. He was bobbled by a criminal to prevent him from solving a particular crime. So Yelena Korolev tasks him with solving this murder.

It is an excellent murder mystery, with a satisfying conclusion. Vinge betrays an excellent knowledge of computers, software, and how it all might develop in hundreds of years. I thought his characters were well-drawn, and the story of Marta's survival in the wilderness was heart-rending.

Marooned in Real Time can be found in a paperback edition bundled with Peace War plus a intermediate novella about Wil Brierson. Try to find this, it is definitely worth having.