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Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future Mass Market Paperback – April 3, 2007

by Vernor Vinge (Author)

217 customer reviews

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Four time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky. Now, he has written a science-fiction thriller set in a place and time as exciting and strange as any far-future world: San Diego, California, 2025.

Robert Gu is a recovering Alzheimer's patient. The world that he remembers was much as we know it today. Now, as he regains his faculties through a cure developed during the years of his near-fatal decline, he discovers that the world has changed and so has his place in it. He was a world-renowned poet. Now he is seventy-five years old, though by a medical miracle he looks much younger, and he's starting over, for the first time unsure of his poetic gifts. Living with his son's family, he has no choice but to learn how to cope with a new information age in which the virtual and the real are a seamless continuum, layers of reality built on digital views seen by a single person or millions, depending on your choice. But the consensus reality of the digital world is available only if, like his thirteen-year-old granddaughter Miri, you know how to wear your wireless access―through nodes designed into smart clothes―and to see the digital context―through smart contact lenses.

With knowledge comes risk. When Robert begins to re-train at Fairmont High, learning with other older people what is second nature to Miri and other teens at school, he unwittingly becomes part of a wide-ranging conspiracy to use technology as a tool for world domination.

In a world where every computer chip has Homeland Security built-in, this conspiracy is something that baffles even the most sophisticated security analysts, including Robert's son and daughter-in law, two top people in the U.S. military. And even Miri, in her attempts to protect her grandfather, may be entangled in the plot.

As Robert becomes more deeply involved in conspiracy, he is shocked to learn of a radical change planned for the UCSD Geisel Library; all the books there, and worldwide, would cease to physically exist. He and his fellow re-trainees feel compelled to join protests against the change. With forces around the world converging on San Diego, both the conspiracy and the protest climax in a spectacular moment as unique and satisfying as it is unexpected. This is science fiction at its very best, by a master storyteller at his peak.

Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future

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Editorial Reviews

Review

“A Deepness in the Sky more than justifies the old tag 'eagerly anticipated.' It's a space opera dealing with the age-old themes of exploration, first contact, different cultures, exploitation and, inevitably, conflict. An intriguing and mind-stretching epic. Highly recommended.” ―SFX

“When I was young and had to write my address in a school notebook, I would begin with my street and apartment number and then go on through city, county, state, country and continent in a litany of ever more grandiose place names that did not end until I reached ‘Earth, Solar System, Milky Way Galaxy, The Universe.' In those days, it thrilled me that my small corner of the Bronx was just a one part of the vastness I could see in the sky at night. This is the feeling I got from reading A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge.” ―Gerald Jonas, New York Times Book Review

“Marooned in Realtime is a cracking good story that leaves the reader with plenty to think about. Vernor Vinge draws fine characters and writes a compelling plot. In the end, almost all the mysteries are solved―the only loose ends are those which will leave you pondering the future of Mankind and of the earth for weeks after you finish the book.” ―The Baltimore Sun on Marooned in Realtime

About the Author

Vernor Vinge has won five Hugo Awards, including one for each of his last three novels, A Fire Upon the Deep (1992), A Deepness in the Sky (1999), and Rainbow's End (2006). Known for his rigorous hard-science approach to his science fiction, he became an iconic figure among cybernetic scientists with the publication in 1981 of his novella "True Names," which is considered a seminal, visionary work of Internet fiction. His many books also include Marooned in Realtime and The Peace War.

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin and raised in Central Michigan, Vinge is the son of geographers. Fascinated by science and particularly computers from an early age, he has a Ph.D. in computer science, and taught mathematics and computer science at San Diego State University for thirty years. He has gained a great deal of attention both here and abroad for his theory of the coming machine intelligence Singularity. Sought widely as a speaker to both business and scientific groups, he lives in San Diego, California.

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Product details

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; Reissue edition (April 3, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0812536363
ISBN-13: 978-0812536362
Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.9 inches
Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 217 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #46,976 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #412 in Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Science Fiction > Cyberpunk
- #1432 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- #1936 in Books > Christian Books & Bibles > Literature & Fiction

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Michael A. Kalm

Fascinating, but ultimately disappointing.

July 20, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Vernor Vinge has always astounded with his amazing imagination, and connection with real, or at least possible science. In this book, he imagines us, in the very near future, extrapolating our path toward ever increased connectedness through the internet. Some of it is difficult reading, only because his acronyms are sometimes so abstruse, they leave one guessing.
His character development is very good, so good, that it makes more palpable my disappointment with the books ending. He leaves information regarding some of the main characters in the story totally unresolved. There is a randomness to it. One longs for a sequel, but there wasn't any.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

One of his best!

April 6, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I've read some reviews stating that this is not one of his best works. I disagree with that assessment. It's certainly different but I think it's very much one of his best works. The near future is so well rendered and the characters are believable. The cloak and dagger elements are fun and he's at his most clever in some ways. I only wish Mr. Vinge would do a sequel. I love his other works and he's truly a visionary. This work stands on its own as a unique work in the authors catalog. If you're a fan of well written science fiction this is a must read.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

Timothy J Lewin

When is the next one

May 5, 2017

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Great near-future novel with interesting insights into possible benefits and pitfalls of the development of current technological trends. This book also contains interestingly flawed characters and good plot development along with future speculation which is not common in sci-fi.

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Robert C. Monsen

Vernor Vinge can see the future

October 14, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Rainbows End is a story about a great poet who is brought back from dementia by medical technology. It uses this plot line to dazzle with a vision of the near future where nearly everyone is plugged into the internet, and uses amazing heads up display technology to merge the real world with virtual worlds.

During the book, he gets in fun views of academic life, family interactions, future homeland security technology, artificial intelligence, communications technology, and pokemon.

Amazing, literate, fun. I was sad when it ended. I wanted more.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

a dismal future with dismal characters

September 6, 2011

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I found this book harder to read than some of his other stuff, particularly the first half-or-so, but it was fascinating. It was fascinating because it was a professor of computer science writing about topics that he understands well. It was also fascinating because every character in the book is both good and bad. The protagonist is completely despicable, unlikeable, and really just plain awful -- but he's a good guy I think. It's really up to you of course. With the exception of just a few, I think, all the characters wear hats of gray and my opinion of whether they were good or evil vacillated in each chapter.

The book incidentally outlines various cataclysms and horrible futures as well (all based in new technologies that are right around the corner, if they aren't here already). But like the characters, they are good and bad at the same time. You simultaneously want the new developments and don't. If I could, I'd learn to wear my wearable computer tomorrow ... but there are downsides (cite: book). I would fight tooth and nail against the SHE, but your opinion may differ from mine. The idea of not driving to work anymore (if I have to go there at all) is a fantastic one, but I would surely lose my temper of I couldn't get the car to stop. I'm also personally (literally) working to help bring ubiquitous computing to the world -- in my own small way.

Here I am, days later, and I'm still wondering which parts are good or evil. What just happened??!

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Nils Gustaf Lindgren

... a fairly good read.

March 17, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

One foot in the future, indeed. Funny what the future used to look like a few years ago - virtual reality, telepresence ... indeed, the view of the future changes a lot over time. Dude, where's my flying car? But I digress. This is a fairly good read, partly exciting, if not a nailbiting page turner. I rather liked it, but, Vinge has done better, and others have covered the area (projecting current technological trends a few decades into the future). A sequel appears to be possible, but, Vinge is not hugely into sequels. If one appears, I will read it. Meanwhile, when's the next Tine's World coming along?

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A book I can relate to

September 3, 2013

Format: Mass Market PaperbackVerified Purchase

Being a 40 year old in college and seeing all of the young college folks obsessing over smart phones and apps, I can totally emphasize with the two middle aged protagonists, although Robert was a drama queen has been poet who thrives off of negative energy and Vaz is an old spook conspiring against the whole of global society with his own agenda, this book definitely allowed me to take part and visualize the strange worlds created by the Augmented Reality and tech suits of the new era, but does a good job at emphasizing the fact that no matter who technologically savvy we get as humans we still have to contend with the human condition

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?

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Most recent customer reviews

Andrew G Hoskins

Not quite worthwhile

I stopped about 2/3 of the way. Disappointed given how excited I was to read a vision of the future with AR and VR.Read more

Published 23 days ago

Andrew D. Cohen

A major disappointment after reading Deepness and Fire in the Deep.

Published 1 month ago

Is this the same book?

I am confused. I just finished this book and it has nothing to do with sci fi or future anything. The author is a lady too. Something wrong here.Read more

Published 2 months ago

Pretty damn shoddy

I kept on powering through this book, hoping for hint of a flowering where things launch the way they did in "a fire upon the deep", but to little avail.Read more

Published 3 months ago

This book is highly recommended for any fan of contemporary fiction.

Published 3 months ago

An enlightening glimpse of a not-too-distant connected future

Wearables, blockchain, augmented-reality and the incredible power and danger big-data and machine-learning will have over humanity all combine in this thrilling techno-adventure.Read more

Published 6 months ago

Not his best work

Having previously read "A Fire Upon the Deep" and "A Deepness in the Sky" I was anticipating a good read.Read more

Published 8 months ago

Not sure how this won anything

As a disclaimer, I had to read this for a computer science class so I may have been prejudiced against it from the start.

Notwithstanding, I loathed this book.Read more

Published 8 months ago

Like Reading a User Manual For a Router

Fire Upon the Deep and Deepness in the Sky are both the kind of book that make you feel in awe of what the written word can do, and grateful there are people alive who can create...Read more

Published 8 months ago

Amazon Customer

Good science, bad bad bad storytelling

Published 1 year ago

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