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Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future by [Vinge, Vernor]

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Vernor Vinge

Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future Kindle Edition

by Vernor Vinge (Author)

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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.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Length: 404 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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Product details

File Size: 622 KB
Print Length: 404 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First edition (April 3, 2007)
Publication Date: April 3, 2007
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B004M8SR2O
Text-to-Speech: Enabled

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Enabled

Word Wise: Enabled
Lending: Not Enabled
Screen Reader: Supported

Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,084 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #849 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #1158 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Books)
- #28624 in American Literature (Books)

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Ren Jiyuan

Prominent features-to those dithering readers.

May 14, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Vernor venge... a Big Name in scifi field.
But this is my first time reading his work.Impressive.

- Very unique, the ideas are novel, and there are plenty of them.(reminds me of Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu, although not as “strong”)

-Very “unfriendly” ( crammed with jargons ,reminds me of Blindsight by Petter Watts, but I like it!)

-Very exquisite, I LOVE the characters! The Gu family is so...mesmerizing, making me wanna know more about them. The personalities are well “balanced”,they are ordinary yet extraordinary. They are beautiful yet flawed. They have their problems and dark sides yet they are so lovely!(reminds me of Neuromancer by William Gibson)

-And, incidentally, Rainbows End has very good language.(at least for me, a non-native-English-speaker)

-Meticulous use of language. I am a Chinese and it’s a bit surprising to see a scifi of American origin yet featuring “untypical Americans”, so many people are Chinese and the interjected Chinese(right, legitimate Chnese language, mandarin) are
100%accurate.( Although it’s a bit troublesome for me to switch between Eng and Chnese during the reading experience)

If you like hard-core scifi, this one is a good choice.

(OMG Why am I frittering away my time writing comments on Amazon when there is an imminent major English Exam tomorrow???)

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Disapointing

September 20, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I buy the book based on the fact that it has earned an Hugo and a Nebula Award. However, i find the story extremely confused, with many holes in the plot, expecting that the reader will fill these gaps. The author tried to use the same structure as Alfred Van Vogt, which in many of his books do not always explain part of the stories he writes, and is the reader who has to make the inferences. However, "Rainbows end", with his poor integration of the several levels of the character does not succeed in this area Even the name of the book seems irrelevant with the story. The authors fail in his effort of including the concept of virtual reality in a physical world, like for example the movie "Inception" or "The Matrix", which in some ways dewelves on the same ideas. After a big effort to finish the book, I 'm still wander how this story receives a Hugo Award. This is the third book I read based on having receiving a Hugo in the last decade. All of these books were disapointing, compared with novels who receive this award before.

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HaoRan

Just plain awesome! Vernor Vinge has done it again

September 13, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I felt like a was reading the future on computers but presented in a extremely interesting way. The main character is an anti hero. Every character in the book doesn't like him. You really grow to root for him even though he is a snot of a person sometimes. His choice of main character was masterful. The perfect character for this book. Since he had had alzheimer's and he did not know how to "wear" (put on clothing and contact lenses that are a computer and gives you access to the internet) you really get to explore/ learn the technology with him. He learns from a child which is really fun because they like to experiment with the gaming world. A person "wearing" is about to change the environment/ reality around them by changing channels. If you want to live in a medieval fantasy world then just switch to the right channel and everything you see will change into a medieval reality (such as walls turning into old stone castle walls). You are also able to project a avatar to locations other than were your body is. So you can be sitting on your couch visiting Rome. Pretty cool stuff.

There is a great overarching plot that is really exciting! There is some really interesting well fleshed out characters (such as Rabbit). Awesome book! This is top class Science Fiction! Microsoft take note!

This is a MUST read for any hard-science fiction fan! If you are familiar with Vernor Vinge then you know that you will need to read the book slowly. Sometimes you will need to read something twice. He is a masterful hard science writer but sometimes it can be a little hard to understand what is going on. Just read it again slower and you will have no problem. This is especially true for the opening chapter. DON'T GIVE UP ON IT. Slow down and read it again! It's soooo good.

I liked the ending but understood why some people found it lacking.

In conclusion, if you are a Vernor Vinge fan or a sci-fi fan of any sort then you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. Keep em comming Vinge!

7 people found this helpful

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Paul Miller

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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