Rainbows End | List Price: $25.95
Discount Price: $9.36
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Binding: Hardcover
"Maybe there was some word for these ... children. Paraliterate?" [Posted on 2008-09-24]
Not as ... comprehensive as Fire Upon the Deep or Deepness in the Sky - but - it is pure Vernor Vinge - an amazing layering of the life of an awakening old man and poet into a world where writing and reading are obsolete - everyone is immersed in technology - and while he struggles to catch up and while books are being shredded - he is also trying to share his skills with a young student who is actually interested in this dying art. Of course there is tons of conspiracy and way more going on than this - but I loved this part of the story which is nearly lost under the levels of noise and actions and technology.
Let the Rabbit show you a new world [Posted on 2008-10-03]
Until Alzheimer's took him Robert Gu was a multimillionaire world-renowned poet. However when a cure is discovered for his Alzheimer's he comes back to a world that is both familiar and strange, and he finds himself changed in ways that are both amazing and distressing. Convinced by his family to attend remidal technology classes at the local high school he is reluctantly dragged back into life around him when he is offered something he can't refuse but whose acceptance will mean a betrayal of everything new he has come to value.
This is a story that is a combination of a thriller and personal discovery story as someone who thought he knew everything finds out that he probably didn't know the most important things about life. I have to say I really enjoyed this novel. Its been a while since I read anything by Vernor Vinge but this was an entertaining read that kept me easily entertained till the end of the story.
Rainbow's End review [Posted on 2008-10-03]
Read a great review on "Rainbow's End" in the New York Times. Just finished reading the book. This is one of the best written, and absolutely the most original book I've ever read on how humanity will deal with technology in the future.
Fiction or Prophesy? [Posted on 2008-10-23]
I generally find books based on a gut feeling after I've heard something about the author. If I relied on reviews or editorials, I would be sorely dissapointed in two thirds of today's literature. Simply because of tastes people have. Reading the Amazon reviews people have posted about "Rainbow's End" only reinforces my practice. So, what is my opinion of the book?
Wow! Mr. Vinge's story isn't so much fiction, as prophecy. I consider myself somewhat of a futurist. So knowing the author's background involving the concept of the singularity, I decided to purchase a copy.
The book starts off not as I expected. An espionage story. I'm not into spy thrillers, so I was apprehensive. But as I continued reading, the story became so much more. And it was centered around tech that will be part of the world's lives almost on the timeline that Mr. Vinge uses. And I think this is what dissapoints most readers of this story. It's not "future" SF. It's pending reality.
The characters are believable. I can personally relate to Robert Gu. Because by 2025, I'll be in my 70s as well, and most likely suffering from the same maladies that he is cured of. What I like about this story is that there are no "pie-in-the-sky" cures for everything. Medicine, while advanced and using state of the art methods, still is not 100%. Not everyone is "forever young" again. But they're working on it.
And finally, there is the beguiling Mr. Rabbit. I was rather dissapointed that "he" does not reappear in the story's end as I expected. But "he" does make good on some of "his" promises in the end. Why the quotes? Because it seems that Mr. Rabbit is possibly an AI. No real gender, except by choice.
As for the odd title. "Rainbow's End" refers to a retirement community in the story. But it's more a subtle statement about what awaits us as we continue to follow today's tech. Blink, and you miss it.
The pace of the story is perfect. Lots of high and low points. My apologies to those of you that missed the concept of "Rainbow's End". I really encourage you to re-read it with an open mind, and toss out the concept of SF. Because the book is really hard to classify under one banner. I'll be looking forward to more of Mr. Vinge's works!
Rainbows End, not Rainbow's End [Posted on 2008-11-16]
This was an unusual novel for me. On the positive side, it was unquestionably Vinge's most prescient work to date. I felt my understanding of the near future, and even the present, was increased. He points out that groups of humans with very high "interaction rates" start to look like something which are really a lot more than the sum of their parts. This is already happening in the world today with new types of political power using social networking sites and largely emergent organization. Vinge paints this in vivid hues. The near-future realism and the described consequences were breathtaking (in the sense of both fear and awe). So it's now an essential part of my bookshelf.
But... the author puts you through a lot of work. Unlike his earlier novels, this one is set in the near future. In a far future setting, a lot can be swept under the rug of "advanced technology". Here, everything is supposedly a small extrapolation from the present. The changes have to be related to the present, and they are so radical that the exposition is very slow. Also, some of the key ideas in the book are presented almost like a shadow puppet theater... there are a lot of little and not-so-little explanations that are only implied by the text. Sometimes, the hints are annoyingly vague and minimal, and I wish Vinge had found a way to make these a little more explicit.
And by the way, the title of the book is "Rainbows End", plural noun/verb, not "Rainbow's End". The distinction is even referred to in the text.
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