Location: Home > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Vinge, Vernor > Rainbows End

Rainbows End

Author: Vernor Vinge
Publisher: Tor
Category: Book

List Price: ~~Ł6.99~~
Buy New: Ł1.98
You Save: Ł5.01 (72%)

New (23) Used (6) Collectible (1) from Ł1.98

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

7 reviews
Sales Rank: 9258

Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.1 x 1.2

ISBN: 0330451944
EAN: 9780330451949
ASIN: 0330451944

Publication Date: August 17, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: New Book - In Stock - UK Seller - Very Fast Delivery - First Class Customer Service

Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Rainbows End
•	Hardcover - Rainbows End
•	Mass Market Paperback - Rainbows End

Similar Items:

•	Spin
•	Tatja Grimm's World
•	Old Man's War
•	The Ghost Brigades
•	BLINDSIGHT

Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...

4 out of 5 stars

Complex Tech thriller that grows on rereading June 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

I've been a big fan of Vinge for a long time, but more so after "a fire upon the deep". His last two were big space opera plots with a dash of new technology thrown in, more on the ian m banks thread. This novel goes in a very different direction and moves very strongly into the thriller rather the science fiction territory. The trends explored here, fully immersive technology, difficulty of multi generational family relationships, knowing just who your allies are in a much more connected world and the challenge of sudden technology step change, made this some what jerky in places.
However I found on rereading , a few months later the book grew on me and the multi layer, multi threaded story started to become more coherent.
Vinge's background, as a professor of computing science shines through in places, particularly in his assumption of audience understanding of technology challenges.
Finally there is a real juicy hook here in the presence of a complex "AI" character just crying out for a sequel. What are you "rabbit?"
I'd say "persevere with this book" it rewards persistence

4 out of 5 stars

Rather good March 13, 2008
Vinge has sometimes left me a bit cold, but I rather enjoyed this Hugo winner. In particular, it was interesting to have a central character whose Alzheimer's is cured, and this is only the start of his and his family's problems.

That's not the main part of the plot, which is a complex tale of intelligence (both agencies and artificial), set in the brilliantly realised environment of UC San Diego a few decades from now. Of course, it's a landscape Vinge must know well, but I think he has brought it to life in loving detail here. Indeed, I have to rate his worldbuilding (of a familiar world) rather ahead of the complex story, involving three generations of the same family in the conspiracy by sheer coincidence.

5 out of 5 stars

Have I been reading a different book of the same title?? November 18, 2007
I do not understand the rather negative reviews this book has. To my mind it is excellent -- way better than "A Deepness in the Sky" and almost as good as (though not at all like) "A Fire upon the Deep". It describes in a satisfyingly complex way a world beginning to accelerate towards Vingean Singularity, with all its glories and terrors. The choice of Robert Gu, a "retread" ex genius poet as the central character is very effective, providing the reader with a link to the more comprehensible point of view. And unlike most SF protagonists, Gu is hardly a one-dimensional cut-out. He's a real SOB, for whom one can't help but feeling some sympathy as the story unfolds and we see his painful adjustments to his new status.

The book starts with a bang, describing the discovery of and the initial responses to the newest Bad Thing, which turns out to be "YGBM". No I won't spoil the joke by unpacking the acronym, but I thought the obvious sly reference to ICBM quite funny. Which brings me to another aspect of "Rainbow's End": it kept me chuckling throughout, without being overtly jokey -- a pretty rare achievement.

All in all, one of the best SF books I ever read (and I've read *far* too many!).

3 out of 5 stars

A curates egg August 29, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

and good in parts, but as a whole, somewhat indigestible. The utilisation of enhanced reality and specific genre affinity "second realities", in which the users wearable computers superimpose a themed reality overlay on top of the everyday base reality i.e. a Terry Pratchett themed world, makes the book plain hard to read.

There are some great ideas in this book but the overall incoherence of the plot and "recovering" personality of the primary character reduces this from a compelling narrative to almost a speculative whitepaper churned out but some commissioned think tank.

If you love geek possibilities and are prepared to lose out on plot, characterisation and descriptive nuance, then this book is worth a read, for me I left my copy in my rented holiday villa as I couldn't face lumping it back home after I had read it.

A missed opportunity.

3 out of 5 stars

"What's Up, Doc?" - or, the Virtual on Steroids November 30, 2006
14 out of 17 found this review helpful

Ok, I'm a member of the `geek' family - my daily job involves working with computers, both at the programming and the hardware design level. As such, this book should have been great, but I found I was disappointed in it for some rather strange reasons.

First is the world Vinge envisions, where almost everyone is plugged into the net on a constant basis via wearable computers with contact lenses for output display, and the world at large has so many contact points and monitors that you can be almost anywhere and still be totally immersed in virtual reality. My problem with this is that it doesn't go far enough! Computers small enough to weave into your clothes are an almost reality now, along with displays that can be part of normal glasses. So there is no great leap here - and in fact, the interface to the computer, how the person can give it commands, I found to be quite clunky, depending on virtual keyboards or interpretations of various body gestures (which apparently involve a fairly steep learning curve on the user's part to get right). Why not computers embedded in the body, with direct connection to the neural system, or at least allow for voice commands?

Second is the envisioned response to the dangers of having everything wired to the net and the influence generated data can have on people. I found it difficult to believe that in the time span given, a short twenty years from now, that the U.S. would have put in place a military force with the authority to not only monitor all net traffic and dragoon intelligence analysts from any organization at any time it was felt they were needed, but to take action on a moments notice, without recourse to any high civilian authority, up to and including a nuclear strike against any data source seen to be inimical.

Third is the level of software development envisaged. Software has always been the tortoise in speed of improvement, but here Vinge sees it having progressed to where it can compute and display, in real time, a complete visual overlay on the `real' world, and much of its high level programming capable of being done by almost anyone, allowing the user to effectively `live' in whatever fantasy world he desires.

The above objections are from the `geek' side of me, all technical. But what of the artistic side? Here Vinge does much better, wrapping a pretty solid story of intrigue and suspense around this future society. The threat is "YGBM" (You Gotta Believe Me), software so insidious it can make the recipient believe whatever the originator wants him to, the ultimate in mind control. When evidence surfaces that someone has actually perfected a form of this, the search is on for who and where. Most of the search is done by a character known only as `Rabbit', a very enigmatic being with obvious echoes from a certain cartoon character, intertwined with the story of Robert Gu, former world class poet who has been rescued from the ills of Alzheimer's by modern medicine, although along the way he seems to have lost that `genius' touch to writing poetry

The main characters are pretty well fleshed out, where their motivations and actions make good sense, and allow the reader to become emotionally involved with them. There are multiple plot twists and threads, all intertwined in such a fashion as to maintain a pretty high level of suspense. In fact, this book might be called a `Future Thriller' - even down to the `will the heroes save the day with the detonation clock ticking down to its last seconds?' scenario.

A mixed bag. A good, engaging story; people whose reactions to the envisioned world are plausible and realistic; but some odd technical lapses in the envisioned future that hurts its believability.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)