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Rainbows End
 
 
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Rainbows End (Mass Market Paperback)
by Vernor Vinge (Author)
Key Phrases: silent messaging, analyst pool, library riot, Robert Gu, Mysterious Stranger, San Diego (more...)
  3.5 out of 5 stars 71 customer reviews (71 customer reviews)  

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Set in San Diego, Calif., this hard SF novel from Hugo-winner Vinge (A Deepness in the Sky) offers dazzling computer technology but lacks dramatic tension. Circa 2025, people use high-tech contact lenses to interface with computers in their clothes. "Silent messaging" is so automatic that it feels like telepathy. Robert Gu, a talented Chinese-American poet, has missed much of this revolution due to Alzheimer's, but now the wonders of modern medicine have rehabilitated his mind. Installed in remedial classes at the local high school, he tries to adjust to this brave new world, but soon finds himself enmeshed in a somewhat quixotic plot by elderly former University of California–San Diego faculty members to protest the destruction of the university library, now rendered superfluous by the ubiquitous online databanks. Unbeknownst to Robert, he's also a pawn in a dark international conspiracy to perfect a deadly biological weapon. The true nature of the superweapon is never made entirely clear, and too much of the book feels like a textbook introduction to Vinge's near-future world. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Bookmarks Magazine
A multiple Hugo Award?winning author (A Fire Upon the Deep; A Deepness in the Sky) and former professor of mathematics at San Diego State University, Vernor Vinge writes as if he's spent some time in 2025. This novel's setting, contemporary with the author's Fast Times at Fairmont High, is one of instantaneous technology where accomplished hackers wield profound influence. Reviewers applaud Vinge's avoidance of science-fiction traps like information dumps and rootless "techno-bedazzlement" in favor of emotional storylines and plausible—and sometimes frightening—insights into where technology is moving humanity. <BR>Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details
  • Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Tor Science Fiction (April 3, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0812536363
  • ISBN-13: 978-0812536362
  • Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars 71 customer reviews (71 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,261 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
silent messaging, analyst pool, library riot, transport tray, contingency tree, belief circles, aerosol glue, spider bots, bio labs, top analyst, steam tunnels, night crew
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Robert Gu, Mysterious Stranger, San Diego, Winston Blount, Juan Orozco, Xiu Xiang, Greater Scooch-a-mout, Dangerous Knowledge, Fairmont&nbs