Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future

Vernor Vinge

Apr 2007 · Sold by Tor Books

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

Interesting future-tech ideas explored, and does a good job of making older characters vibrant and compelling. Starts too slowly. Tries too hard to be clever with both story structure and use of invented local lingo. Many confusing/dense passages that slow reading pace to a grind - often just when you just want the action to take off. Worth reading, but unfortunately not worth savouring or keeping on the shelf.

Great story with all the elements: realistic characters, very interesting plot, great location, and an incredible vision of a future full of wonders and the dangers that always come with. A very difficult book to put down. I am left hungry for more. This book reminds me of another of my favorites, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I will be reading this book again and again over time, but I hope there are more stories from this future. (A San Diego native and UCSD employee).

Verge was at the top of his game with this one. It was scarily accurate too: despite having been written before 2006, many of the technologies this novel pivots on are coming to fruition now in 2014 so the future this book portrays is a possible one. My only gripe with the novel is the pacing in certain areas and a shortage of fully developed characters. Otherwise, I couldn't recommend it hard enough!

About the author

Vernor Vinge, author of such acclaimed novels as True Names, The Peace War, Marooned in Realtime, A Fire Upon the Deep, and A Deepness in the Sky, has won four Hugo Awards. A mathematician and computer scientist, he lives in San Diego, California.