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emilyb_chicago's review against another edition
5.0
I loved this book. It's near term science fiction -- written in only 2006 and taking place in a 2025 world with amazing and fun technology. The technology alone makes this book worth the read. I want to live in a world where silent messages can easily be passed instead of talking out loud and you can overlay reality with graphics you can then share with others. It's an extra bonus that the story is well written and the characters are engaging.
I recommend this book even if you only dabble in science fiction. I'll be picking up his earlier books and hoping he decides to write a sequel!
I recommend this book even if you only dabble in science fiction. I'll be picking up his earlier books and hoping he decides to write a sequel!
sunscour's review against another edition
3.0
This was good, but not as great as I was expecting it to be. My mind kinda drifted in parts..
renko's review against another edition
adventurous
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
jhallobc's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mathematicalcoffee's review against another edition
2.0
The world and ideas were pretty cool. But the characters were not very interesting and neither was the plot. The main protagonist sort of drifted through the plot doing very little active to affect it, while the actual interesting plot (the 3 intelligence operatives & rabbit) was sort of pushed to the side/used to frame what maybe? was meant to be a more personal/character development story of Robert Gu adapting to the new world, except that it wasn't. Struggled to finish.
manuphoto's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Ready Player One meets Neuromancer, but with better writing than either of them.
This book is very different from the other Vinge novels that I’ve read, those from the Zone of Thoughts. Here, things are a lot closer to home, literally.
Vinge still uses some of his old tricks, including the technological singularity and stories told in parallel to converge in the final act of the book, all very well executed.
I’m not a huge fan of cyberpunk, and the parts with the virtual reality “fights” were slogs to be, but luckily the book is not about those. It’s more about how major technological change will affect people, all sorts of people. Also about security and privacy.
To that effect, Vinge has Robert Gu for main character. An interesting choice. A former remarkable poet, considered the best of the best, but also an intimidating persona and.. a complete a**hole. I won’t spoil the story but let’s say Vinge takes Gu to unexpected places during the story.
I’ll be clear, I didn’t find this book nearly as compelling as A Deepness in the Sky for example, but it’s still a solid novel, and a very well crafted one. The plot is interesting; if sometimes confusing, the characters are very distinct and well developed, and some experience great arcs.
All-in-all, and nice piece of science-fiction by one of the masters of the genre. It will make you think about the implications of many things: communication, healthcare, privacy, weaponry, etc. It’s certainly a book that deserves to be analyzed and studied. Plus, it’s Vinge, so it’s still very readable, with even some pretty funny moments.
songwind's review against another edition
5.0
Rainbows End is an interesting look at identity, technology and society in a world where augmented reality is within the reach of almost everyone.
Robert Gu is an Alzheimers patient who is brought back to health and mental clarity through a new medical procedure. In his youth, Robert had been a world class poet. The newly reborn Gu must find his place in a new world.
Gu's awakening takes place against the backdrop of an espionage operation to uncover the identity of a group which has developed a mind control technology.
Robert Gu is an Alzheimers patient who is brought back to health and mental clarity through a new medical procedure. In his youth, Robert had been a world class poet. The newly reborn Gu must find his place in a new world.
Gu's awakening takes place against the backdrop of an espionage operation to uncover the identity of a group which has developed a mind control technology.
tahnok's review against another edition
This was my favorite book as a teenager. I loved the vision of an AR future it painted, with people becoming increasingly sophisticated users of tech. It seemed so plausible
Now, on a reread, it's still a really interesting vision for the future, but it seems unlikely. People aren't going to all become programmers because they have to touch a computer 24/7
I also feel like the characters were a bit flat. Robert senior is a bit too likeable too fast for his redemption arc
Now, on a reread, it's still a really interesting vision for the future, but it seems unlikely. People aren't going to all become programmers because they have to touch a computer 24/7
I also feel like the characters were a bit flat. Robert senior is a bit too likeable too fast for his redemption arc
noranne's review against another edition
Calling it quits on this one. I realized the only thing that was interesting me was the fact that it was in San Diego. Characters, story, writing all felt blah. Life's too short to slog through books!
grayjay's review against another edition
3.0
An elderly poet, is revived from a twenty-year fog of Alzheimer's by new medicine, to find he's been left behind by technical advance, and cured of both his poetic talent and his characteristic cruelty.
He enrolls in the highschool his granddaughter attends and while reviving old academic acquaintances, becomes the figurehead of a resistance movement against the digitization of information.
It gets zanier when the resistance movement turns out to be a carefully engineered distraction for world-changing mind control research.
There's a lot more going on than that, and the author has done some interesting imagining about what could be possible of we all wore virtual reality contact lenses.
But what was most interesting was the changes wrought in the protagonist as he has to re-train to catch up to the new way of interacting with information technology.
He enrolls in the highschool his granddaughter attends and while reviving old academic acquaintances, becomes the figurehead of a resistance movement against the digitization of information.
It gets zanier when the resistance movement turns out to be a carefully engineered distraction for world-changing mind control research.
There's a lot more going on than that, and the author has done some interesting imagining about what could be possible of we all wore virtual reality contact lenses.
But what was most interesting was the changes wrought in the protagonist as he has to re-train to catch up to the new way of interacting with information technology.