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  • Rainbows End

  • By: Vernor Vinge
  • Narrated by: Eric Conger
  • Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

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Rainbows End

By: Vernor Vinge
Narrated by: Eric Conger
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Publisher's Summary

Vernor Vinge doesn't write novels very quickly, but when he writes one, it's well worth the wait. His last two novels have won the coveted Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel of the year. Rainbows End is set in the same near future as his novella "Fast Times at Fairmont High", which won the Hugo Award in 2002 for Best Novella. Set a few decades from now, Rainbows End is an epic adventure that encapsulates in a single extended family the challenges of the technological advances of the first quarter of the 21st century. The information revolution of the past 30 years blossoms into a web of conspiracies that could destroy Western civilization. At the center of the action is Robert Gu, a former Alzheimer's victim who has regained his mental and physical health through radical new therapies, and his family. His son and daughter-in-law are both in the military, but not a military we would recognize, while his middle-school-age granddaughter is involved in perhaps the most dangerous game of all, with people and forces more powerful than she or her parents can imagine.

Filled with excitement and Vinge's trademark potpourri of fascinating ideas, Rainbows End is another triumphantly entertaining novel by one of the true masters of the field.

©2006 Vinge Vernor (P)2007 Macmillan Audio

Critic Reviews

  • 2007 Hugo Award winner, Best Novel

"This [is] top-drawer hard SF - fast-paced, packed with action, intellectually challenging and, above all, capable of invoking SF's grail: a genuine sense of wonder." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Rainbows End

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well plotted and thoughtful SF

Robert Gu, a poet laureate with Alzheimer's, has his youth and mind restored by medical science. Unfortunately he has a 90's mind in a 2020 world and no longer can write poetry. He goes back to Fairmont High School to learn how to navigate the heavily networked world and "wear" the new technology. The awkwardness of the arrogant Gu is wonderful and the future tech and world is great. The plot develops into a mystery conspiracy adventure with Gu's 13 yo granddaughter and assorted oldies (each adapting their past lives to the new world).

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

not bad

decent enough story, great world setting

narrator was okay, probably needed a bit better on differentiating the voices

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