false 102439 6 Four time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels <i>A Fire Upon the Deep</i> and <i>A Deepness in the Sky</i>. 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&#8212;through nodes designed into <i>smart</i> clothes&#8212;and to see the digital context&#8212;through <i>smart</i> 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. 3101132 2006 Rainbows End total:956|5:161|4:368|3:314|2:91|1:22| 956 3423 1463 177 5 2 false false Sat Aug 09 20:55:34 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 09 22:40:15 -0700 2008
Among other things, he must learn to understand h...more...]]> 1 2 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jul 28 18:02:17 -0700 2007 Fri Aug 03 17:11:46 -0700 2007
I gave it fifty pages, and every single one was an effort.

This book has tons of ...more...]]> 1 2 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 18:51:33 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 25 01:53:40 -0800 2009
I was hoping that this would be similar to Stephenson's Snow Crash, which I loved, but it couldn't be further from th...more...]]> 1 2 false false Thu Dec 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Aug 26 06:44:20 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 19 07:13:58 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 true false Fri Apr 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 25 09:12:27 -0700 2008 Fri Apr 25 09:30:56 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 22:36:58 -0700 2007 Wed Sep 26 22:47:44 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jul 08 10:59:44 -0700 2007 Wed Feb 25 01:53:37 -0800 2009 Neuromancer and I liked Stephenson's Snow Crash, and this is basically the same thing for the current generation except it leans a little more towards the techno-thriller side, like Michael Crichton if he were actually a good writer and knew more about his subject than what he'd jus...more...]]> 4 1 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 21:37:09 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 21:44:15 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 06 14:46:16 -0800 2007 Tue Nov 06 14:53:22 -0800 2007 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Feb 04 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 05 19:40:43 -0800 2007 Mon Feb 04 19:42:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 28 06:29:54 -0700 2009 Sat Mar 28 06:30:11 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 15 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 17 01:51:30 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 02:51:51 -0800 2009 A Fire Upon The Deep and A Deepness in the Sky.) But this was a gift from a graduating student, so I felt obligated to try.

I was surprised and gratified to discover that...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Sep 21 23:32:03 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 22 00:02:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jun 08 20:44:57 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 22:55:09 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Feb 24 18:13:30 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 14:37:10 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 18:13:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Jan 04 15:02:36 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 15:02:36 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Sep 17 18:16:15 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 17 18:19:53 -0700 2008 A cool sci-fi book about an aged poet who—thanks to the wonders of futuristic medicine—returns from the netherworld of senility to find himself unwittingly mixed up in a plot to brainwash the world through a genetically engineered mind control virus activated by subliminal messages.
...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 13 08:11:06 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 30 03:15:21 -0700 2009 Rainbows End is so self-absorbed with slick, paper-thin, micro-gadgetry that large parts of the book read like an O'Reilly reference manual. This is annoying enough...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 10 10:54:56 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:19:08 -0800 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Thu Feb 05 09:47:21 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 05 09:47:21 -0800 2009 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 in...

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