Rainbows End

Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge

Category: Sci-Fi Grade: A-

Not sure why I'm even reviewing this one for everybody. Don't get me wrong -- as you can tell by the grade, this was actually a really good book. The problem, for most readers, is that, even though the story takes place in the relatively near future (never specified, but meant to be 15 or 20 years down the road), this is hard-core science fiction. I guess I should have left this kind of book behind with my teens, but, when I get a really good one, my inherent geekiness comes out.

Vinge is a well-respected mathematician and computer scientist who spent years in academia before becoming a full time writer. He combines a great knowledge base, a bent for speculating about where we're headed and strong storytelling skills to produce a book that's fast paced and entertaining. He extrapolates the current world of teens constantly "IMing" each other to a future where most everybody is "wearing" -- using intelligent contact lenses and clothing to be constantly online and in communication with everybody else. A wearer can instantly call up virtual reality "overlays" so that, for example, the building he's looking at can take on any of the solid-as-reality appearances that have been designed by other wearers from all over the globe -- with a blink or a flick, a plain concrete bunker can become a skyscraper, a castle or an ivy-covered cottage.

The story revolves around some cooperating intelligence officers who suspect, based on analysis of a surprisingly successful ad for a honey-nougat candy, that someone is close to perfecting the ultimate WMD - YGBM technology. Nah, you'll never figure it out - it stands for "You Gotta Believe Me" - the ability, using mass media, to convince everybody to believe something. I.e. the ultimate extension of Madison Avenue technology and, perfected, the ultimate in mind control.

To attach the problem, the intelligence officers recruit the Rabbit! This brilliant operative in cyberspace who, most of time, is seen in virtual reality as a carrot-chomping rabbit, mounts a campaign to find and destroy the YGBM lab. He pulls in some strange and sometimes unwitting cohorts - most interestingly a group of "back-from-the-near-dead" senior citizens who have been rejuvenated by advancing medical technology.

See, I told you -- by now, I've probably lost everybody on the list with the possible exception of Dan and Jason.

Anyway, its a fun read. A little confusing with all the technology but, at heart, a good-old shoot-em-up spy novel.