Rainbows End

Vernor Vinge has a history of writing novels that offer fascinating and persuasive visions of worlds different from ours, but which are somewhat less satisfying as stories about people.

Here he does it again. The world of Rainbows End is in our near future, but the differences are still fascinating, and he dramatizes them well.

The story starts slowly and takes a long time to get going; the second half becomes more exciting, but some readers give up before getting that far.

The central character is Robert Gu, who starts a new phase of his life at the beginning of the book, and is starting another new phase by the end of the book, so that's the rationale for the beginning and end of the story. He's spent most of his life as a highly respected poet and thoroughly obnoxious person, but he's going through a period of change now.

An off-centre but important character is known only as the Rabbit or the Mysterious Stranger. He appeals to me more than Robert Gu, but he remains stubbornly mysterious and we never learn much about him or what eventually happens to him.

The other characters include a small group of shadowy operatives (spies?) working for the Indo-European Alliance; Robert's family; some of his acquaintances (he has no friends); and some children and teachers at a school. Most of the story takes place in San Diego, where Robert is living.

The major events of the story are set off by the machinations of Alfred Vaz, the boss of India's External Intelligence Agency, who has a special interest in San Diego. But most of the narrative is about Robert Gu and his associates, who are eventually affected by what Vaz is doing.

Overall, I like this book and I'm glad to have it, but so far I've read it only twice. I reread a book mainly to revisit appealing scenes and characters, and this book is short of them. However, when I do get around to reading it, it's an interesting experience, and the later stages of it are gripping.

I'm puzzled by the book-shredding that happens in this future. As Vinge surely knew when writing, you can digitize a book by scanning the pages. It's not necessary to shred the pages, and I don't see any advantage in doing so. His reasons for including this odd feature are one of the mysteries of the story.