{"product_id":"rainbows-end-9781250841506","title":"Rainbows End","description":"\u003cp\u003eFour time Hugo Award winner Vernor Vinge has taken readers to the depths of space and into the far future in his bestselling novels \u003ci\u003eA Fire Upon the Deep\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eA Deepness in the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e. 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. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eRobert 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--through nodes designed into \u003ci\u003esmart\u003c\/i\u003e clothes--and to see the digital context--through \u003ci\u003esmart\u003c\/i\u003e contact lenses. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWith 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVernor Vinge\u003c\/b\u003e, author of such acclaimed novels as \u003ci\u003eTrue Names\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Peace War\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMarooned in Realtime\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eA Fire Upon the Deep\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eA Deepness in the Sky\u003c\/i\u003e, has won four Hugo Awards. A mathematician and computer scientist, he lives in San Diego, California.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"St. Martins Press-3PL","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50718737301778,"sku":"9781250841506","price":18.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_e1eeb74b-6725-42de-92a2-14bac4124c09.jpg?v=1734648688","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/rainbows-end-9781250841506","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}