Title: Rainbows End
Author: Vernor Vinge
Publisher: Tor
Year: 2006/2007
400 pages
A lot of hard science and world-building anchors this novel in the near future--an as-yet-unreached future, but one that's plausibly at hand. Robert Gu is an enjoyable protagonist and his actions, including a variety of betrayals he perpetuates, make sense in relation to his character and the events he's experienced. The book provides a good example of relationships between small, local phenomena and the larger-world perturbations and repercussions that follow from them.
Action lags somewhat in the middle but picks back up, including a clash of belief circles that has the buildup of Stephenson's Snow Crash without that book's disappointing slump. Some loose ends are acceptable, such as Lena's lack of reply to Robert, whereas others are not. Rabbit's identity is not revealed and thus he/it is left a disappointing deus ex machina. Here's hoping for a sequel to wrap up some egregiously loose threads in an otherwise fine and engaging story.
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