Rainbow’s End by Verner Vinge

Oy vey. I had high hopes for this book. I really did. I absolutely loved A Fire Upon the Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, but Rainbow’s End really didn’t stand up to my expectations.

In the not too distant future, the secret powers that exist in the European Union discover a nefarious plot by accident and after much research, he contacts his allies in the India and Japan. Together, they devise a plan to infiltrate the nefarious plot and discover what exactly is going on.

Meanwhile, Robert Gu has undergone the miracles of modern medicine and has been completely restored from his long slow slide into Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, he was one in a thousand whose system accepted a rejuvenating system and he now has the body of a much, much younger man. However, he was not well liked before his illness due to his abrasive personality and he has once again managed to alienate his son’s family.

However, young Miri Gu and her friend Juan decide he is not a lost cause and plan to help Robert out of his funk. Miri works behind the scenes while Juan enlists Robert as his partner in school. Juan will teach Robert the new technology in exchange for writing lessons. As all this is happening, Robert is approached by the Mysterious Stranger with promises to bring back Roberts former talent for poetry if Robert helps out the Library Cause.

And somehow all these plots come together at the end, but boy, was it a slow journey.
If memory serves me right, this is up for a Hugo this year. I’ve only read one other Hugo nominee at this point and it was a brain candy fantasy (see link here).

In some ways this was an interesting look at what future technology might have in store for us - computers are worn as clothing and contact lenses, books are irrelevant because everything can be found on the web, a person doesn't have to show up for anything in person, they can simulate being there remotely and some diseases - but not all- can be reversed or cured.

And I guess it was also an interesting look at how a second chance at life can change a person and how others can't accept that. That did make the book more realistic. Robert Gu had to come to accept his poetry talent wasn't coming back with his rejuvenation. His ex-wife, who's osteoporosis was untreatable, couldn't accept this change and remained bitter and alienated.

This was also July’s book group selection. The group really liked this book so that made me odd person out this go around.