Saturday, August 11, 2007
31: Rainbow's End, Vernor Vinge. wiki
I was in Evansville and needed to have my car looked before trying to drive home, and the car place was closed, so I bought a book and coffee at borders and got a hotel room for the night. I am slowly adjusting to the idea that I have disposable income again.
Got home and came down with the flu so it was nice to have a good book handy.
The book was good, but not amazingly so. It doesn't compare to his "deepness in the sky" or "fire in the deep". Still, from the guy who invented cyberspace (in the story "true names", back in the day, it's a rollicking yarn about how things look in 2025,
extrapolating trends about connectivity, wearable computing, crowd-sourcing,and invisible 6-foot rabbit pukas. (See Harvey, Donnie Darko.)
The book is an unfolding of his Hugo-winning novella Fast Times At Fairmont High.
On one level, it's the story of a new kid in high school, who struggles to make friends, complete his big class assignment, and go through some character development.
But it's also about his ex-wife and his grandkid and her parents, Alice and Bob, who you may have heard of, and their efforts to avert world catastrophe.
All in all it was the good read I was expecting; it delivered.
Vinge is in that core group of extropian visionaries, people like Varley and Stross and Neal Stevenson and Corey Doctorow, who write about a future that is wildly different from today, but is our best guess about what the future will actually be like. comic
While at an Evansville library I look a second look at Stevenson's system of the world trilogy and liked it this time, didn't before, so I will plan to read those when I find a copy handy.
wow, here is a free online copy of the book i spent $8 for. It was still worth the $8; I read it while offline in a hotel room and later in bed with the flu, cheap medicine at $8.
I was in Evansville and needed to have my car looked before trying to drive home, and the car place was closed, so I bought a book and coffee at borders and got a hotel room for the night. I am slowly adjusting to the idea that I have disposable income again.
Got home and came down with the flu so it was nice to have a good book handy.
The book was good, but not amazingly so. It doesn't compare to his "deepness in the sky" or "fire in the deep". Still, from the guy who invented cyberspace (in the story "true names", back in the day, it's a rollicking yarn about how things look in 2025,
extrapolating trends about connectivity, wearable computing, crowd-sourcing,and invisible 6-foot rabbit pukas. (See Harvey, Donnie Darko.)
The book is an unfolding of his Hugo-winning novella Fast Times At Fairmont High.
On one level, it's the story of a new kid in high school, who struggles to make friends, complete his big class assignment, and go through some character development.
But it's also about his ex-wife and his grandkid and her parents, Alice and Bob, who you may have heard of, and their efforts to avert world catastrophe.
All in all it was the good read I was expecting; it delivered.
Vinge is in that core group of extropian visionaries, people like Varley and Stross and Neal Stevenson and Corey Doctorow, who write about a future that is wildly different from today, but is our best guess about what the future will actually be like. comic
While at an Evansville library I look a second look at Stevenson's system of the world trilogy and liked it this time, didn't before, so I will plan to read those when I find a copy handy.
wow, here is a free online copy of the book i spent $8 for. It was still worth the $8; I read it while offline in a hotel room and later in bed with the flu, cheap medicine at $8.
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