History Literature / RainbowsEnd

''Rainbows End'' won the HugoAward in 2007.

* ShoutOut: Rabbit likes to address people as "[[WesternAnimation/BugsBunny Doc]]."

* BooksThatBite: The library at the University in San Diego has these, although they're purely virtual and only visible to people who are "wearing". Nevertheless, they're as real as any of the other e-books the library has. They were created as an in-universe Shout Out to ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''.

* InsufferableGenius: Robert Gu is considered one of the greatest living poets, and he loves using his gift of language to humiliate others and put them in their place. When she finds out his Alzheimer's is being cured, his ex-wife fakes her own death, rather than have to face him again.

* BlackBox: Pretty much all engineering is done by putting together modular black boxes whose contents are unknown, except to the companies that manufacture them. This is done to protect copyrights and trade secrets. Plus, it's ''supposed'' to make things simpler. At one point, Robert Gu gets frustrated, and tries to open a black box under the hood of a car, using a kind of particle beam ([[RuleOfCool using ball bearings!]]). The result is an explosion.

* BlackBox: Pretty much all engineering is done by putting together modular black boxes whose contents are unknown, except to the companies that manufacture them. This is done to protect copyrights and trade secrets. Plus, it's ''supposed'' to make things simpler. At one point, Robert Gu gets frustrated, and tries to open a black box under the hood of a car, using a cutting laser. The result is an explosion.

* MovingBuilding: The library at the University of California in San Diego is designed to move under computer control in case of earthquake. At one point, hackers take over the building's computers during a public demonstration, to make the building dance along to the music. It doesn't work quite as planned.

* DigitizedHacker: It's strongly suggested that Mr. Rabbit is this, especially when, with moments to go before before his connection to the group beneath the lab is cut off, he manages to leave them with a detailed PDF document titled, "While We Are Out of Touch or How To Survive and Prosper During the Next Thirty Minutes", with explanations of the whole situation, who's responsible, what they can do about it, and much more.

The novel follows two different storylines, which gradually begin to converge. The first story is of Grünberk Braun, a member of the European Union Intelligence Board who discovers a MindVirus that seems to have come from a lab in San Diego, California, and of his colleague, Albert Vaz of India's External Intelligence Agency, an expert Braun quickly turns to. The second story is of Robert Gu, a world-famous poet, who has recently been cured of his Alzheimer's and given rejuvenation treatments, and is now living with his son in San Diego and learning to cope with the changes in the world in the years since he started becoming senile.

The novel follows two different storylines, which gradually begin to converge. The first story is of Grünberk Braun, a member of the European Union Intelligence Board who discovers a MindVirus that seems to have come from a lab in San Diego, California, and of his colleague, Albert Vaz of India's External Intelligence Agency, an expert Braun quickly turns to. Unfortunately, Vaz is the man secretly behind the virus, which he believes is the only way to end terrorism forever. The second story is of Robert Gu, a world-famous poet, who has recently been cured of his Alzheimer's and given rejuvenation treatments, and is now living with his son in San Diego and learning to cope with the changes in the world in the years since he started becoming senile.

* AugmentedReality: * "Wearables" provide this through smart contact lenses (among other things). You can build custom views of things, but most people prefer to participate in one of the many overlapping shared virtual worlds, usually based on popular works of fiction, like ''Literature/{{Discworld}}''. (Vinge mentions that royalties from the Discworld virtual reality have allowed Creator/TerryPratchett to buy up a substantial chunk of Scotland.) Basically, you can participate in a MassivelyMultiplayerOnlineRolePlayingGame while walking down the street.

The novel follows two different storylines, which gradually begin to converge. The first story is of Grünberk Braun, a member of the European Union Intelligence Board who discovers a MindVirus that seems to have come from a lab in San Diego, California, and of his immediate superior, Albert Vaz, the man who is secretly behind the virus, which he believes is the only way to end terrorism forever. The second story is of Robert Gu, a world-famous poet, who has recently been cured of his Alzheimer's and given rejuvenation treatments, and is now living with his son in San Diego and learning to cope with the changes in the world in the years since he started becoming senile.

The Europeans, in collaboration with Indians, decide that a direct approach to the American government would be too risky--the Americans might be behind the virus. So, posing as South American drug lords, they approach a secretive hacker known as The Rabbit to help them find a way into the San Diego labs. Meanwhile, Robert Gu has discovered that the library at the University of San Diego is about to be digitized using a destructive process that shreds the physical books. Dismayed, he joins a group seeking to stop this action, known as the Librareome Project. As it turns out, The Rabbit has his own plans for the anti-Librareome group.

The book spends a lot of time considering the implications of "wearables"--powerful, light-weight networked computers that use contact lenses or glasses for display, and subtle gestures for input; a logical extension of today's smartphone technology. Wearables are as common in the world of ''Rainbows End'' as cell-phones are today, especially among the young.

* MoleInCharge: When Grünberk Braun discovers the existence of the MindControl virus, he reports it to his superior, Albert Vaz, the man who has secretly created it as part of his plan to [[WellIntentionedExtremist save the world from itself]].

* DigitalAvatar: the widespread use of "wearable" computers makes this extremely common. The hacker known as Rabbit actually appears as a giant rabbit, for example.

''Rainbows End: A Novel with One Foot in the Future'' is a 2006 near-future ScienceFiction novel by Creator/VernorVinge. The absence of an apostrophe in the title is deliberate.