REVIEW: "Rainbows End", Vernor Vinge

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

BKRNBSND.RVW   20130525

"Rainbows End", Vernor Vinge, 2006, 0-312-85684-9, U$25.95/C$34.95
%A   Vernor Vinge
%C   175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY  10010
%D   2006
%G   0-312-85684-9
%I   Tor Books/Tom Doherty Assoc.
%O   U$25.95/C$34.95 pnh () tor com www.tor.com
%O  http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312856849/robsladesinterne
  http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312856849/robsladesinte-21
%O   http://www.amazon.ca/exec/obidos/ASIN/0312856849/robsladesin03-20
%O   Audience i+ Tech 2 Writing 3 (see revfaq.htm for explanation)
%P   364 p.
%T   "Rainbows End"

It is always a pleasure to read something from Vinge.  His characters
are interesting, his plots sufficiently convoluted, and his writing
clear and flowing.  In addition, for the geek, his understanding of
the technology is realistic and fundamental, which makes a change from
so many who merely parrot jargon they do not comprehend.

Of course, this is future technology we are talking about, so none of
it is (currently) real.  But it could be, without the wild flights of
illogic that so abound in fiction.

In this book, we have a future with interconnectedness around the
globe.  Of course, this means that there are dangers, in regard to
identity and authentication.  The new technology protects against
these dangers with a Secure Hardware Environment.  (Or SHE, and, since
the DHS mandates that everyone must use it, does that make it SHE-who-
must-be-obeyed?)

Encryption is, of course, vital to the operations, and so is used a
lot, often in multiple layers.  It is probably a measure of the
enjoyability of Vinge's work that I really didn't take note of the
fact that two of the characters were named Alice and Bob.  Not, that
is, until late in the volume, when the author also briefly introduces
a character named Eve Mallory.

copyright, Robert M. Slade   2013   BKRNBSND.RVW   20130525


======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
rslade () vcn bc ca     slade () victoria tc ca     rslade () computercrime org
It's not often that the IT industry can hold up a glass and toast
a gaggle of geese for doing what IT managers, system
administrators, and Supreme Court judges have wanted to do for
years.                 - silicon.com on reports that Canada geese
                         are overrunning Bill Gates' Seattle mansion
victoria.tc.ca/techrev/rms.htm http://www.infosecbc.org/links
http://blogs.securiteam.com/index.php/archives/author/p1/
http://twitter.com/rslade
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