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In a period of a bit over 15 years, Vernor Vinge wrote three of the best science fiction novels of the last half century: A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, and Rainbows End. All three are remarkably creative, combining interesting characters, exciting situations, and incredible ideas. The first two are set in space, in the far future. Rainbows End, by contrast, is set in on Earth -- mostly in and around San Diego -- in the not too distant future. It also features remarkable ideas, but ideas that it's easy to believe could turn into real things very soon.

In the world of Rainbows End, intelligence operatives are constantly analyzing data and trends, trying to stop terrorist attacks before they happen. One European analyst latches onto two seemingly unrelated things: a seemingly harmless virus and an add that a huge number of people respond to. But digging deeper, he concludes that it's an experiment in mind control: people with the virus could be made to obey instructions. He and two colleagues form a secret group to track down the source, tracking it to a bio lab in San Diego, and ally with a mysterious remote entity that calls itself Rabbit to infiltrate the lab.

But the center of the story is Robert Gu, a once great poet who had been struck down by alzheimer's, but whose mind and youth have been restored by medical miracles. He is living with his Son Robert Jr. and his daughter in law Alice (both involved in terrorist prevention) and their brilliant daughter Miri. But as the novel progresses, their actions become intertwined with the plot (and plots within that plot) of the security team trying to infiltrate the bio lab.

The future world pictured in this novel is both incredible and believable. All but some of the very old and hidebound have wearable technology, viewing the world through contact lenses that change what they are seeing, given them instant access to information, and enable virtual geatherings in far better ways than our current Zoom meetings. Robert senior starts out not knowing how to do this (and even dismissive of it). But Miri is a marvel at it, and she is perhaps the best character in the book (though the Robert's character arc is the most important).

This is a great novel, the third straight by Vinge to win a Hugo. I read it when it was first published, and just finished rereading it. It's as thrilling and as though provoking now as it was then.