What is it that makes a person like one book and dislike a similar one? That imponderable arose when I read Vernor Vinge's Rainbows End.

I recently praised how Charlie Stross explored the Singularity in Glasshouse. Well, Vernor Vinge is not only credited with popularizing the concept, it has been a common theme in his science fiction. That holds true for Rainbows End, although it actually focuses on a transition period between today and the Singularity. Yet while I liked Glasshouse's exploration of a potential post-Singularity universe, I can't really say the same for Vinge's look at a potential route there.

Robert Gu is a focal point of most of the plotlines in Rainbows End, set in 2025. Gu is 75 and suffered from Alzheimer's. He is among those with a form of the disease for which a "cure" exists. Moreover, he is lucky enough that his other physical ailments are also treatable, leaving him not only looking far younger but with much younger physical abilities. As he recovers, he lives with his son's family in San Diego. But despite regaining his faculties, Gu, a world-renowned poet, seems to have lost his muse.

And Gu is regaining his senses in an entirely different world. Virtually everyone "wears" — their clothes are filled with microprocessors and software that gives them high bandwidth connections to the digital information stream, information they view with the contacts in their eyes serving as the video display. People can tailor how and from what perspective they see things and even send digital versions of themselves to other parts of the globe to meet and interact with others or simply observe.

Yet this doesn't mean the world is a utopia. Chicago was destroyed in a war and the world has survived a bioterror plague. Security and military services throughout the world — of which both Gu's son and daughter-in-law are members — focus on trying to prevent the next "Great Terror," be it state-sponsored or terrorist. The same cameras that make different viewpoints available to everyone also means surveillance is ubiquitous. And every computer chip has something built in by the security services. All this sets the scene for Vinge to pursue a variety of plotlines.

One of his main themes is the generational impact of technological change. Much like today, youngsters like Gu's 13-year-old granddaughter, Miri, are particularly adept with wearables and using and manipulating digital data because they grew up doing so. Their parents' generation knows how to use the equipment, although they may not always be quite as proficient or innovative. Finally, Gu's generation struggles just to adapt. He, like others, is sent to school for remedial courses in how to interface with, act, and interact in this digital data world.