From: mike99 (mike99@lascruces.com)
Date: Sun May 14 2006 - 21:07:18 MDT
Vernor Vinge's newest novel RAINBOW'S END is not set in the far-future
universe of his last two novels (A FIRE UPON THE DEEP and A DEEPNESS IN THE
SKY) but in the near future mere decades from now. Below is the "Author's
Note" that Vinge wrote for the latest Science Fiction Book Club newsletter,
where RAINBOW'S END is the featured selection.
Regards,
Michael LaTorra
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"My last two novels took place in interstellar space, thousand of years in
the future. I intend to revisit those worlds, but in RAINBOW'S END I'm back
close to home both in space (San Diego county, where I've lived for most of
my adult life) and time (less than 20 years from now).
"As an author, I'm nervous writing about this period: fiction set in the
near future is very likely to be scooped or surpassed by what is **already**
happening. (We science fiction writers have much more wiggle room than when
we spin interstellar adventures.)
"As a member of the human race, I'm very nervous **living** in this period!
There are social, technological, military, disease, and climatic threats
that together make us wonder if the human race can survive.
"If we do survive, I think we'll get that Technological Singularity. In the
meantime, this narrow passage in human history is as scary and desperate as
any melodrama. Of course, that's also the great virtue in near-future
science fiction. I set RAINBOW'S END with something like an ordinary family;
much of their world looks like ours, but with a weirdness that I hope shows
how we might survive." -- Vernor Vinge
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