Rainbows End

How it reads

Rainbows End is science fiction (near-future science fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is adventurous. It's driven by momentum, discovery and getting into trouble. The pace is moderate — neither a page-turner nor a slow burn — so it holds up whether you read it in long sittings or short ones.

It's set in a big city setting, in the future, told in the third person across several viewpoints. Its central concerns are identity, power and politics and class and society. In weight it sits in the middle: substantial without being heavy going.

It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending resolves happily. At 381 pages it's an ordinary novel's length. It's well known, the kind of book most keen readers have heard of.