Book Smarts

After lagging back a little while, I powered through two books in a short period of time. This review is the first of those. This was another break from the 700+ pages of what I now think is 8.5 point font. I finally read The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson. Previously I have reviewed Cryptonomicon, and before I started doing reviews I had read Snow Crash at the behest of a friend. Before starting this one I had liked Stephenson’s books and had high hopes for this one. In fact this book was recommended by the same friend, but it took me to this point to get around to reading it. I’ll probably ramble on about it in my own way.

This book takes place decades into a future where the promises of nanotechnology have been achieved. The novel explores what society becomes when virtually anything is possible. Buildings are grown by a feed run into a foundation. Diamond has replaced glass in windows, because it’s cheaper. The very air is filled with microscopic machines performing duties and waging wars at their masters’ biddings. Governments fell apart after truly secure money transfers made effective taxation impossible. They were replaced by a global economic protocol and groups of people that have formed societal clans. These clans maintain claves (enclaves) in various parts of the world where they live and guard their interests.

Now I’m torn because I want to talk about the book, but I don’t want to give too much away. Well I’ll see what happens.

The fulcrum of this novel is one John Percival Hackworth (Percival was the grail knight). He is an artifex, a master of nanotechnological design. In fact I would venture to say he is as much artist as engineer. Yes I know I am a little biased for engineering elegance being artistic. John belongs to the powerful clan of neo-Victorians. After the collapse of 20^th century western society this clan eventually came to power by embracing Victorian ethics and codes of conduct. The clan tends to churn members a bit. Those that join the clan after a hard life outside tend to become the clan’s strongest members. Those born into the clan tend to be lackluster in achievements. To combat this trend in his own granddaughter, a duke commissions Hackworth to create A Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer. The “book” if you can call it that is a sophisticated interactive computer system that is designed to give a girl all the tools necessary and to teach her to take chances and become great. Hackworth, in probably one of his only criminal moments, steals a copy of the book for his daughter only to have it stolen and fall into the hands of Nell.

Nell, not sure if it ever says her last name aside from saying her brother’s, is a poor little “thete,” poor with no clan affiliation, girl. She cannot read, her mother seems to have little care for her, and her brother Harv acts as her protector and teacher, until Harv brings her the Primer. Nell has had a hard life for a 5-6 year old and the Primer begins her education. What happens then is a wild ride following the lives of several people and Nell as the fruits of Hackworth’s brilliant mind accidentally, purposefully, and subconsciously weaves a tapestry of events into being.

I quite enjoyed this book. It captured me like the other of Stephenson’s books and made me want to read it faster. The characters, the environment, and the politics of the time all mesh well together. Stephenson does a good job of creating the fantastical from the technical. It does a good job of explaining how experience and education create most of who we are as individuals. The 3 initial Primers each do something different for the girl to which they are given. The 100,000+ given to the castoffs do something different, but similar. In all it makes you wonder if Hackworth had any idea exactly what he was creating. Stephenson also continues to do some strange things with sex and descriptions that tend to throw me out of the world he has created. It’s probably more me than anything else. At least none of it seemed that unnecessarily descriptive, unlike a couple of scenes in Cryptonomicon. In all it is quite a satisfying read. I recommend it to anyone that likes similar types of books.