BKDAYLIP.RVW   970425

"The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer", Neal Stephenson, 1995,
0-553-57331-4, U$5.99/C$7.99
%A   Neal Stephenson
%C   1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
%D   1995
%G   0-553-57331-4
%I   Bantam Books/Doubleday/Dell
%O   U$5.99/C$7.99 212-765-6500 http://www.bdd.com
%P   499
%T   "The Diamond Age: or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer"

As he did for programming and networking with "Snow Crash" (cf. BKSNCRSH.RVW),
so Stephenson now does for nanotechnology.  Again, this book is no "gee whiz"
vision of limitless productivity, but a realistic review of power dissipation
problems, engineering requirements, survivability, nanotech arms races,
pollution, and the relative value of matter versus information.  Some aspects
are not addressed; overall power requirements, infrastructure provision, and so
forth; but this is, after all, a story rather than a tutorial.  Still, the
conflict of the Seed versus the Source is passed over rather lightly.

Computer types need not fear that they are left out of the book entirely. 
Students of the basics of computing will recognize a great many of the features
of Castle Turing, and there are very interesting discussions of serial as
opposed to parallel processing (some recalling Fred Cohen's viral computing
environment) and packet networks.

Stephenson is a storyteller par excellence.  The book is enthralling, and the
author has the special ability to present an almost completely alien world and
society, without requiring the reader to take a language course first.  These
characters are exotic, but sympathetic.

I must admit that I miss the rather burlesque scenes of comedy that formed
parts of "Snow Crash" and, to a lesser extent, "Interface" (cf. BKNTRFAC.RVW). 
True, these vignettes were somewhat disjointed from the central plot, but not
jarringly so, and Stephenson did a fine job with them.

Once again, a fine and technically educated book.  A great read that doesn't
insult the knowledgeable reader.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKDAYLIP.RVW   970425