This was my first Neal Stephenson novel, but it won’t be the last. I did find the ending annoying. The book just seemed to run out of ideas and collapse into an easy lust. But it’s not hard to see some of society doing just that, when everyone (including the poor) have nanotech Matter Compilers and the Feed to draw on.
The nanotech, alone, is compelling. Some of it may even come true, though not, I suppose, in my or Mr. B.’s remaining lifetimes. I especially like Stephenson’s cities, his airships and his Vickys. The multicultural phyles make sense, if present trends continue. Hero Hackworth’s primer was more interesting, though, when Dinosaur, Duck and Purple inhabited it; less so when they were gone. But I’d still take the ride all over again, and may, one of these days.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 