For 12 years now, Neal Stephenson has been my favorite writer. But for some reason I don't think I've ever looked forward to reading one of his books. I first read The Diamond Age as a class requirement in university. I still remember being skeptical about the cover and blurb, but then everything about it completely drew me in- the nanotech, the Chinese setting, the neo-Victorians and even the way it was written with the Victorian chapter headings ("Bud is prosecuted; noteworthy features of the Confucian judicial system; he receives an invitation to take a long walk on a short pier"). I loved it and read it several times. Then a room-mate had Snow Crash and I read it, even though it didn't sound anywhere near as good as The Diamond Age. But of course it kicked ass, right from the first scene with the Deliverator.
Then Crytponomicon came out and I was a little worried that the emphasis on code-breaking would be a little uninteresting to me. And no science fictional elements at all! Even then-roomie gabrielle was convinced I should just give up on it after watching me work on it for a month. But it was great. Imagine my dismay when I found out his next project was going to be a gigantic three volume historical epic entitled The Baroque Cycle! But but . . . I want more nanotech!
So I bought the books, all three of them as they came out. And they sat there on my shelf for several years staring balefully down at me with their weighty historical fictionness. I read one of his earlier works instead- Zodiac. I was sure that book wasn't going to be very good but of course it was great. It even features a two umlaut fictional 80s hair metal band! So I finally decided to tackle The Baroque Cycle, if only to clear them off my pile of books I needed to read. And was there ever a more genius and hilarious and interesting book about calculus and economics ever written? The answer is no, my friends. No.
So you would think I'd have learned my lesson when Anathem came out. I sort of did- I asked for and received the book for Christmas last year. But the premise didn't totally excite me- I vaguely knew it was about monks who did math instead of theology and weren't allowed to have cellphones. On some other planet or something? It's a huge book so I wanted to leave it till I had some time- for example, this 28 day vacation I am currently on.
Well, you see where this is going. I read it this past week, and loved it times a million. It's a shame it didn't win the Hugo, even Neil Gaiman who won it thought so, but oh well.
I can't wait till his next book comes out! I might even read it without complaining.

Fanart Friday: The Diamond Age

So I just reread Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age for the fourth time. One of my favorite books of all time. This time around I read it because it was my pick for our book club. Yeah, I'm in a book club with some of my wife's friends. First we read The Garneau Block by local writer Todd Babiak ('twas good, but alas there exists no Garneau Block fan art in the entire universe that I am aware of) and then it was my turn to pick a science fiction book. Hopefully they like it- Michelle read it but I think she wasn't thrilled in the same way as I was. Oh well. Anyways, there isn't a whole lot of Diamond Age fan art out there either- I'm cheating a little and including the above professional painting for the French translation, depicting Nell astride a Chevaline.
From Ariokh's beautiful painting of Hackworth and his Chevaline Kidnapper you could be forgiven if you thought the book was steampunk, but in fact it is a nanotech book with a Victorian framework set in China. It concerns a young girl named Nell who finds a copy of the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, an interactive book designed to encourage subversiveness. Nell is rendered here by Pyroiguana. The Primer provides Nell within its world with Night Friends who teach her the skills she needs to survive and prosper- in real life they are her stuffed animals. Megolas gives possibly the only extant picture of the Night Friends.


And that's about it for Diamond Age fan art! As a special bonus you can return to Ariokh's gallery for a cool portrait of Raven from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

"Hackworth had made efforts to learn a few Chinese characters, and to aquaint himself with some basics of their intellectual system, but in general, he liked his transcendence out in plain sight where he could keep an eye on it- say, in a nice stained-glass window- not woven through the fabric of life like gold threads through a brocade."
-from The Diamond Age

Neal Stephenson is such a good writer, and reading this book again, this time with considerably more knowledge about Chinese history and culture, is helping me gain that much more of an appoociation for his craft. Here's another one:

"Judge Fang had recently been plagued with doubts as to whether his life made any sense at all within the context of the Coastal Republic, a nation almost completely devoid of virtue.
If the Coastal Republic had believed in the existence of virtue, it could at least have aspired to hypocrisy."