Thomcat
7/6/2024
Neal Stephenson's speculation on the future won the Locus and Hugo, and inspired many more recent science fiction by Ernest Cline and Paolo Bacigalupi. I first read it in late 90s, and on this reread I noticed things I hadn't before.
This is at least 100 years in the future, and nation states (at least in the northern hemisphere) have broken down. His ideas on the matter compiler (MC) and feed are an evolution of the 3d printers and extruders that we have today - technology which barely existed in the 90s. I really like the idea of the terrorists burning the raw feed, not unlike burning a petro pipeline would be today. Many authors have written about nanotech, and Stephenson extends that with metaphors like viruses and immune systems. One thing I barely noticed before was CryptNet, a shadowy group designed to crack cryptographic codes in an unorthodox way.
This is a book I have recalled often in the last 25 years, and I'm glad I reread it. I'd misplaced some of the flaws, and I'm a little sad that I am now reminded of how dense the information is - very visible in the reading rate on the ebook. Snowcrash worked much better on reread, and I expect his later works (e.g. Anathem) will also.
If I were to name favorite authors, Stephenson would be among them. This book is really good, but falls short of amazing.