Sci-fi, 7/10 – January 2009
I suffer from hayfever and it often turns beautiful summer days toxic because of the little flakes of pollen that float through the air like poison. The big theme of this book is nano-technology and I love how the book describes the impact both big and small to humans. The idea of each house having it’s own MC (matter compiler) capable of creating food, clothes, and all sorts of other things is brilliant to think about. The danger of nano-tech is equally well demonstrated, hence the hayfever reference.
I liked the idea that because the world was so advanced, some parts of society had balanced things out by embracing Victorian ways and putting a high value on hand-made things.
I didn’t like that it all got a bit weird towards the end with the drummer tribe and the army of twelve year olds and how influential “the young ladies illustrated primer” seemed to become.
