This sci-fi epic was recommended by a former colleague on LinkedIn. I hadn’t read anything by this author, so I bought a tatty copy on World of Books.
The book explores a vision of a future where technology has jumped forwards to a time when Matter Compilers can construct anything you want, with control over arrangements of individual atoms. It is a dystopian future though, because whilst Feeds are available to households (and accompanying destructors to harvest atoms for re-use), there are still high levels of domestic abuse and crime.
The story follows inter-connected paths of Hackworth (a brilliant engineer who invents The Young Lady’s Primer, an interactive book which teaches and influences the reader) and Nell (a poor girl from a rough domestic situation who by chance receives a copy). Miranda (an actor), Harv (Nell’s brother), Dr X (a black market entrepreneur) are all strong characters, but are discarded abruptly as soon as the plot allows.
Whilst a fine book, full of imagination and vivid imagery, I found the first 100+ pages very dense, full of (unnecessary?) scientific jargon and nearly gave up on it. The middle section was an improvement, but I felt very disappointed at the end, which felt hurried and somewhat incomplete. If the author was in the final stages, with another 2 or 3 chapters to go when they were told they had to keep the book under 500 pages and had only another 2 days to go before printing, I would not be surprised.
⭐⭐⭐
musingstudio 