This might be the best sci-fi book out there about nanotechnology. But Stephenson has so many good ones that this one isn't his best book - some of the characters lose their way, and it drags in the middle.
Oh, and one more good recommendation we forgot while we were recording - check out Blood Music by Greg Bear if you want a biological twist on nanotech!
As always, no spoilers until the end when we get into the full plot explanation and discussion.
Similar books we recommend:
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
- Cory Doctorow
- Prey by Michael Crichton
This episode is sponsored by Har Megiddon by Ron Bennett.
If you want to jump around, here are the timestamps for the episode:
- 00:00 Intro
- 00:47 Book setup
- 1:49 Sponsor - Har Megiddon
- 2:22 Our review 3.25/5
- 3:53 Great sections - and stinkers
- 4:47 Incredible technology
- 7:33 Hard to visualize?
- 9:38 Dances with Wolves
- 10:17 Labor saving devices
- 13:59 Neal's infodumps
- 19:25 Book structure
- 25:47 Sponsor - Har Megiddon
- 26:08 Similar books we recommend
- 28:40 Spoilers section - book summary
- 31:30 Spoilers section - discussion
