Triffids Beard 2 - The Bearded Triffid

eaking into the Pentagon and starting World War III. Well I should have known better -- despite its
unfortunate title the book has absolutely nothing to do with that sort of thing. Rather to my surprise it
turned out to be a beautifully written book about the early days of computing history and it told the tale
of the lives and personalities of the pioneers of the computer revolution of the 1960s and 1970s. It
evoked the atmosphere of the time brilliantly; its tone reminded me very much of Tracy Kidder's Soul of
a New Machine. I have no idea whether or not it is still in print (I got my rather battered copy from a
second hand bookshop) but if it is you should search it out. As an examination of the social and
technical history of a crucial era in the development of the modern computer I doubt if it can be beaten.
One of the joys of reading is the discovery of new words. Neal Stephenson's anfractuous new novel The
Diamond Age taught me one, and I am grateful for the lesson. A major attraction of this superb story
is its anfractuosity -- an anfractuosity which is exemplified by the machinations of John Percival
Hackworth, a nanotechnologist who is employed by Lord Finkle-McGraw to help with the upbringing of
his daughter. Hackworth creates A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, an anfractuous combination of
book, computer and theatre which is designed to introduce some subversion into the young lady's life.
But Hackworth is greedy -- he causes a second copy of the primer to be created for the sake of his own
daughter. Unfortunately it is stolen and a young girl who is unknown to the other protagonists
eventually receives it and it takes over her upbringing instead. The stories that the primer tells her (many
of which are excerpted in the book) are delightful as well as instructional.
Other characters include the mysterious (and anfractuous) Orientals Doctor X and Judge Fang. Although
the Judge has only a small role to play, he is drawn with such loving feeling (and with such loving
parallels) that I am absolutely certain that Stephenson is a fan of Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee novels. I
enjoyed this small ‘homage' very much.
The name of Hackworth is well chosen. He is a computer engineer and what he does is recognisably
hacking (as we understand it today). Stephenson delights in this sort of thing -- in an earlier novel the
protagonist was called Hiram Protagonist. It is a cute conceit. Don't let it put you off. The Diamond
Age is a superb book by anyone's measure. And it is anfractuous.
Were you bullied at school? Of course you were; and you dreamed of revenge. Probably you lay awake
at night imagining exquisite tortures that you would love to inflict on your tormentors. I think a writer
called Christopher Fowler was just like you and me, and his new novel Psychoville is that childhood
dream writ large. The first half of the story concerns young Billy March and his family moving into the
new town of Invicta Cross. Billy watches as his family is destroyed by the petty vindictiveness of their
neighbours. Surburban angst and active indifference (no that is not an oxymoron). The second half of
the book, told from a different point of view, is set ten years later as another new family moves into
Invicta Cross. Soon those old persecutors start to die in some singularly gruesome ways. There is a
delightful twist in the tail of the story which I won't spoil things by revealing. The whole book is classic
wish-fulfillment fantasy with lashings of gore. Great fun.
A couple of years ago Nancy Kress took the SF world by storm with the superb novel Beggars in
Spain. Now she is back with a wonderful and subtle sequel Beggars and Choosers and it is even
better than the first (most unusual for a sequel). There are three classes of people in the world of the
novel. The ordinary people (you and me) are supported by the efforts of the intellectually superior genemodified.
But they themselves are running scared of the almost superhuman powers of the Sleepless.
The novel tells a continuing story from all three points of view. The world is in crisis -- the
nanotechnological industries are failing as genetically engineered organisms attack their mechanisms. A
fanatical underground wreak terrorist havoc in the pursuit of vague political ambitions. Nothing changes,
does it? But the book gripped me by the scruff of the neck and wouldn't let go. This is story telling of the
highest order and the parallels with contemporary society add an extra frisson of delight. Beggars and
Choosers has been nominated for a Hugo and I hope it wins. If I was eligible to vote, I would certainly
vote for this one.
A most uninteresting book is Protektor by Charles Platt. Let's clear the air -- it has nothing whatsoever
to do with the similarly named characters from the novels of Larry Niven. No -- a Protektor in the world
of Charles Platt is a sort of high tech trouble shooter who keeps the technological world turning by