This was the 1996 Hugo Winner. Skip the first paragraph for the meaty part.
Set in the near future (100 years or so from now), this book is set in and near Shanghai of that time. This future is replete with nanotechnology and Stephenson uses this as a playground, exploring how this would impact such things as food, security, entertainment and education.
This last is the best part of the book. The book is subtitled 'A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer' and that's just what it is. In the story a very wealthy man is concerned that his granddaughter will lead too pampered a life to grow up the right way. He is afraid that she won't learn to take risks or bounce back from failures. In short, he's afraid that she will grow to be too soft.
He asks a nano-engineer to create an interactive book that will lean heavily on Grimm's Fairy Tales and other out of fashion tales. These are intentionally darker and rougher and designed to give her something of an edge. To teach her that life is sometimes hard and one must be prepared to face those times.
The engineer has a daughter of his own and he works out a complicated scheme to create a copy of this for his her. Unfortunately his copy is stolen and ends up in the hands of a girl on the lowest rung of society. She is virtually raised by the Primer and the best parts of the book focus on her continuing life.
I don't want to give the world-building short shrift though. Stephenson creates a post-national world where people join phyles, a kind of artificial clan of sorts. The book focuses especially on the Neo-Victorians and the Confucian led Han Chinese. All fascinating stuff. Entwined here are some long passages on why some cultures work better than others. Agree or disagree, it's wildly thought provoking.
There is a weakness, and it's a large one. The end is abrupt and unsatisfying. But all in all where it succeeds it is nothing short of brilliant.
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