An interesting story about Nell, a little girl, who comes into possession of the Primer.

This Primer becomes her teacher, guardian and solace: her parent. What does she do with her knowledge and martial arts?

How does the Primer affect other young girls? Can children be taught by a technological marvel or does a human element have to be present?

I particularly enjoyed his vision of how humans divided themselves into phyles. Phyles consist of people who have similar beliefs and social tendencies. People move through different phyles as their ideals change throughout their lives. Is this so different to the present day?

The story goes well until the end, which felt a little rushed. I think Stephenson does better when given the length his stories require: more along the 1000 page mark.