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Written by Neal Stephenson - Audio book narrated by Jennifer Wiltsie - Abridged Fiction - 4 CASSETTES - 6 hours

Publisher, Time Warner Audiobooks (August 2001)

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Decades into our future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken a strict moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. Unfortunately, the book has fallen into the wrong hands. Now Hackworth must begin an odyssey of his own. Expelled from the neo-Victorian paradise, he seeks out the elusive figure known as the Alchemist. His quest ultimately leads him to another seeker whose fate is bound up with the primer—a woman who holds the key to a vast, subversive information network that is destined to reprogram the future of humanity.

About the Author: Neal Stephenson comes from a family of scientists and professors, with his own background in physics and geography. He has published seven novels and has written for magazines such as Wired and Time. He devotes his time to writing, parenting, and of course, computers.