If you’re a geek, especially one interested in what I’ve started to call scientific fiction, then this is for you.  Neal Stephenson’s last work, a trilogy about slavery and the effect of the scientific community on it during the Age of Reason was astounding.  In the Cryptonomicon he really managed to bring about the concepts of cryptography from the point of view of someone surviving World War II.  In the U, he drilled down on the whole idea of a massive University and how ludicrous they had become (reminding me of my dorms at UGA along the way).  But in this title he goes back even further and looks more…