About the book: 2003 / John Hackworth, a nanotechnology engineer, steals a copy of the "Illustrated Primer for Noble Maidens" for his daughter Fiona. Primer, on in fact, a supercomputer built on nanotechnology, and intended to educate the daughter of Lord Finkel-McGraw in the Neo-Victorian society of the future. But Hackworth loses the Primer before he can give it to Fiona. And now the “book” falls into the hands of Nell, a girl from a poor family, whose life then changes irrevocably, like the fate of all humanity... (The novel received a Hugo Award in 1996)