TVSquad

If you're like me, you raced out to your local book merchant last Tuesday and got yourself a copy of Neal Stephenson's latest book, Anathem. Then, more than likely, you tore through it before you realized, "Crap, it's going to be another five years before there is another one." But this isn't Book Squad, so what am I on about?

You might recall a January 2007 post by Kevin about Stephenson's earlier novel, The Diamond Age, being adapted for the Sci Fi Channel. As a longtime fan, I was thrilled to hear the news. But then, months and months passed with no real updates. I make periodic runs through IMDB, the official Neal Stephenson site, Smokehouse Productions, the Sci Fi Wire, wikipedia... Nobody has any information on just what the heck is going on with the adaptation. Given the nature of TV and movies, I was starting to worry that it had all just been back burnered. Or worse, they spent all that Diamond Age cash on Painkiller Jane. Not so fast...

Sci Fi announced that George Clooney will be part of the creative team bringing the retro cyberpunk book 'The Diamond Age' to the channel. Neal Stephenson will adapt the miniseries from his novel, which I'll basically sum up as the adventures a young girl goes through as she comes into the possession of a talking "smartbook." Clooney and partner Grant Heslov will executive produce.

This is one of my favorite cyberpunk novels, and it may be blasphemy to some of you, but I like it a lot more than William Gibson's 'Neuromancer.' I'm glad Stephenson is writing this, and it'll be interesting to see what they manage to come up with. It's a fairly epic book in scope, following a girl from a very young age and stays with her as she blossoms into womanhood, so thankfully it's getting a miniseries treatment, and not "movie of the week" status.