Via Dispatches From Tjicistan, I see the welcome (and old) news that George Clooney is working with the Sci-Fi Channel on a miniseries version of Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age.

The news is so old that the deal has probably already gone from green light to red.  But there's still hope, and Clooney, tool that he is, is a gifted actor who would be perfect for one part in particular.  If it never happens, I blame Sci Fi.

That said, while Cryptonomicon is my favorite Stephenson work, I'm weird.  I love Tim Powers and Robert Anton Wilson, both of whom are as sci-fi as Cryptonomicon, meaning not very.  They're sci-fi mixed with John LeCarre mixed with a thousand nameless conspiracy theory authors.  As pure, hard sci-fi goes, The Diamond Age is f'ing brilliant and ranks, for me, with William Gibson's Neuromancer, Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, and John Scalzi's Old Man's War as the among best science fiction novels written since John Brunner's Stand On Zanzibar.

Which as any fool knows, is the best science fiction novel ever written.

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