A study in contrasts between rural southern England and industrial northern England. The protagonist is the daughter of a parson whose religious doubts have forced him to resign his Hampshire living and to move his family to an industrial manufacturing town in Darkshire.
Eric S. Raymond is an observer-participant anthropologist in the Internet hacker culture. His research has helped explain the decentralized open-source model of software development that has proven so effective in the evolution of the Internet. Mr. Raymond is also a science fiction fan, a musician, an activist for the First and Second Amendments, and a martial artist with a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.