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She certainly intelligent, but I don't know where some of you are getting the idea that she's some sort of ultimate immortal. I think the biggest difference between her capabilities and her older siblings is that the siblings had to break through artificial barriers. They were born into a world that told them building was extremely hard and they were mere peasants. Taman didn't have those blocks on her mind. From her perspective, she's a noble and has few social limitations. She's also had her world renowned brother encouraging her and reinforcing the idea that ANYONE can build and that she is more capable than most.

Those are not small things.

Think of our education system today. We, as a society, tell kids that some things are really hard (math, science, engineering, languages, etc) and privileged kids get the best schools that minimize such mental blocks. If you tell someone something can't be done enough times, they'll brainwash themselves into not even trying.

While Taman is highly intelligent, that's not going to be her strength. If you examine the things she has created, they're practical and meant for the working man. Her strengths will be practicality and compassion.

Very insightful, Ryan. Also in the story line, Tor was able to give a "bump" to people by encouraging them. Sort of a command line ORDER to do more, faster. It probably worked with his sister, too.

taman is smart, smarter than all the rest according to tim, tor, and tiera. I see her as the one to see thru all the distractions and able to see what the right thing for each occasion. Such as the gift for Heather. Perfect for the occasion in every way. Terry is the book or books that I'm really looking forward to. Maybe we can find out what happened to the "Lost Ones".

I just checked the Mensa website and they list 268 as the highest IQ known. The author Marilyn Van Sant (sp) is the holder of this record.

the ability to build came after tim and tiera both said she was the smartest. her enviroment will sure help her achieve her best. The ability to see the wisdom in any situation is a great sign of how smart she is. Merry xmas to all

Updating this thread, we learn quite a bit more about her in Second Cycle. She's probably in the top 10 builders, but that doesn't necessarily mean she's book smart. As best I can tell, ability there relies mostly on the abstract, and the ability to focus. Her builds tend to lean more toward humanitarian efforts from what I've seen, and I think she's considered the most compassionate of the natural born Baker immortals (Tor, Tiera, Timon, and herself)

NB: Of course, these are just my thoughts from reading the series, so I could be way off the mark. Still, testing Taman in regular school subjects is probably an unfair assessment of her abilities in life.

She did make the first AI, and made Timon's food device look childish in comparison.

I think to really understand, she needs her own book. Intelligence is hard to quantify, plus, all we've ever seen is her through others eyes, since Dale writes in third limited were stuck interpreting several other people's perceptions. Which may be limited, or outright incorrect.

Kind of the way Timon, Tor, and Tierra all have skewed opinions of each other. It's common in his writing, and more prevalent in YA than his other series.