Customer Reviews

The Diamond Age

5 star:		(208)
4 star:		(101)
3 star:		(37)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson was one of the most insightful an original books I've read in a long time. After a brief absence from the world of science fiction, I picked this book up, almost entirely because of my love for his earlier novel, Snow Crash. In Snow Crash, Stephenson gave us a view of a future not all that far away. The technology of the Diamond Age takes us into the very distant future.

On the Earth of the Diamond Age, mankind has developed and perfected the concept of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is based around the concept of using microscopic computers to allow people to literally make anything possible. Often times, the tricky part of designing an object is making it heavier than air so it won't float away. Matter compilers can create any object with the proper program, and a pair of wooden chopsticks has flashing advertisements running up and down their sides. As backlash to this technological heaven, the elite members of society borrow their culture from the British during the Victorian era. These Victorians -or Vicky's, as some derogatorily refer to them- place value in items that are hand made, and pay exorbitant amounts of money for such items.

This novel varies from many typical science fiction novels, in that its focus is not on the technology or the rich, but rather on a single girl from a dysfunctional family in one of the poorest parts of the world. Nell, comes across one of three copies of the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a book of sorts intended to educate a young girl. This book, while itself not a technological marvel, displays a true ingenuity in its content, as any good book. Through the use of this book, Nell is taught the lessons that one misses in school, the lessons that truly allow one to become successful in life. Through the characters and the primer, the reader gets many insights on what makes a person special.

Reading through other people's reviews of this novel, I see that I am not unanimously supported in my opinion of this novel. Many people cited its length and lengthy description as the book's downfalls. I can understand these comments, although in all honesty, to eliminate the details would eliminate any science fiction this book had and reduce it to merely a trashy sci-fi pulp novel. Clearly, Stephensons' goal is to accomplish far more than a simple adventure. In my eyes at least, the best of science fiction is to envision brave new worlds and use the different setting to critique our own society. Those who want a book they don't have to think about, will not enjoy this book. For them, there are summer movies and Dean Koontz.

One person felt the characters were dull and two-dimensional, which I found to be an entirely bogus comment. Each character is full of his or her own quirks and agendas. From the exceptionally rich Victorian technology tycoon to the Neil's thug-like yet compassionate older brother, the characters all manage to be completely original and completely realistic. Most importantly, each character inspires a bit of emotion in the reader. One is disgusted with Neil's mother and sympathetic for Nell. So, while some readers found the characters to be a fault, I found them to help draw the readers into the novel and provide the reader a familiar point so they don't get lost in the futuristic world. After all, unlike technology and trends, people for the most part do not change.

In his first novel, Snow Crash, Stephenson proved that he is perfectly capable of crafting an exciting adventure story. However, Snow Crash had nowhere near the insight or vision that he achieves in the Diamond Age. In the Diamond Age, Stephenson holds nothing back, and refuses to dumb down his book to make it an easy read. It is definitely difficult for anyone not into pure science fiction. However, anyone who makes it through the book, will find an entirely elaborate world and many insights to our own world, ranging from critiques of modern education to the depressing lack of subversiveness in our culture. Those that enjoy the true science fiction genre, will find this book to be nothing short of brilliant.

For months now I have been slogging through volumes of mediocre science fiction/fantasy, watching and waiting for that one, elusive, world class work. This is it. While the plot revealed itself slowly through the first half of this book, it remained engaging, and by the time I roared to the finish I was actively grieving the completion of the "read". "More! More!", I was screaming. This incredibly entertaining, future view of the world with competing phyles and nanotech warriors so abundent that they swirl through the air like pollen has placed this book near the very top of my all-time best books list. And for all the techno-babble and cyber-backdrop, what most carried the book forward was that Stephenson brilliantly developed the main characters. I really cared what happened to Nell, Miranda, Hackworth, etc. Their victories were my victories, their failures saddened me. Take "Snow Crash" and give it more depth, refinement, meaning, and maturity. Then you'll have this satisfying book in your hands. Tim Powers, move over, Neal Stephenson has just become my favorite author!

I've just finished reading the previous 178 reviews, and have to agree with the main themes:

1) The ending is abrupt and leaves major storylines unresolved.

2) The book is not light reading. It reminds me of the old Far Side cartoons which were hilarious to some but incomprehensible to others.

3) The peek at a possible future is excellent, especially the use of nanotechnology.

Most of the reviews speak of the "Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" as a book that teaches a girl how to survive on the streets and to be an independent thinker. What they don't mention, and what I think is vital, is that one of the main themes in the design of the book was "subversion". The book was meant to guide a young girl on her path to becoming a free-thinking and subversive woman. Such a person would inevitably become a force, either positive or negative, in the book's rigid society.

Having read 3 of Mr. Stephenson's books (Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash, and Diamond Age), I must agree that each one has a somewhat abrupt ending -- although Diamond Age seems to be the worst. In general, Mr. Stephenson tends to leave storylines open and let the reader's imagination take over. While this is a valid literary style, it quickly gets annoying.

While Diamond Age may not have been a straight cyberpunk novel, the environment is certainly similar to what you see in William Gibson's Neuromancer. In essence, future society has broken down into "tribes" with a significant barrier dividing the upper and lower classes. The story contains quite a bit of the Oriental class (caste?) system that you see in cyberpunk, and it also adds a Victorian class system that isn't much different.

I noticed that a significant number of reviewers were upset because Diamond Age wasn't as "good" as Snow Crash. I agree. This book is NOT another Snow Crash, nor is it a Cryptonomicon, and I enjoyed both of those books more than I enjoyed this one. That is not, however, a reason to give the book a bad review.

In general, I enjoyed this book but did not keep it after I finished reading it.

I picked up "The Diamond Age" with a glee so intense that it borders on embarassing. Like most of the other reviewers, I loved "Snow Crash." I assumed... no, I HOPED that I'd love "The Diamond Age" as much, but unfortunately that didn't happen. It started off promising, with an interesting concept, likable characters, and that unparalleled Stephenson sense of style. But those qualities didn't gel into a cohesive story for me, and I have to admit that it was disappointing.

The story itself is intriguing. The main focus is on Nell, a little girl in possession of an interactive Primer that not only teaches her but also nurtures her in the absence of parents or loved ones. But really, it's an ensemble tale (it's no accident that a reviewer compares Stephenson to Quentin Tarantino, who creates incredibly complex ensemble films). It's also about Miranda, who provides the nurturing quality in the Primer. It's about Elizabeth, who has a Primer of her own. It's about Harv, Nell's brother. It's about the society they live in. Ultimately, this is where the book falls short of the high standards set in "Snow Crash."

After all, "Snow Crash" has a similar format, a number of subplots all converging in the end to reach a final, stunning (perhaps too stunning) conclusion. What's the difference between them? I cared about all of the subplots in "Snow Crash" and all of the characters in them. I was as wrapped up in them as I was in Hiro Protagonist, the focal point of the book. I didn't feel the same way with "Diamond Age." I cared about Nell, yes, but the other characters were secondary to her. I really didn't care about what happened to them. Unfortunately, we spend a lot of time learning about them; they're central to the plot. They end up acting as plot devices to get the story where it needs to be rather than fully developed characters that we can sink our teeth into.

Do I recommend that you read this book? I can't say that I hated it. I was interested enough to get to the end, but I finished the last page with a feeling of disappointment. The best thing it did for me is made me understand why "Snow Crash" is so terrific. If you're a Stephenson fan, I'd say go for it. If you've never read him before, start with "Snow Crash."

Stephenson has undoubtedly created one of the most intricately designed futureworlds imagined during the last decade, and the plot and characters of "The Diamond Age" are equally complex. The first forty pages work as a preface of sorts: even though the main character, a petty criminal named Bud, quickly bites the dust, his story sets the scene, introduces elaborate technological advances (nanotech viruses, surgically implanted weapons, and fully--and I mean fully--interactive media), and posits a nightmarish tribal society divided into such "claves" as the Vickys (or neo-Victorians), Parsis, and Hindustanis.

After Bud's trial and gruesome execution, the focus shifts to his daughter Nell. Lord Finkle-McGraw hires John Percival Hackworth, a pseudo-intelligence (A.I.) engineer, to create an interactive primer that will not only teach Finkle-McGraw's granddaugher useful lessons but keep her removed from the "degeneracy" of society by making her life "interesting" and "subversive." Finkle-McGraw has chosen his engineer all too well, however, and Hackworth performs his own act of subversion: making a duplicate of this book for his own daughter, Fiona. His crime fails when he is mugged and the book falls into Nell's unwary hands by way of her brother Harv, a street tough.

The rest of the story intertwines these female-male, daughter-patron strands from three different levels of society: impoverished Nell and Harv (and, later, Constable Moore, a Dickensian father-figure), middle-class Fiona and Hackworth, privileged Elizabeth and Finkle-McGraw, along with an ingenious assortment of supporting characters. There's Judge Fang, a strict by-the-book disciplinarian whose Confucianism allows him a soft spot for the care of children (including Nell); Miranda, the mothering "ractor" who provides the human voice behind Nell's interactive primer; and Dr. X, an underworld baron whose real allegiances are rarely clear even to his allies (or to the reader). The political and social intrigues greatly enliven Stephenson's philosophical ruminations, and there's too much going on to summarize in any meaningful way.

Still, in spite of everything it has going for it, "The Diamond Age" has its flaws. I enjoyed the first half of the book immensely--it reads almost like a political thriller--but "Part the Second" falters. Things take a bizarre turn when Hackworth is ensnared by the "Drummers," a communalistic underwater tribe that exchanges digital information by collective sexual osmosis. At this point, for my tastes, things get a little too New Age "touchy-feely" (excuse the double entendre), and the book never entirely recovers.

Other readers have noted that the finale is confusing, open-ended, and rushed. (And here I will be careful not to give anything away.) My initial confusion dissipated after I reread the last fifty pages, and the intended ambiguity didn't bother me since I don't mind certain things left to my imagination. Yet it's true that everything is too hastily wrapped up. There are several problems: first, Stephenson is unable to describe adequately a climactic confrontation involving armies consisting of hundreds of thousands of individuals; the mere dozen or so pages he devotes to this war resemble the confusion of a street brawl rather than the chaos of all-out battle. Second, even as he's trying to describe the battle, he's introducing new characters (such as Colonel Spence) right up to the penultimate chapter.

Third, and most seriously, although one of the strengths of the first half of the book is its character development, Stephenson pretty much abandons his protagonists and nearly all the supporting roles. Actors enter and leave the stage without rhyme or reason (Judge Fang, so fully developed early in the book, doesn't even appear in the second part). In the end, even Nell, Hackworth, and Miranda become little more than political symbols or plot devices. Adding to this impression: the last pivotal twenty pages are related from the point of view of a heretofore minor character, a strategy that only diminishes the book's emotional impact.

Those who expect their books to have satisfying endings, then, might well come away disappointed. I suspect, however, that if you read "The Diamond Age" knowing that the finale isn't entirely fulfilling, then you'll be able to sit back and enjoy the ingenious ride that makes up most of the book.

In the genre of literature that is well over a decade into its Renaissance, this is an important book among important books -- an importance that by definition will not confined to the boundaries of the science fiction world. With The Diamond Age, Or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a remarkably mature Neal Stephenson offers us a vision of our own future, one all too recognizable and believable. Technology and culture collide, race ceases to matter as a means of predicting (or affecting) human behavior, nanotechnology redefines the word "make," while reshaping our daily lives, and the world's peoples, no longer able to distinguish each other by skin color, group themselves into phyles based on shared cultural and moral values, historical tradition, and dress. It's an around-the-corner mid-twenty-first century greater Shanghai. A young thete girl named Nell is destined to become one of the shapers of an even newer, wondrous future when a fantastically sophisticated "primer," a powerful computer in the shape of a book designed to educate young Victorian ladies -- as well as encourage subversion -- unintentionally falls into her hands. The Primer was designed by nanotech engineer John Hackworth (Stephenson's penchant for a nom de pun for his protagonist is slaked once again), an intuitive genius unaware of the extent of his own talents. Nell's life, and the entire world, will never be the same. A hauntingly beautiful book, The Diamond Age exhibits a respectable understanding of Chinese culture, demonstrates in a most original fashion the indispensablity of an ever-present mother in raising a psychologically healthy child (as well as the crucial importance of psychologically healthy children to the future of mankind), and provides insight into questions of law and justice in cultural as well as advanced technological contexts. All of these themes are cradled within a masterfully woven plot, elevated by a brilliant, yet subtle sense of humor. Trascending the argument about how much books like William Gibson's Neuromancer and Nancy Kress' Beggars in Spain either predicted or shaped the near-future they described, The Diamond Age not only shows us, but prepares us for what is in store. Fans of Stephenson's previous novel, Snow Crash, will be both shocked and delighted. A must-read for sci-fi lovers, newcomers to the genre, and armchair social/moral theorists

I am positive that this book is a masterwork of science fiction that readers have come to expect from Stephenson, but I must submit this one star review in the hope that the Kindle version of the book gets some desperately needed attention from an editor. There are so many typographical errors in this book that, having read roughly halfway through, I have gotten fed up to the point of having put my Kindle down mid-sentence on more than one occasion. These are mostly scanning errors - the words "man," "men" and "mat" appear so often in the place of "than," "then" and "that," that I have begun to make the corrections automatically as I read. Is it really so much to ask that someone go through and bring this product to the level that one would expect from a printed book? Sorry I couldn't review this book for its obvious merits as a great work of storytelling, but I just can't get over how horrible it is to read this unfinished garbage on the Kindle.

This novel is one of the most outstandingly original works of science fiction that I have had the good fortune to read. Stephenson's futurescape, while not entirely believable (what Sci Fi future can make that claim, anyway?) is fresh and richly described.

Most enjoyable about this book is Stephenson's stark contrast of his setting - a completely technologically dependent future - with the predominant cultures he presents. His depiction of the struggles and compromises between this future and the antiquated Victorian (newly revived) and Mandarin (staunchly preserved) cultures is, to my mind, the highlight of the book.

Like many of the other reviewers, my interest in Science Fiction was revived by The Diamond Age. The strains of fantasy in the form of the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer as well as the characteristic feature technology (nanotech) appealed to my Inner Geek while the sociological and philosophical aspects spoke to the Intellectual Adult Reader in me.

The Diamond Age is highly engaging thought-fuel. I recommend it to anyone who loves or once loved Science Fiction.

In the near future, widespread deployment of full-strength encryption has eliminated the government's ability to tax--and governments have ceased to exist. Instead, affiliations have sprung up--along racial, philosophical, and interest-based lines. The 'Feed' provides a subsistance living for everyone, but strong rights-management puts a premium on those who can imagine and create new things. As a reaction to the permissive ways of the 20th century, new Victorianism rules over much of the western world--and a reborn Middle Kingdom controls China.

When a neo-Victorian Equity Lord hires John Hackwood to create something unique for his granddaughter--something that will challenge her despite the stuffy environment her parents insist upon, Hackwood decides on a hack--he'll make an unauthorized copy for his own daughter, letting her have the same opportunities normally only available to one of society's elite. But his duplicate, the YOUNG LADY'S ILLUSTRATED PRIMER, falls into the hands of an impoverished girl--Nell.

The YOUNG LADY'S ILLUSTRATED PRIMER is a book, but advanced nanotechnology means that the book can talk, can interact and create new stories to meet the reader's need, can defend itself, can teach, and can create a virtually infinite number of sub-books within itself. It is the complete education--and provides a challenge to Nell. She needs to find the twelve keys that will open the castle and free her brother. The result is certain to be sad, but Nell sets off on her quest, spending her childhood and young adulthood with the book, both creating and being created by it.

Author Neal Stephenson creates a fascinating near-future universe. The neo-Victorian reaction Stephenson sees is certainly a far cry from the ugly and fearful one in America today, but Stephenson's vision does provide some hope. In 1995 when the book was first published, nano-technology was much less known than today but Stephenson's understanding still seems valid.

The philosophical war between the 'feed' and the 'seed' remains a backdrop to the story, but it's a fascinating topic. So is Stephenson's vision of China's future--a decade after THE DIAMOND AGE was written, it is increasingly obvious that China is an awakening giant, as Stephenson had projected.

By combining powerful technology insights, intriguing characters, philosophical conflict, and social dynamics, Stephenson delivers a truly fascinating book. THE DIAMOND AGE remains fresh and relevant more than a decade after it was written.

The first half was great, after a shaky start. I almost gave up on The Diamond Age after about 50 pages, because everything was so densely technological and impersonal. However, I stuck with it, and after a while became totally absorbed. I wanted to know how things would turn out for everyone - I cared about what happened to almost every single character. Some of them I rooted for, and I hoped others would get what they deserved, but either way I was drawn in to the story and felt that the characters were complex, interesting people. Rather than a straightforward story with a specific goal, The Diamond Age is more of a character study - we see part of Nell's life, which does not follow a linear, prefabricated plot. Since I enjoy involving characters, I didn't see a problem with this.

However, things decayed rapidly when the book reached the half-way point, and the unnecessary and monstrously tacky underwater sex cult appeared. As much as I was tempted to abandon the book at that point, I slogged through the second half because I still wanted to see how things turned out for characters for whom I had high hopes.

In the end, I wished that I had given up in the middle. The ending doesn't resolve much of anything that I cared about, and didn't seem like a sensible place to stop. My initial reaction was, "Where are the last 50 pages?" I felt cheated and betrayed. I'd been drawn in by an emotional and fascinating story, only to be fed garbage at the end.

Since I liked almost all of Snow Crash and Zodiac, I was surprised and disappointed by what happened to The Diamond Age. What's worse, I have serious reservations about reading Cryptonomicon, or any subsequent books by Neal Stephenson. I'll have to read a lot of reviews ahead of time, I suppose.

In the end, I have to recommend Snow Crash or Zodiac instead. Maybe you'll love this book - a lot of other people here certainly did. For me, though, this was a big disappointment.