Diamond Age
by Neal Stephenson
List Price:
Our Price: $1.92
You Save: $23.06 (92%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.99 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Neal StephensonReader: Jennifer Wiltsie
Edition: Audio Cassette
Format: Abridged, Audiobook
Published: 2001-08-01
ISBN: 1586211129
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Book Reviews of Diamond Age
Book Review: Would get 4 stars if the ending wasn't such a wreck
Summary: 3 Stars
I'd read Snow Crash about a year ago, and despite some problems with pacing and blatant Deux Ex Machina, I liked it enough to give Stephenson another go.
I gather Diamond Age is his second novel, and he certainly has improved in style over his original offering (Snow Crash.) This book consciously imitates Victorian (late 18th-century English) prose and dialogue, which can be awkward to the unsuspecting but is very much justified by the narrative framework.
The setting was intriguing, and quite-likely cutting-edge for when it was written. Nanotechnology plays a major role, and Stephenson does a good job of running with it to show the logical conclusions: a superficial utopia that is quite dark once one delves beneath the surface. To his credit, the technology isn't heavy-handed in this, and anyone with even the most basic scientific knowledge can follow (and appreciate) what's going on. I also have a soft-spot for Chinese history and culture, so he gets a few bonus points for including it as a setting subplot. Speaking of subplots, Diamond Age includes one that at first struck me as suspiciously similar to one of the subplots of Mona Lisa Overdrive (ie: an interactive book that helps a young girl cope with her surroundings) but I quickly found the similarities were superficial and Stephenson does go into new territory with his handling of it.
That said...
The last 75 pages of this book were a jumbled mess, with key plot points being introduced way too late, others (from earlier) completely forgotten, and overall left me with a feeling of "where the heck did THAT come from?!?" It honestly struck me as if 400 pages into it, he got tired of writing it and just wound things down as quickly as he could. Ironically, there's a fair amount of padding in that last section (notably a too-long sequence of a character at an interactive theatre.) Most of my complaints about the book come from the last 75 pages, but alas, I can't give specifics without breaking my personal reviewing oath of not divulging spoilers. Suffice to say that he again resorts to intervention from the Gods of Plot Convenience **a couple of times** in ways that are as unconvincing as they are unsatisfying.
That said, if you liked Snow Crash (or presumably any of his other works) you will probably like Diamond Age. It **is** necessary to keep your expectations in check, though. On a personal level, one of the aspects I really liked about Snow Crash was the wry narrative tone woven throughout, and that was very-much lacking throughout Diamond Age (I think I cracked a smile twice.) By all means, give it a go, but beware: the ending isn't so much a "let down" as a "plummet from 75 stories up."
Summary of Diamond Age
John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change.
In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in twenty-first century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life -- and the entire future of humanity -- is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.
Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, 1996.
"[Stephenson] has gotten even better. The Diamond Age envisions the next century as brilliantly as Snow Crash did the day after tomorrow."
NEWSWEEK
"[Stephenson is] the hottest science fiction writer in America... Snow Crash is without question the biggest SF novel of the 1990s. Neal's SF novel The Diamond Age promises more of the same. Together, they represent a new era in science fiction. People who plow through these mind-bogglers will walk around slack-jawed for days and reemerge with a radically redefined sense of reality."
DETAILS
"Neal Stephenson is the Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction.... Having figured out how to entertain the hell out of a mass audience, Stephenson has likewise upped the form's ante with rambunctious glee."
THE VILLAGE VOICE
"Snow Crash drew its manic energy from the cyberpunkish conceit that anything is possible in virtual reality; in The Diamond Age the wonders of cyberspace pale before the even more dazzling powers of nanotechnology."
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW
"The Diamond Age establishes Neal Stephenson as a powerful voice for the cyber age.... At once whimsical, satirical, and cautionary."
USA TODAY
"Stephenson's world-building skills are extraordinary.... The Diamond Age should cement Stephenson's reputation as one of the brightest and wittiest young authors of American science fiction."
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE
General Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Great Science Fiction Authors and Series
Psychoshopby Alfred Bester, Roger Zelazny
Vintage; Published: 1998-06-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.90
Price in other shops:
Virtual Unrealities: The Short Fiction of Alfred Besterby Alfred Bester
Vintage; Published: 1997-11-11; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.25
Price in other shops:
Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)by Neal Stephenson
Spectra; Published: 2000-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
Storeys from the Old Hotelby Gene Wolfe
Orb Books; Published: 1995-12-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops:
Towing Jehovah (Harvest Book)by James Morrow
Harvest Books; Published: 1995-04-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.47
Price in other shops:
Burning Chromeby William Gibson
Arbor House Pub Co; Published: 1986-04; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Parable of the Sowerby Octavia E. Butler
Aspect; Published: 1995-02-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $63.24
Slow Riverby Nicola Griffith
Ballantine Books; Published: 1996-08-20; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.93
Price in other shops:
The Dragon and the Unicornby A. A. Attanasio
Eos; Published: 1996-06-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.10
Price in other shops:
The Man Who Never Missedby Steve Perry
Ace; Published: 1986-08-15; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Count Zeroby William Gibson
Ace Trade; Published: 2006-03-07; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.82
Price in other shops:
Interfaceby Neal Stephenson, J. Frederick George
Spectra; Published: 2005-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
The Cobwebby Neal Stephenson, J. Frederick George
Spectra; Published: 2005-05-31; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.49
Price in other shops:
Neuromancerby William Gibson
Ace Hardcover; Published: 2004-11-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.22
Price in other shops:
The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2)by Neal Stephenson
Published: 2004-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.33
Price in other shops:
The System of the World (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 3)by Neal Stephenson
Published: 2004-10-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.69
Price in other shops:
Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1)by Neal Stephenson
Harper Perennial; Published: 2004-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.96
Price in other shops:
Zodiacby Neal Stephenson
Grove Press; Published: 2007-08-10; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.91
Price in other shops:
Cryptonomiconby Neal Stephenson
Avon; Published: 2002-11-01; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.46
Price in other shops:
Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)by Neal Stephenson
Spectra; Published: 2000-05-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops: