The Diamond Age

Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) A Bantam spectra book

by Neal Stephenson

Kindle, 512 pages

English language

Published May 1, 2000 by Spectra.

ISBN:: 978-0-553-38096-5
OCLC Number:: 44967380
ASIN:: B000FBJCKI

(229 reviews)

Decades into our future, a stone’s throw from the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer Commissioned by an eccentric duke for his grandchild, stolen for Hackworth's own daughter, the Primer’s purpose is to educate and raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. It performs its function superbly. Unfortunately for Hackworth, his smuggled copy has fallen into the wrong hands.

Young Nell and her brother Harv are thetes—members of the poor, tribeless class. Neglected by their mother, Harv looks after Nell. When he and his gang waylay a certain neo-Victorian—John Percival Hackworth—in the seamy streets of their neighborhood, Harv brings Nell something special: the Primer.

Following the discovery of his crime, Hackworth begins an odyssey of …

Following the discovery of his crime, Hackworth begins an odyssey of his own. Expelled from the neo-Victorian paradise, squeezed by agents of Protocol Enforcement on one side and a Mandarin underworld crime lord on the other, he searches for an elusive figure known as the Alchemist. His quest and Nell’s will ultimately lead them to another seeker whose fate is bound up with the Primer—a woman who holds the key to a vast, subversive information network that is destined to decode and reprogram the future of humanity.

25 editions

Yashima reviewed The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Diamond Age' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

The book is a crazy mixture of cyber- and steampunk so much so that when it was recommended on Writing Excuses they stumbled over the genre. But it takes place in the future so it would probably be more firmly rooted in science fiction and cyberpunk.

I didn't read this book for many years because of the sub-title. It really put me off. Don't make the same mistake :) This is not a children's book it is about a high-tech children's book.

I loved the world-building though I feel that sometimes Stephenson would go a bit too far in the descriptions. There were parts where I started to read "diagonally" across the pages to get back to the action.

Then there are the Drummers which most keenly reminded me of earlier cyberpunk with their psychedelic hive-mind. I can't remember being so confused about what I was reading since my first encounter of William Gibson's fiction. The confusion is actually a good thing in a way. Seeing too clearly through everything sometimes takes away from the stories.

The part I really liked best was the Primer and Nell's adventures with it.

The end came a bit abrupt. I would I have liked to have seen some kind of epilogue wrapping things up a little bit. This was more like a Hollywood final shot.

It's more like 4.5 stars than 5 because there were some parts I more or less skipped over. But it's too well conceived and written for rounding down, so 5 stars.

I am recommending this to anyone interested in either the cyberpunk or steampunk genres. Or anyone who enjoys reading books with a profusion of nano-technologies. Don't mind the title. It's fitting and misleading at the same time.

Strakul reviewed The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Diamond Age' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This was quite an interesting book, particularly in the world and it's technology. I felt the plot was all over the place, with the exception being Nell's coming-of-age plotline. The sense of time was also somewhat skewed from one chapter to the next, in my opinion. However, the characters were pretty interesting. In the end: not the author's best work, but still an interesting read.

A full review is available on my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2013/03/book-review-diamond-age-by-neal.html

Vedang Manerikar reviewed The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Diamond Age' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Thought provoking and super fun, like all other Neal Stephenson books. This one is also fast-paced, and less baroque than his other works, for the impatient kind of reader.

outofrange reviewed The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Diamond Age' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Another Stephenson hit with me - part Grimm-style fairy tale, part nano-tech sci-fi, part collective unconscious mystery, with interesting characters caught in the crossfire.