Product Description

Decades into our future, 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 lady's illustrated primer, designed to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. Unfortunately, for Hackworth, he loses his smuggled copy to a gang of street urchins in a mugging. One of the young thugs presents the primer to his little sister, Nell and suddenly her life - and perhaps the whole future of humanity - is about to be decoded and reprogrammed... vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, The Diamond Age is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22129 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-29
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Decades into the future, near the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians, by making an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer". Seattle Weekly called Stephenson's Snow Crash "The most influential book since ... Neuromancer."

About the Author
Neal Stephenson has published four novels: The Big U, Zodiac, Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. For the last of these he won a 1996 Hugo Award. He also writes (with J. Frederick George) as 'Stephen Bury'. Their books are Interface and Cobweb. Most of his books are published in Penguin. He lives in Seattle, where he is at work on other novels.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
Various comments for this run as 'good but not Snow Crash' 'great but flawed' 'good but not Cryptonomicon'. This book is simply superb. I thoroughly enjoyed all of his other books, but for me this is the pinnacle. A world struggling to get to grips with the differences that seperate us, uses a tribal approach to create regions for people to live their chosen lives. This politcal world is imbued with Stephenson's usual array of amazing technology, and extraordinary concepts. The most powerful of these is a book with the ability to adapts its lessons instantaneously to its reader's needs, and a little girl with power to reshape everything. I loved the (for me very real) possiblities D/A opens up, and I want one of those books!!

Nearly a masterpiece
Following up his epochal 'Snow Crash', Stephenson here investigates the godlike possibilities of nanotechnology, while at the same time exploring issues of society, class, education, the meaning of growing up and so much more.

It all rolls along brilliantly - slowly drawing together its 3 main protaganists who meet each other very late on, and then, suddenly - it just ends.

I have never read a book with such a disappointingly abrupt ending - its as if Stephenson was forced to compress the last two chapters into 2 paragraphs. i don't know what the man was thinking. Hence 4, not 5 crowns.

Particularly interesting SF, with some flaws
I'm not a Sci-Fi fan but, after reading Drexler's fascinating Engines of Creation: the coming era of nanotechnology, I was curious to see what future Stephenson had imagined with this revolutionary technology. The author envisions an impressive number of interesting applications, some fairly predictable (e.g. matter compilers fed by water and air purifying stations, "smart" multimedia paper), some a lot less so (e.g. skull guns, lighter-than-air shields, nanotech-enhanced actors). But it becomes clearer and clearer that what the author is most interested in is computer science in general, and artificial intelligence in particular. Given the fact that Stephenson has also written In the beginning... was the command line, this shouldn't be such a surprise, and, far from being regrettable, it is in fact what gives the book its true dimension.

As the subtitle (A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer) suggests, this book is about a very special kind of book, for the Primer is so "intelligent" that it can adapt its fully interactive on-going didactic narrative to the needs and wishes of its owner, gradually developing his or her own ability to adapt and solve problems to the maximum. I found this to be a brilliant theme, because it depicts future technology as a means of improving the minds of people, eventually allowing them to reach their greatest potential. Stephenson appears a little narrow-minded, however, when it turns out that the Primer's tutorial only culminates with lessons on computer science and nanotechology. Although this is instrumental in bringing about the novel's partial dénouement (enough is left open-ended for a possible sequel), I would have liked to see the Primer's narrative branching out into more diversified subjects (possible examples: explaining why we breathe, or why there are seasons).

Nevertheless, the author's imagination can be quite astonishing when applied to his favorite themes, and I would argue that the bizarre society of the Drummers - which first seems incongruous and irrelevant, but gradually comes to the foreground as the plot unfolds - is Stephenson's most impressive invention/extrapolation in The Diamond Age. Just to give you some idea of what the Drummers are about without giving it all away, this secluded society uses nanotechnology to turn its members into ever-satisfied physical components of a huge computing network. You'll have to read the book in order to decide for yourself whether this is a desirable form of existence...

I said in the "title" of my review that the novel has flaws, and it does, as a number of things struck me as odd and unsuccessful in the book. Fortunately, these weak points remain minor, and The Diamond Age is still a great read for anyone interested in its themes.