The Diamond Age

499 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2000

ISBN:
978-0-553-38096-5
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Goodreads:
827

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4 stars (10 reviews)

The story of an engineer who creates a device to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself reveals what happens when a young girl of the poor underclass obtains the device.

25 editions

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

Simultaneously better and worse than Snow Crash

4 stars

I have to say, this was a fun read. And like the author's book Snow Crash from 3 years prior, it features a young girl protagonist, nation-state world-building, a sometimes awkward treatment of Asia, and sections of excessive violence.

In some ways, the book aged a lot better than Snow Crash. The world has made VR a thing which means a lot of the computer-related predictions from Snow Crash feel laughable, but we're nowhere near the level of nanotechnology in A Diamond Age. Snow Crash is a book of the 90s. The Diamond Age feels good even today.

Where this book let me down, however, was in how the plot was woven together. There are a lot of interesting characters that never get the attention they should. I don't demand that all plot threads get tied up in a nice neat bow (I think Anathem even went a bit too …

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

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