The Diamond Age

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

Paperback, 512 pages

English language

Published May 2, 2000 by Spectra.

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

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(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

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'

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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Subjects

  • American Science Fiction And Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Fiction - Science Fiction
  • Science Fiction - High Tech
  • Fiction / Science Fiction / General
  • Science Fiction - General
  • Science Fiction

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