Vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, The Diamond Age is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our timeDecades 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 … 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 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.
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SOOOOO GOOOD!!!!
It struck me as a mash-up of several clever novels that were very badly combined. There’s a very slow period in the middle, in which the protagonist is blackmailed into entering an unlikely undersea commune. The story falters, and then continues well, with new characters. There is a thematic connection concerning the nature of the technology, but …
One of best “near future” novels ever written. Stephenson suggests a new way to look at the world, not based on nations but based around cultures. This book should be on everyone’s “must read list” if you like to speculate about where the world might end up in another 100 years.
Over the past few years Neal Stephenson has become one of my favorite authors. His Baroque Cycle Series is pure genius and Anathem and Cryptonomicon are exceptional. Stephenson’s works are difficult to describe or place into any one genre as they borrow from so many different literary elements and do not cleanly rest within any category.
The …
One over the besr
The New Victorians! An early and wonderful novel of Neal Stephenson.
Another Stephenson epic near future dystopian asian story.
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A smart classic and a fun read, both
Quirky, brilliant science fiction, with good and timely social commentary…
Great premise, strong female characters. Mind bending.
More detailed and not as “raw” as Stephenson’s Snow Crash. Taking place about 50 years after that earlier novel, but in approximately the same world.
One of my favorite books ever!
Superb
Good characterization, excellent job bringing the disparate characters together. Excellent story lines with lots to enjoy and think about.
I was suprised at how much more I enjoyed the book on Kindle over paper. I have both.
It is pretty much standard in classic SciFi for the author to extrapolate on some current trend and build on what that might look like when taken to its logical conclusion. Neal Stephenson extrapolates farther and in more directions than any of the classic SciFi authors did, or could even imagine doing. He can do this because the many …
My favorite of all of Stephenson’s books, and that says a lot! Richly rewarding!