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The Diamond Age
 
 
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The Diamond Age (Paperback)

by Neal Stephenson (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (275 customer reviews)

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Product Description

From Amazon.com

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.


From Publishers Weekly

Cyber-fiction from Stephenson, in which an engineer living in a neo-Victorian future is commissioned to write a subversive primer for girls.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Customer Reviews

275 Reviews
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4.2 out of 5 stars (275 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4.0 out of 5 stars Another Challenging Vision of the Future, April 5 2008
By Ian Gordon Malcomson (Smithers, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Paperback)
This gargantuan novel, like a lot of Stephenson's works, contains two interconnecting stories based on the life of Nell, a tribeless, orphaned, and John Hackworth, an ostracized engineer, both trying to establish themselves in a post-modern society governed by nanotechnology. This scientific concept entails society allowing the individual the capacity to produce anything he or she needs by re-arranging the molecular structure of any substance. The primer (interactive training manual) is full of all kinds of technological wonders, such as matter compilers, smart paper, chevalines, artificial intelligence and aerostatic micromachines, all of which Nell learns to master in her efforts to form an independent society. Her teacher is the ractive (interactive actor in the primer) who teaches who the virtue of learning how the technology works to her advantage. Hackworth is one of those shadowy characters who operates under a number of covers in order to create a more enlightening form of nanotechnology that will be shared among the cultures of the world in the interests of peace and justice. As a fugitive from a Confucian society that has rejected him for his decision to make his own copy of the primer, Hackworth assumes a double identity that will allow him to start transforming nanotechnology into some new and better. Throughout this very complex and multi-layered novel, Stephenson shows the reader that technology in itself is pointless unless i
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5.0 out of 5 stars fascinating vision of nanotech-driven future, Jul 11 2004
By Timothy H. Mansfield (Long Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Paperback)
This book is pleasantly dense with interesting ideas about what the future holds. The title refers to the progression of material-driven stages of human progress -- the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, etc. In "the Diamond Age", matter compilers can easily create diamonds out of raw carbon. Basic foodstuffs and many other material wants can be satisfied by these matter compilers. This has created a world in which no one need starve. However there are still tremendous disparities between rich and poor, because many human comforts such as entertainment and fine food still require the services of other people, which must be bought in hard currency. Networked nano-technology is all-pervasive, with microscopic robots putting these poorer citizens under constant surveillance. Faced with this hyperactive stew of technologies, ancient instincts and traditions run strong. Crime, poverty, and tribal conflict are still rampant in this world. People cling to old ways of thought (a strong Confucian motif runs through the book) to help make human sense of the rapidly changing world.

Against this backdrop, a fantastically advanced piece of technology (a sentient child's primer) is stolen, and winds up in the hands of a destitute young waif named Nell. Her resulting world-class education, and what she does with that education, is the binding for the various threads of the story.

The book's characters are well-realized for the most part, the writing style is honed and mature, the plot is intricate and engaging. The ending is controversial in its ambiguity, but that does not diminish the power of the book as a whole. In all, a very thought-provoking read.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Stephenson's best., Jun 16 2004
By C. GREEN "Vagittarius" (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Paperback)
I have to say that this is Neal Stephenson's best work among what I've read and undoubtedly one of my all-time favorite books. It was simply incredible. I would like to give it more than five stars.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely Original
The Diamond Age is the second of Stephenson's books that I've read. I enjoyed it far more that Snow Crash. Read more
Published on May 9 2004 by jsdunk

5.0 out of 5 stars must-read for SF fans
I've enjoyed other Stephenson books, but this is by far the most interesting. It still has some adolescent hack-and-slash elements reminiscent of Snow Crash, but the remarkably... Read more
Published on April 25 2004 by MB

5.0 out of 5 stars I read this book 7 years ago and it still affects me...
...few books do that. Admittedly at the time of read I would have given the book 3.5 to 4 stars. Lacking in my opinion was a coherent storyline; the book was convoluted, you... Read more
Published on April 20 2004 by Christian Hunter

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong characters meet great storyline!
That just about says it all for this, yet another fantastic sci-fi/high-tech by Stephenson, who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sci-fi/high-tech writers like Gibson and is... Read more
Published on April 15 2004 by George

5.0 out of 5 stars Neal Stephenson is akin to William Gibson in cyberpunk
As well as akin to some of the Old Masters of Science Fiction/High-Tech, like Asimov or Clarke. He already has an impressive body of works: "Cryptonomicon",... Read more
Published on Feb 18 2004 by William

4.0 out of 5 stars Yet another great book by Neal Stephenson
He is rapidly becoming one of my favorite sci-fi/high-tech/cyberpunk authors, along with William Gibson who practically created cyberpunk. Read more
Published on Feb 17 2004 by Michael

4.0 out of 5 stars Right up there with William Gibson as Cyberpunk Master
Neal Stephenson's books have swept me up into their intricate and intriguing cyberpunk tales just as William Gibson, the "father" of cyberpunk, did and the way other... Read more
Published on Feb 17 2004 by Mark

2.0 out of 5 stars Social commentary over plot; ramblings that go nowhere...
The first third of the book is reasonably compelling... you forgive the tangents as world building and the slow pace as character development. Read more
Published on Feb 11 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars complex
The book starts off looking at Bud's live; within several pages however Bud is gone. Perhaps Bud is there merely to give us a taste of Stephenson's world, a feeling of how... Read more
Published on Jan 21 2004 by TammyJo Eckhart

1.0 out of 5 stars So promising....
This book started out with a remarkeable amount of promise. The opening third of it is very, very good. Read more
Published on Jan 19 2004 by Uh huh.

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