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The Diamond Age

Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

By Neal Stephenson

(95)

| Paperback | 9780140270372

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Book Description

Decades 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 neoVictorians.  He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device caContinue

Decades 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 neoVictorians.  He's 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.

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


From the Paperback edition.

Critics

  • Neal Stephenson: The Diamond Age Share

    What can you say about a writer who notices that the standard Chairman Mao picture shows the Buddha's evil twin? Insanely great. Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age is more like his Cryptonomicon than it is like Snow Crash: panoramic and cast-of-thousa ... (read full critics)

    blogcritics published on Mon, 17 Feb 2003

5 Reviews

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  • 1 person find this helpful

    I just finished re-reading this month's bibliogoth book The Diamond Age. I read it years ago shortly after it came out and it was my favorite Neal Stephenson book. I remembered it being a very nice story about a young girl and her magical book. I'd totally forgotten about the huge focus on China and ... (continue)

    I just finished re-reading this month's bibliogoth book The Diamond Age. I read it years ago shortly after it came out and it was my favorite Neal Stephenson book. I remembered it being a very nice story about a young girl and her magical book. I'd totally forgotten about the huge focus on China and the Victorians, which since reading the book have become two of my favorite areas of study so that was quite amusing. Of course the representations of both were a little flawed, and I found the drummers to be very annoying but still it was enjoyable overall.

    Is this helpful?

    Robot-mel said on Dec 22, 2007 | 1 feedback

  • For sure, "The diamond age" does not lack Stephenson's topoi - an anarchic, fragmented earth, a futuristic scenario halfway between cyber- and steam-punk. Seemingly not too far from his debut in scifi land, "Snow Crash". Yet it feels fresh.
    This time, the action is mostly set in China, where, thank ... (continue)

    For sure, "The diamond age" does not lack Stephenson's topoi - an anarchic, fragmented earth, a futuristic scenario halfway between cyber- and steam-punk. Seemingly not too far from his debut in scifi land, "Snow Crash". Yet it feels fresh.
    This time, the action is mostly set in China, where, thanks to a quasi-magical book, a young girl will play a central role in the events that will shape a world on the verge of nano-tech global warfare.

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    leo said on Jan 15, 2012 | Add your feedback

  • One of Stephenson's finest

    This was one of Stephenson's finest. The Diamond Age is probably a good one to start with if you want to know what neal Stephenson is all about; since it is only 500 pages long (most of his other books are at least 800 pages long; except Snow Crash).

    The Diamond Age is abou ... (continue)

    This was one of Stephenson's finest. The Diamond Age is probably a good one to start with if you want to know what neal Stephenson is all about; since it is only 500 pages long (most of his other books are at least 800 pages long; except Snow Crash).

    The Diamond Age is about nanotechnology, the way the world might be organized in the future (including its wars), the blurring lines between fact and fiction and, of course, Turing machines.

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    Corstin said on Jun 30, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • I won't spoil the plot; suffice to say that, as any other Neal Stephenson book I have come across so far, it's lovely, interesting, well written and full of surprises.

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    Lenz said on Jul 9, 2009 | Add your feedback

  • Masterfully written

    Neal seemed to grow up a bit for this book. The myriad of subplots are woven together in such a way that, when they all come together and you can see the intersections clearly, you will find yourself smiling as you read the last one hundred pages. It's truly a wonderful book, with no turn being expe ... (continue)

    Neal seemed to grow up a bit for this book. The myriad of subplots are woven together in such a way that, when they all come together and you can see the intersections clearly, you will find yourself smiling as you read the last one hundred pages. It's truly a wonderful book, with no turn being expected. Its focus on nanotechnology, if it turns out to be anything like Snow Crash's focus on the Metaverse, is a telling look into the future of our world.

    Is this helpful?

    meiguoren said on Apr 1, 2008 | Add your feedback

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