The diamond age

Book Description

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

• 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.

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  Robot-mel said on Dec 22, 2007 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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 about the Paperback edition | 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.

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  meiguoren said on Apr 1, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

• Rating:
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• English Books
• Others 455 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0553898205
• ISBN-13: 9780553898200
• Publisher: Spectra
• Pub date: May 02, 2000
• Also available as: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Leather Bound and eBook
• In other languages: other languages 繁體書, Deutsche Bücher, Libri Italiani, Česká kniha

Groups with this in collection

• Neal Stephenson (25)
• science fiction (469)
• Cyberpunk (181)

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