Stephenson looks at a future ruled by Neo-Victorian thought, and the brilliant technologist who publishes an illegal primer designed to encourage girls to think for themselves. Stephenson's 1992 bestselling novel Snow Crash has been optioned for film.
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Stephenson looks at a future ruled by Neo-Victorian thought, and the brilliant technologist who publishes an illegal primer designed to encourage girls to think for themselves. Stephenson's 1992 bestselling novel Snow Crash has been optioned for film.
Read Less
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.56, fair condition, Sold by BookHolders rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Gambrills, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Brownstown, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $1.99, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Baltimore rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Halethorpe, MD, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $2.00, good condition, Sold by Seattle Goodwill rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Seattle, WA, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
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Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $2.46, fair condition, Sold by Blue Vase Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Interlochen, MI, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra Books.
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Fair. Mass market paperback in ACCEPTABLE condition. Book is perfectly usable, but has heavy wear or cosmetic issues which may include a cocked spine, creased spine, heavy wear, yellowed pages, price stickers, etc. Cover art may be different from that in photo.
Add this copy of The Diamond Age to cart. $2.79, very good condition, Sold by HPB-Ruby rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1996 by Spectra.
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I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed Neal Stephenson's "The Diamond Age." I've tried to get into cyberpunk before, and stumbled over jargon and scattered narratives. I was very pleased to find that all the slang or jargon that Stephenson wants to introduce you to is done within the first few pages, and he is a much more calm storyteller than many of his colleagues in the genre.
It's after you've gotten comfortable that he releases the deluge; there are so many themes and questions in this book that I'm going to have to read this again to begin to get a handle on all of the ideas he tosses around.
The chief, most obvious one is basically: how do you educate a young mind to think for itself and avoid mindless indoctrination without accidentally indoctrinating said young mind? That is where the book's subtitle (or the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer) comes in. Commissioned by an aristocrat for his granddaughter in the hopes that it will teach her independent thought and a flexible mind, a copy ultimately falls into the hands of the daughter of the engineer who executes the design of the primer, and another one ends up in the possession of Nell, a poor child living in an abusive home. Nell is our chief protagonist, and it is her trajectory that is followed most closely throughout the novel.
The primer is an advanced tool, involving actors ('ractors, from "interactors") to act out the situations put forth by the technology of the book, but the three girls all turn out quite differently. The novel has some ideas as to why, and this is where I found the interesting meat of the story, though there is so much more to find that different people will be sure to find other themes on which to chew.
I will definitely read this book again in order to see what else I can discover.
Easily one of Stephenson's best, one of my personal favorites. A richly detailed world, a huge cast of wonderful characters.
splene
Jul 26, 2007
better character development than Snow Crash
I liked the characters much better than in Snow Crash. I think Stephenson does a good job of capturing the setting (mental and physical) of Shanghai as a non-Asian, but also providing a vivid future portrait. I found some plot threads remained somewhat inadequately explained compared to others, but it is such a densely layered story that it probably is unavoidable.
Bytez
May 29, 2007
A Neo-Victorian Hackers Quest
Those familiar with Neal Stephenson's other books will of course gobble this novel up, for although it lacks the pace of Snow Crash it give us a glimpse of the a possible future that is tantalizingly seductive
Those not familiar however will be taken on a whirlwind adventure, exploring a future where nations no longer exist and humanity is split up into tribes (or phyles) and united by technology, where a book infused with nanotechnology can become a magical item to a young girl and change her life forever, and where a Victorian nanoprogrammer can be lost for years in a collective mind under the sea.
