The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson is a futuristic novel that explores the implications of nanotechnology on society. The story follows various characters in a world where technology interacts with different cultures, focusing on a young girl named Nell who is guided by an interactive book called the Primer. The book delves into themes of education, social structures, and the role of technology in shaping the future.
Genres:
Tropes/Plot Devices:
Topics:
Notes:
Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
Content warnings include child neglect, abuse, and themes of violence and societal breakdown.
From The Publisher:
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
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 neo-Victorians. 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.
Ratings (62)
Incredible (26) | |
Loved It (19) | |
Liked It (13) | |
It Was OK (4) |
Reader Stats (106):
Read It (62) | |
Currently Reading (1) | |
Want To Read (31) | |
Not Interested (12) |
1 comment(s)
I have a lot of very contradictory feelings after reading this book. It definitely goes beyond my comfort zone and what I usually read. There's also this beauty of a complicated puzzle in it. However, I have a big problem to say if I really liked it and how to rate it.
Well, beauty. Maybe it's because I haven't read too many science fiction books (although I have serious doubts whether this book can be just simply included in this genre) but this book seems special to me. And in a way beautiful in its uniqueness. This uniqueness definitely appeals to me and I am able to appreciate it somewhat regardless of other elements of this book.
The author has created a completely unique and complex world that is hooked up to what we know from the present and the past. The past mixes with the present and the future. The whole world is very well-thought and multidimensional. Victorian morality mixes so subtly with nanotechnology that you don't see any inconsistencies. And when you think you are beginning to understand this world, the author adds something new.
The author went so far that he even created a unique language in which this novel is written. This is fantastic but at the same time makes you read the book rather slowly. This is not an easy and quick read. At the beginning you have to get used to the specific language. And even later, reading tired me, it required a lot of concentration. This is not a book to read on the bus. I appreciate the beauty of this language but I also admit that it took me a long time to read this book.
Unfortunately, I can't help feeling that the purpose of this whole book is to show a unique world that was created in the author's head. The story is rather sparse and, if you think about it, is not very developed for such a long book. It is also totally aimed to showing the complicated world and the mechanics of its operation. The characters and the plot are of secondary importance. It doesn't work with everyone.
I admit that I prefer books full of twists and turns, elaborate storyline and interesting characters. Even so, I'm glad I read this book. I still can't say if I really liked it though. I didn't feel connected with the characters and it was difficult for me to follow the story without skipping pages. Maybe it takes some time for me to be able to fully describe my feelings, I need to catch some distance.
What can you read after
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer?
About the Author:
Neal Stephenson issues from a clan of rootless, itinerant hardscience and engineering professors (mostly Pac-10, Big 10, and Big 8 with the occasional wild strain of Ivy). He began his higher education as a physics major, then switched to geography…
When you click the Amazon link and make a purchase, we may receive a small commision, at no cost to you.
