The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)

by Neal Stephenson

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book)

published	May 2nd 2000 by Spectra
first published	1995
binding	Paperback
isbn	0553380966 (isbn13: 9780553380965)
ebook
pages	512
literary awards	1996 Hugo Winner; 1996 Locus Awards Winner (SF)
description	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 Fio...more [close] 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. [close]
date added	09-04-06 edit book

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Die Katze

Die Katze rated it:

07/31/08

bookshelves: fiction, science-fiction

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

recommended to Die Katze by: Nobody-- read Snow Crash and liked it; picked this one up later.
recommends it for: Stephenson fans, sci-fi fans, technophiles

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

The worldbuilding in this book is SO COOL I had to give it a four out of five. While I enjoyed the story, however, I do feel a little bit let down by the ending.

The story is set sometime after the collapse of the world’s political structure as we know it. (That is, in the next century or so.) What used to be China has been split into two pieces: the modern and crime-ridden Chinese Coastal Republic, and the more traditional Celestial Kingdom. Most of the story is set in Shanghai and the ar...more

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Chris

Chris rated it:

02/09/08

bookshelves: fantasy

Read in September, 2006

I get the feeling that Stephenson's writing process goes something like this:

Hey, I found a really cool idea here. I wonder what I can do about it....

He then writes about 200 pages of really awesome, meticulous world-building, with innovative ideas about, in the case of this book, the possibly uses of nanotechnology and its eventual social ramifications, and then goes, Oh, damn, I'm writing a story, and high-tails it to the end of the book, leaving the reader a little wind-blown a...more I get the feeling that Stephenson's writing process goes something like this:

Hey, I found a really cool idea here. I wonder what I can do about it....

He then writes about 200 pages of really awesome, meticulous world-building, with innovative ideas about, in the case of this book, the possibly uses of nanotechnology and its eventual social ramifications, and then goes, Oh, damn, I'm writing a story, and high-tails it to the end of the book, leaving the reader a little wind-blown and confused. It happened in Snow Crash, where he was playing with the origins of language and the fundamental functioning of the human mind. It happened in Cryptonomicon, where he dove into the murky waters of cryptography and brought up brilliant gems, and it happened here, too.

The Diamond Age is, fundamentally, about what would happen, or what might happen, if we really got nanotechnology working properly. How would society adapt if, suddenly, government became obsolete? With the Feed and the Matter Compilers able to create anything out of nothing, the entire economic and political underpinnings of the planet came undone, and people banded together into phyles. Like-minded individuals bonded with each other through shared values and morality, united only by a commonly upheld treaty which, in turn, rested on the new economy that nanotechnology allowed.

Within one of the phyles, the Neo-Victorians, one of the more highly-placed Lords realized what was wrong with the world. The problem wasn't the corruption of values of which the old always accuse the young - indeed it was that those values were passed on too well. Children did not elect to join their phyles, they were indoctrinated into them from birth, which made them, well, boring.

And so Lord Finkle-McGraw commissioned a great work - The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer to guide his granddaughter to a more interesting life. And had that been all that happened, the story would have been short. But two other copes of the Primer were made - one for the daughter of the book's designer, and another that fell into the hands of Nell, a young girl born into poverty and otherwise destined to lead a life of misery and sorrow.

The Primer is a smart book, fully interactive, able to teach reading, science, history and martial arts, among other things. And what it teaches little Nell is how to be great.

All of this is quite awesome - there's a great hunt for the Primer, plans within plans and all that. And then, suddenly, a new plot about a technology to supplant the Feed and some kind of Chinese revolution and the whole book runs off the rails.

I know a lot of people love Neal Stephenson, and I can understand why. He's an incomparably imaginative man, who is able to find ways to express ideas that some of us couldn't even imagine. He's an heir to the world of that William Gibson and his contemporaries pioneered. He creates captivating worlds and characters and problems without simple solutions.

He just keeps bollixing up the endings. Seriously, it's like a whole different story kicks in around page 250. I'm willing to read more of his works, though, in the hope that he's getting his act together.......less

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Tracey

Tracey rated it:

09/05/07

Read in July, 2005

recommends it for: steampunk/nanotech fans

I bought a used copy of The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in March, after having read & very much enjoyed Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. Oddly enough, Stephenson's books seem to be summer reading for me, or at least that's how it works out.

As usual, Stephenson drops us into the middle of the story, with little explicit explanation of what's going on. John Percival Hackworth, neo-Victorian nano-engineer (makes perfect sense in the novel!) is putting the finishing tou...more I bought a used copy of The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer in March, after having read & very much enjoyed Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash. Oddly enough, Stephenson's books seem to be summer reading for me, or at least that's how it works out.

As usual, Stephenson drops us into the middle of the story, with little explicit explanation of what's going on. John Percival Hackworth, neo-Victorian nano-engineer (makes perfect sense in the novel!) is putting the finishing touches on the primer of the title; a wholly remarkable supercomputer designed to teach through stories *. It was commissioned by one of the Equity Lords of the region for his granddaughter; however, John decides to make a copy for his own daughter. Things get complicated when Dr. X, a grey market entrepreneur who John enlists to make the copy, decides that the book will assist in a project of his own. Along the way, the original copy ends up in the hands of Nell, a child from a dysfunctional, low class family with very little hope for the future... at least other than what the book provides. She becomes the main character of the story, with her adventures, both real & fictional providing the impetus for the plot.

The parallel stories of Nell, John and Dr. X, and the book itself (telling stories that tie nicely into the current events, at times) weave around and through one another, spanning a period of about a decade. The clave environment will look familiar to readers of Snow Crash - and the concept of the neo-Victorians is explored to a satisfying depth. Stephenson has put a great deal of thought into this environment, and it shows; however, he rarely fails to provide enough detail for new readers to catch on quickly. The technology could easily overwhelm the plot, but Stephenson manages to keep it under control throughout the threads of the story, whose pace speeds up considerably at the end, almost as if he realized he had a lot of plot points to wrap up; this seems to be a minor flaw of his work, IMHO.

Recommended to fans of more positive uses of nanotech & those intrigued by the ideas of culturally based (vs geographical) nations.

* - I'm now torn between wanting a copy of the Primer vs the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
...less

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Mike

Mike rated it:

07/25/08

bookshelves: fiction

Read in January, 2007

The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is the novel that, along with Snow Crash, put Neal Stephenson on the map in the mid 90's. Stephenson has since written a string of imaginative, thought provoking books that all touch on some aspect of the nature of information and it's movement. While it's never stated, Diamond Age seems to be set about 50 - 75 years after Snow Crash.

The first part of the title is a reference to the names that anthropologists and historians use to describ...more The Diamond Age or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is the novel that, along with Snow Crash, put Neal Stephenson on the map in the mid 90's. Stephenson has since written a string of imaginative, thought provoking books that all touch on some aspect of the nature of information and it's movement. While it's never stated, Diamond Age seems to be set about 50 - 75 years after Snow Crash.

The first part of the title is a reference to the names that anthropologists and historians use to describe the technological ages of humans: Stone Age, Bronze Age, etc. Some believe that we will one day have the ability to create objects and devices at the atomic level. One result of this might be the ability to synthesize carbon based objects which use the crystalline structure of diamonds. This may yield materials that might be, among other properties, extremely light and rigid. Hence, the Diamond Age.

Like the other his works, Stephenson touches on a wide variety of subjects. The future according to Stephenson includes the perfection of nanotechnology, obsolescence of nation-states, distributed consciousness, and an emphasis of culture over ethnicity.

Set in this world is the story of John Hackworth, a leading nanotech engineer, and Nell, a young girl of humble birth. Hackworth is commissioned to create the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a futuristic book which is capable of tailoring its content to the reader's interests and abilities. Nell's life is changed dramatically when her brother gives her the primer after mugging Hackworth and stealing a copy of the Primer.

Diamond Age was not an easy book to get into initially. I read the book over the course of two months, with other reading interspersed. I never really lost interest, but it took awhile before the book really grabbed me. Stephenson writes with a focus on narrative. There is relatively little dialog, and the characters are not as fully developed as some might like. In spite of these things, the book is well worth the effort. The stories of Hackworth and Nell are compelling, and the vision of the future put forth is like nothing I've ever read. Unlike most science fiction, Diamond Age and Snow Crash contain a future world that could believably exist in our lifetime....less

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Thermalsatsuma

Thermalsatsuma rated it:

07/07/07

Read in July, 2007

If 'Snow Crash' was the definitive cyberpunk book, then 'The Diamond Age or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer' is the last word on that particular genre. It's nominally set in the same world as the earlier book and shares some of the geo-political background. Nation states are an outdated concept, and now people are grouped into phyles by a common culture or other affiliation. Three major world views are uneasy neighbours - the neo Victorians of New Atlantis with their mannered stoicism and care...more If 'Snow Crash' was the definitive cyberpunk book, then 'The Diamond Age or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer' is the last word on that particular genre. It's nominally set in the same world as the earlier book and shares some of the geo-political background. Nation states are an outdated concept, and now people are grouped into phyles by a common culture or other affiliation. Three major world views are uneasy neighbours - the neo Victorians of New Atlantis with their mannered stoicism and carefully managed hypocrisy sit alongside the Confucianism of the Han Chinese and the Nipponese.

The plot centres around a peculiar book commissioned by Lord Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle McGraw as a present for his grand-daughter, designed and built by the nano engineer John Percival Hackworth who steals a copy of book for his own daughter, which as a result of a street robbery then falls into the hands of Nell, a young girl living in wretched circumstances in the leased territory of a future Shanghai. The book has been designed as a fully interactive education for a young lady from the age of five or six through to adolescence as a subversive alternative to the stifling conformity of the Neo Victorian system. Nell's education over the course of many years, including insights into subjects starting with self defence, history, nano engineering and finally the limits of artificial intelligence (or pseudo intelligence as Hackworth defines it) of Turing machines, has far reaching and startling consequences.

I particularly enjoyed the segments of the book told from the viewpoint of the protagonist of the Primer - Princess Nell and her companions Dinosaur, Duck, Peter Rabbit and Purple who are based on the few toys owned by the Nell of the real world. The self defence taught by Dojo the mouse and Princess Nell's slow unravelling of the relentless logic of Castle Turing are the high points.

If the book has any failings, it is the rather abrupt and rushed ending which leaves many things open and unresolved, although in retrospect the consequences of a world profoundly changed are thought provoking indeed.

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Stephen

Stephen rated it:

06/28/08

Read in June, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

I absolutely adore everything Stephenson writes, and this book is no exception. As with every Stephenson book, it has its fair share of ideas: how children find their role in society; comparing Victorian, Confucian, and 20th century society; what makes a human more than a computer (a theme present in every Stephenson book). As sci-fi, it works at least 5 times better than Snow Crash, whose ideas about future society seem downright silly compared to this vision of the future. The things this book...more

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Toby

Toby rated it:

08/08/08

Read in August, 2008

In "The Diamond Age" Stephenson both treads some of the same terrain as his previous novel, "Snow Crash" and foreshadows material from his followup "Cryptonomicon." Nanotechnology, culture, cryptography, subversion, and nature-vs-nurture feature as strong thematic elements in this book.

As "postcyberpunk," The Diamond Age posits a world in which the "franchulates" from Snow Crash evolve to their logical conclusion as full-fledged world governm...more

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Reid

Reid rated it:

12/19/07

Read in September, 2007

Is The Diamond Age a glimpse of a powerful, unique future? Is it a treatise on the limits of technology? Stephenson emerges as the force I hoped he would become, in this strong follow-up to Snow Crash. The story follows Nell, an impoverished thete, and her brother as they struggle to deal with a hierarchical, paternalistic society ruled by "Vickys," new Victorians, the controllers of the Feed: the nanotech hardline that all future technology is based on. Stephenson succeeds because his...more

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Chad

Chad rated it:

05/30/08

Read in February, 2008

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

On the surface, there are quite a few similarities between The Diamond Age and Stephenson’s earlier work Snow Crash. Both are set in a moderately near future and ignore the typical science fiction topic of space travel. Both focus on the societal changes that technology might cause, notably the idea that people will organize themselves into separate but cooperating cultural and ethnic groups with small sovereign enclaves around the world. Both open by describing a character or life situation t...more

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Dan

Dan rated it:

07/16/08

Read in July, 2008

This is both a great story and a rather unique look into the future where technology is dominated by nanotechnology and society is fractured into a dichotomy of Neo-Victorian society and ancient Chinese culture. Instead of a world run by computers, life is defined by machines built from the molecule up.

I loved and hated the storytelling aspects of this book. It seemed like just when things were getting interesting, the author would switch tracks and go off in a different direction. It made t...more

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Manzoid

Manzoid rated it:

07/28/08

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...more

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Vassilissa

Vassilissa rated it:

(review of isbn 014027037X)

12/29/07

bookshelves: sff

Read in December, 2007

I gulped down the 500 pages in four days, and it was not an easy read. I admit ruefully that Stephenson's vocabulary is better than mine. I feel like this book demands analysis, and I don't know enough to provide it. All I could do is count heads and make remarks about the colour and gender and fate of each major character. Which, OK, is worth doing, but it's 3:42am and I've been reading since about 8pm, so forgive me if I don't open it up again just now.

I want a primer.

I also want m...more

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Paul

Paul rated it:

09/17/07

Read in September, 2007

recommends it for: Cyberpunk Fans

I was a huge Neal Stephenson fan after I read Snow Crash. I decided to branch out and try some of his other work: After trying to get in to the Baroque Cycle with Quicksilver, I gave up quickly. I found an audiobook version of Cryptonomicon, loved it, and decided to give him ano...more

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Sandra

Sandra rated it:

06/24/08

bookshelves: science-fiction

I have come across a number of Neal Stephenson books over the years. Passed right by each of them with a look of disdain, as I recalled the many times I had heard his writing described as "cyberpunk/steampunk." I did not even know what cyberpunk was. All I knew was that, like the musical genre description "emo," it made me cringe.

I finally opened this up one day on the train, and I now stand embarrassingly corrected. The writing is phenomenal. The story, engaging. The pro...more

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Gwen

Gwen rated it:

07/23/07

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in February, 2007

Stephenson's writing style is mostly post-modern, and he sometimes utilizes stream-of-consciousnes and varying typefaces. His description of the later 21st century Shanghai is frightenly believable. He exquisitely details the nanotechnology of the future and how it is "installed" into people, so that the reader can visualize exactly what each must look like and how it would work. Fans of centuries past might also find fascination with the rebirth of the Victorian culture integrated aro...more

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Dave

Dave rated it:

09/19/07

bookshelves: sci-fi

Read in November, 2004

First half of the book gets 4 stars; the second half gets 2 stars. Average = 3 stars.

I really liked the first half of the book. His description of technology is wonderful, and the relationship between Nell and the Primer are quite captivating. Much to my dismay, the book fell apart at the end. Characters are disposed quite expediently, conflict is introduced with little or no explanation, very illogical events occur, and then the book stops. If I could give different ratings to both half of...more

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Miss Michael

Miss Michael rated it:

06/04/08

Read in May, 2008

recommended to Miss Michael by: James

Stephenson is undoubtedly a good writer. I feel as though that's a trite thing to say, but I'm not talking about the overall story, I'm talking about the way each sentence is crafted. Also, I felt the need to read the book with a dictionary next to me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, I suppose. As far as the overall story, there's a lot to like, plenty of varied characters, several story lines that are more closely woven than one might originally think, and plenty of action. There's a kind ...more

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2 comments

Scott

Scott rated it:

03/10/08

Read in February, 2008

A friend of mine has periodically attempted to get me into the works of Neal Stephenson, the sci-fi writer who made a big splash with the virtual reality novel Snow Crash. Stephenson's work is imaginatively ambitious, and here, in describing the neo-Victorian future of a world where matter compilers can make anything, he fills the book with a huge raft of characters and concepts, most particularly "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer", a super-intelligent book which uses nanotechnology...more

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Dave

Dave added it

11/28/07

recommends it for: heather blunk

This book was amazing - incredible. It is scifi...but its actually more of a study of language and culture. this is a book you can't set down. it's Set in the way future in a time when the earth has pretty much been divided into tribes. if i remember correctly one tribe of euroopean descent has revived the victorian culture, language and manners. a "lower class" girl who doesn't belong to that tribe and lives in the slums gets her hands on a book that's actually a computer designed to...more