"The Diamond Age" For Those Who Have Finished *Spoilers*

[Kim]

So what did you think? This was only my second Neal Stephenson novel and makes me want to try more. It didn't have the strongest finish but was an interesting premise and kept me going the whole way through.

[Steven]

My first Stephenson novel was Cryptonomicon, which blew my socks off--just amazing.
Though I found Diamond Age hugely entertaining, it didn't strike me as 'all that' until a week or so after I finished it. I realized many of the Big Ideas continued to circulate in my mind, and now I notice ideas Stephenson started appearing in other works. I'm pretty sure that makes Diamond Age a seminal book. I plan to read it again.

[Paul]

I actually think The Diamond Age is a better book than Snow Crash, much as I love that book too, which got me and so many others into Stephenson in the first place. Here I think he merges the fun, action-packed cinematic style that makes me think he must've been a roleplayer with startlingly clever ideas is a way that balances superbly (Snow Crash can, I think, be a little too cartoonish and Anathem for me didn't quite work).

For me, he blends the tech and the society perfectly; the way that the ubiquitous nanotech has created a ruling class of neo-Victorians in their own impervious bubble (almost literally, with the cloud of nanites that protects the island from invasion). I love the interface of the book, and how it educates Nell (the recent story of Ethiopian kids hacking tablet computers actually reminded me of this http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/...).

[Sam]

The Diamond Age and Snow Crash are my only Stephenson books as well. I really liked them both but prefer The Diamond Age. It is interesting how they connect together though and I think both of them are a bit over the top. I guess I cut The Diamond Age more slack in this regard since it is set further into the future with nano-tech. Also I really liked the heroine’s journey. The end did come a bit sudden but perhaps Stephenson was just following the old show-biz adage “always leave ‘em askin’ for more”.

[Chris]

While I actually prefer Snow Crash to The Diamond Age, it's a close thing. I think it's because The Diamond Age shunts too many of its characters to the side (so it could continue to follow Nell), where Snow Crash kept the total cast smaller and thus focused more tightly on them. Stephenson is very good at making sympathetic characters, and it shines here. He just made a few too many of them. Even so, it's an excellent read, and it definitely leaves you wondering how many people could change the world...if you just gave them a chance.

[Warmdarksky]

Loved this book!
Now that it's a week after I put it down, though, I can think of a few niggling complaints. Fiona Hackworth and Princess Elizabeth(?) served the nearly same narrative function and didn't really need to be as fleshed out as they were. Their ambiguous endings frustrated me, and I wish instead we could have followed one of the mouse-army girls for a while. ((Where did that come from?? Had they been going on their own primer adventures, or following Nells, or both? What were the girls like? What will they go on to do?)) It's debatable.

Of course, there are deliberate places the narrative did not go, like into the drummers' collective consciousness, or the circus near the end through the eyes of a person not trapped in goggles. Which is fine. Gives me something to think about. But the collective devotion and motivation of a massive girl army? Underdeveloped. They kinda just swooped in, did the deus ex machina thing, and left me scratching my head.

[Warmdarksky]

Also, was anyone else thrown by the rape at the end?

[Zac]

I found this book to be a fascinating study in perhaps my own weakness as a reader - it was really a totally vexing puzzle for me. My overall impression was that I was absolutely thoroughly impressed by Stephenson's writing and his vision: the world was incredibly divergent from our reality, but was intricately fleshed out and fascinating. The ideas were big and exciting really clever. And yet I was stunned how easy I found this book to put down on any given night and how little I really cared about what was happening or to whom - even though I was impressed by it?!? It stil doesn't make any sense to me, my reaction that is.

[Casey]

I was similarly confused by the Mouse Army. Where did all the girls come from? Were they really being rescued from a civil war, and if so, why only girls? Or were they being bred/stolen selectively? And for what purpose? Because they seemed to be an opposing force to Dr. X's Fists, and I thought Dr. X was responsible for the girls.
I thought the coverage of the Drummers was fine - there was just enough detail there for me to "get it" without dwelling too long there.
I did love this world. It was unique and nearly believable. My only complaint was at the beginning of the book (with Bud) there was too much "lingo that tells you this is a SF book" going on. I was too caught up in the language and not enough in the story.
Overall a good read. I wish the ending had been more polished, but I'm definitely glad I read it.

[Hypochondriac]

I'm very confused about the mouse army. Why did they make Nell into their Queen? What was the trick Hackworth did when making the new primers?

[Stuart]

Loved its quirky style.

[CBRetriever]

the mouse girls were babies saved by Dr X who also got primers

I really enjoyed this and the ending wrapped it up nicely though I'm not sure what happened to Elizabeth. Fiona I presume became a drummer