Rating: 
Summary: Gettin' there, Neil
Review: After my somewhat mixed review of Snow Crash I figured that I might as well give the guy another shot. And you know what, he got a bit better. This book shares most of the same flaws that Snow Crash had, but they aren't as noticeable, one thing that seems to go a long way is that the author doesn't seem as self consciously smug as that book, Snow Crash seemed at times to be a little kid showing off and showing you what a neat thing he had made, while here things are much more relaxed. I actually care about the characters here, they aren't as cardboard as the previous book and some of them actually elicit more than one emotion from me and that's a good thing. The concept itself is fairly spiffy, the idea of the Primer is interesting and his vision of the future, while not startingly original, is entertaining enough and it serves his plot pretty well. Of course he still seems to think that just having some good concepts means that a plot will just fall right into place automatically and he has yet to figure out by this point that it doesn't work that way and so most of the time you can follow along fairly well, at least the plot isn't all that convoluted but there are times when you'll be scratching your head wondering what part of his body he's pulling these twists from, so many come from left field that you start to wonder after a bit. The ending still stinks, he hasn't gotten any better with that, I once again closed one of his books thinking "That's it?" and leaving it at that, though as someone else commented, the images that he leaves in your head are memorable. It's just after five hundred pages I want more than a pretty picture. In any event, if you loved Snow Crash you've already read this and probably are just reading this review to see what the rest of the masses thought about this book. It's not so bad, after Snow Crash I was ready to hate it but it grew on me, the adventures of Princess Nell and company can be darn fun and the flaws that I've mentioned really aren't any different from any other "cyberpunk" book that I've read thus far. So if Snow Crash turned you off you might want to give him another chance. Hey, people can get better. It's how the world works.
Rating: 
Summary: I'm tempted to say 2 & 1/2 but recommend it with caveats
Review: I came to this book after Cryptonomicon which I enjoyed, in fact read it over just a few days as i couldn't put it down. This depite some slow passages, lapses and absurd coincidences in plot, and a certain shallowness. It is however engaging and pulls you in. Diamond Age shares the same qualities and flaws as well as a ridiculously slapdash ending. THe flaws in fact are much more pronounced. The treatment of nanotech is glitzy and shallow, the MTV vision of nanotech. Additionally if you're the kind of reader who can't stand laughable illogic in the story and setting this book is perhaps not for you. However if you can look beyond the occassionally stunted tress the view of the forest is worth it. The ending is both too neat and incomplete and in thus unsastifying, though I must say the mental pictures it inspires are vivid, epic and incredible. This book would make wonderful anime. My advice read it, option the rights.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond visionary, although a difficult read.
Review: The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson was one of the most insightful an original books I've read in a long time. After a brief absence from the world of science fiction, I picked this book up, almost entirely because of my love for his earlier novel, Snow Crash. In Snow Crash, Stephenson gave us a view of a future not all that far away. The technology of the Diamond Age takes us into the very distant future. On the Earth of the Diamond Age, mankind has developed and perfected the concept of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is based around the concept of using microscopic computers to allow people to literally make anything possible. Often times, the tricky part of designing an object is making it heavier than air so it won't float away. Matter compilers can create any object with the proper program, and a pair of wooden chopsticks has flashing advertisements running up and down their sides. As backlash to this technological heaven, the elite members of society borrow their culture from the British during the Victorian era. These Victorians -or Vicky's, as some derogatorily refer to them- place value in items that are hand made, and pay exorbitant amounts of money for such items. This novel varies from many typical science fiction novels, in that its focus is not on the technology or the rich, but rather on a single girl from a dysfunctional family in one of the poorest parts of the world. Nell, comes across one of three copies of the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, a book of sorts intended to educate a young girl. This book, while itself not a technological marvel, displays a true ingenuity in its content, as any good book. Through the use of this book, Nell is taught the lessons that one misses in school, the lessons that truly allow one to become successful in life. Through the characters and the primer, the reader gets many insights on what makes a person special. Reading through other people's reviews of this novel, I see that I am not unanimously supported in my opinion of this novel. Many people cited its length and lengthy description as the book's downfalls. I can understand these comments, although in all honesty, to eliminate the details would eliminate any science fiction this book had and reduce it to merely a trashy sci-fi pulp novel. Clearly, Stephensons' goal is to accomplish far more than a simple adventure. In my eyes at least, the best of science fiction is to envision brave new worlds and use the different setting to critique our own society. Those who want a book they don't have to think about, will not enjoy this book. For them, there are summer movies and Dean Koontz. One person felt the characters were dull and two-dimensional, which I found to be an entirely bogus comment. Each character is full of his or her own quirks and agendas. From the exceptionally rich Victorian technology tycoon to the Neil's thug-like yet compassionate older brother, the characters all manage to be completely original and completely realistic. Most importantly, each character inspires a bit of emotion in the reader. One is disgusted with Neil's mother and sympathetic for Nell. So, while some readers found the characters to be a fault, I found them to help draw the readers into the novel and provide the reader a familiar point so they don't get lost in the futuristic world. After all, unlike technology and trends, people for the most part do not change. In his first novel, Snow Crash, Stephenson proved that he is perfectly capable of crafting an exciting adventure story. However, Snow Crash had nowhere near the insight or vision that he achieves in the Diamond Age. In the Diamond Age, Stephenson holds nothing back, and refuses to dumb down his book to make it an easy read. It is definitely difficult for anyone not into pure science fiction. However, anyone who makes it through the book, will find an entirely elaborate world and many insights to our own world, ranging from critiques of modern education to the depressing lack of subversiveness in our culture. Those that enjoy the true science fiction genre, will find this book to be nothing short of brilliant.
Rating:
Summary: A work of near future art
Review: An outstanding piece of work. The diamond age is one of those special near-future sci-fi books that will be remembered. What makes it special is the complete originality and visionary images Stephenson presents. The story unwinds with alarming depth and texture, beautifully written with an artistic edge. The story concepts are new and may take a little getting used to; but once comfortable with Stephenson's writing style, the reader will be taken on a truely imaginative journey. Readers looking for a cheap cyberpunk thrill will be dissapointed. The diamond age is much deeper.
Rating:
Summary: Unique and original
Review: This book is original. I picked this book up hoping that it would be as good a read as Snow Crash was. What I found was a jewel. I was hooked from page one and found myself totally amazed that any writer could come up with such an amazing, original work. Please read this book, you won't be disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! So original!
Review: Such exciting ideas and little political asides which I found delightful. Even the undeveloped ideas were interesting...I'm refering to this damned dreamer business..(????) Anyway, after reading some of the bad reviews, I must say the curse of our age is this ease of writing when so many of us don't really know how to read.I mean, read for tone and between the lines. Readers used to be better, Mr Stephenson. Take heart and do more of whatever the meditative thing you are doing...it clearly sets your imagination free. More! -An old lady fan
Rating: 
Summary: What a let down after reading Snow Crash....
Review: I was very disappointed when I started reading this book. It is way to surreal for me. I have really enjoyed all his other books. Snow Crash was first rate and Zodiac made me want to be an eco-warrior but this book...OY.....I couldn't even finish it.
Rating:
Summary: Loved the book, great ideas creatively expressed
Review: I couldn't get enough of this book. Neal's ideas are futuristic, fun and well written. The book was a pleasure to read.
Rating:
Summary: Stephenson makes the reader work, and it's worth the effort.
Review: A dense, difficult, and absolutely brilliant book if you can stay with it long enough to put the author's multitudinous threads together. The central character, Nell, one of the most sympathetic and triumphant characters in recent fiction, is a street child into whose hands falls a "young ladies' primer," a highly interactive computer/book designed to provide a basic education for a neo-Victorian girl. The central question of the novel: can it give Nell the tools to survive in a brutally violent world? One clue to help the patient reader: the Grimmsian darkness of the fantasy world inside the book is intended to mirror Nell's real world, and grows in complexity as Nell herself grows up. Of course, being a Stephenson plot, everything is more than it seems. For one thing, the book requires an actor to fill in the storybook continuity, and this actor becomes Nell's surrogate mother. Her efforts to find Nell constitute one of several subplots that converge to a breathtaking climax. Another clue lies in Stephenson's past as a computer programmer. It helps going into the book to know what a Turing machine is and why it's important, for example. Stephenson peppers the reader with allusions, allegory, and in-jokes (readers of his previous novel Snow Crash will recognize one of that novel's heroines in an ironically funny side character) which can be frustrating for a reader smart enough to recognize them but without the background to grasp their significance. I won't spoil it for the reader, but Nell's epiphany, toward the end of the book, when her primer and her real world come together in an utterly harrowing fashion, comes suddenly in a scene which brought me literally out of my chair cheering. It is the intensity of this scene which makes the succeeding chapters, where Stephenson provides closure for the remaining plot threads, have an anticlimactic feeling over which some other reviewers have grumbled. In short, the book makes the reader work, but the reward is commensurate with the effort. Ideas and people in it will reverberate in your head for months.
Rating:
Summary: A long, dreary road to a salvageable ending
Review: After reading Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash, I jumped right into Diamond Age with enthusiasm. Based on those two books, I felt that this author could not possible write anything short of outstanding. How wrong I was! Diamond Age began with pathetically uninteresting characters in a future that makes me want to run off and live in the woods. I know that Stephenson likes to paint dreary pictures of the future in which technology does not solve all our problems, but it is the ridiculous cultural setting as well as the tech that ruins this book. The book is waaaay too long, incorporating about 100 times more of the Primer than is necessary to make the story interesting. I must say that he does salvage it somewhat in the end, with an interesting finish.
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