Rating: 
Summary: complex
Review: The book starts off looking at Bud's live; within several pages however Bud is gone. Perhaps Bud is there merely to give us a taste of Stephenson's world, a feeling of how changeable and out of control his children's lives are, but I found his disappearance frustrating. Nell's story is the central story, her use of the Primmer and its effects on others was compelling to read. Other characters seemed a bit confused and out of place or perhaps I just didn't find them very interesting and thus didn't invest the time into close reading when the focus shifted to one of them. There are many things left unexplained in the story: why is the world that way? why does Nell go to work in what amounts to a brothel? what is the Primmer showing little girls?
Rating: 
Summary: So promising....
Review: This book started out with a remarkeable amount of promise. The opening third of it is very, very good. The details and crafted naturalness of the various plot threads is better than nearly any other SF writer out there... but then something happens. it's almost as if the writer became so sure of his inate talent that he didn't care to really think out what he was writing anymore.He began clearly writing a modified victorian novel, complete with the pedigree prologue dovetailing into the main plot, but then- bam! By the end, the neo-victorian structure of the novel is lost in a morass of plotting that no self-respecting novelist should allow himself anywhere outside of his own journals and musings, and self-stimulating pleasure. Stephenson is not a bright enough person (his OS book, being a prime example of mediocrity and plagiarism in thought posing as an amusing parle with a man of mind), nor a skilled-enough craftsman to get away with it- not even close. The originality of his idea (small as it is) is lost in a book this size. He would have been better off writing this condensed to about half the size- that would have suited the neo-victorian style he attempted here much better. A real waste of money, again. I've learned my lesson with this guy- he's just not a very good writer.
Rating:
Summary: Yes, the ending is rushed--but what a ride!
Review: Stephenson has undoubtedly created one of the most intricately designed futureworlds imagined during the last decade, and the plot and characters of "The Diamond Age" are equally complex. The first forty pages work as a preface of sorts: even though the main character, a petty criminal named Bud, quickly bites the dust, his story sets the scene, introduces elaborate technological advances (nanotech viruses, surgically implanted weapons, and fully--and I mean fully--interactive media), and posits a nightmarish tribal society divided into such "claves" as the Vickys (or neo-Victorians), Parsis, and Hindustanis. After Bud's trial and gruesome execution, the focus shifts to his daughter Nell. Lord Finkle-McGraw hires John Percival Hackworth, a pseudo-intelligence (A.I.) engineer, to create an interactive primer that will not only teach Finkle-McGraw's granddaugher useful lessons but keep her removed from the "degeneracy" of society by making her life "interesting" and "subversive." Finkle-McGraw has chosen his engineer all too well, however, and Hackworth performs his own act of subversion: making a duplicate of this book for his own daughter, Fiona. His crime fails when he is mugged and the book falls into Nell's unwary hands by way of her brother Harv, a street tough. The rest of the story intertwines these female-male, daughter-patron strands from three different levels of society: impoverished Nell and Harv (and, later, Constable Moore, a Dickensian father-figure), middle-class Fiona and Hackworth, privileged Elizabeth and Finkle-McGraw, along with an ingenious assortment of supporting characters. There's Judge Fang, a strict by-the-book disciplinarian whose Confucianism allows him a soft spot for the care of children (including Nell); Miranda, the mothering "ractor" who provides the human voice behind Nell's interactive primer; and Dr. X, an underworld baron whose real allegiances are rarely clear even to his allies (or to the reader). The political and social intrigues greatly enliven Stephenson's philosophical ruminations, and there's too much going on to summarize in any meaningful way. Still, in spite of everything it has going for it, "The Diamond Age" has its flaws. I enjoyed the first half of the book immensely--it reads almost like a political thriller--but "Part the Second" falters. Things take a bizarre turn when Hackworth is ensnared by the "Drummers," a communalistic underwater tribe that exchanges digital information by collective sexual osmosis. At this point, for my tastes, things get a little too New Age "touchy-feely" (excuse the double entendre), and the book never entirely recovers. Other readers have noted that the finale is confusing, open-ended, and rushed. (And here I will be careful not to give anything away.) My initial confusion dissipated after I reread the last fifty pages, and the intended ambiguity didn't bother me since I don't mind certain things left to my imagination. Yet it's true that everything is too hastily wrapped up. There are several problems: first, Stephenson is unable to describe adequately a climactic confrontation involving armies consisting of hundreds of thousands of individuals; the mere dozen or so pages he devotes to this war resemble the confusion of a street brawl rather than the chaos of all-out battle. Second, even as he's trying to describe the battle, he's introducing new characters (such as Colonel Spence) right up to the penultimate chapter. Third, and most seriously, although one of the strengths of the first half of the book is its character development, Stephenson pretty much abandons his protagonists and nearly all the supporting roles. Actors enter and leave the stage without rhyme or reason (Judge Fang, so fully developed early in the book, doesn't even appear in the second part). In the end, even Nell, Hackworth, and Miranda become little more than political symbols or plot devices. Adding to this impression: the last pivotal twenty pages are related from the point of view of a heretofore minor character, a strategy that only diminishes the book's emotional impact. Those who expect their books to have satisfying endings, then, might well come away disappointed. I suspect, however, that if you read "The Diamond Age" knowing that the finale isn't entirely fulfilling, then you'll be able to sit back and enjoy the ingenious ride that makes up most of the book.
Rating: 
Summary: Gets better with each revisitation
Review: I first read The Diamond Age before it was released, as my sister worked in a bookstore and provided me with an advance reader's copy (as she had done with Snow Crash before). I couldn't wait - I loved Snow Crash. I had also thought Zodiac was pretty cool, and was looking for the same irreverent and footloose style. After the first fifty pages, I put it down. I went back to it a week later, and finished it in a day and a half. I couldn't put it down once I got used to the fact that an author is allowed to change his writing style without asking permission from his fan base. I thought the ending was a wee bit abrupt, but considering how well the rest of the work carried me through the weekend, I wasn't displeased. I found it again in a crate of books, buried during three moves and having been in storage while I lived in California. Since reading it previously, I had married, fathered a child, and watched her grow to the same age Nell is at the beginning of the book. Needless to say, my empathy for her character, and therefore all the characters in the book, shot through the roof. The complexity and richness of the work as a piece of scifi remained as before but it's emotional scope was, for me, enormously broadened. I was moved. Lots. I will always think that YT's appearance in the book is cool as hell.
Rating:
Summary: Utopia or Dystopia?
Review: This book was definitely a good read. The story was entertaining and like Snow Crash, the world that it took place in was as interesting as the plot itself. I honestly couldn't tell you if the future shown in this book is a utopia or a dystopia. Stephenson makes unique predictions on the future of technology, focusing on its impact on the everyday lives of normal people. Unfortunately, like Snow Crash the ending was weak. It left the reader unclear exactly where everything stood and in some cases what was going on.
Rating:
Summary: A truly important book.
Review: If I offered a review of this book immediately after reading it back in 1999, I'd have given it 4 stars (great story, extraordinary scope, great humor). However, this book stuck with me. Reading it awoke me to the significance of Nanotechnology, it's massive "world changing" potential, and the interesting philosophical and social implications as it's inevitable arrival begin to take hold. As if that weren't enough, I run a large marketing company and there are actually a number of gems that sharpened my business (all related to his description of the way marketing will be prosecuted by business' in the future). So, please consider reading this fantastic book. You won't be dissapointed. Enjoy...
Rating:
Summary: Slow Start, Great Concept and Emotion, Disappointing Ending
Review: First of all, if you come to this book from Snow Crash, know that it starts out MUCH slower. The pace picks up eventually, but the problem is that it takes about four or five years of the book's timeline to get to that faster paced portion of the story. Many of the ideas that this book explores are very exciting and interesting. The author definitely didn't get lost in the technical side of things as there is an emotionally rich storyline that overlays and incorporates those ideas. However, I found the ending disappointing and abrupt. So much so, in fact, that I found myself looking for specific logical holes in the storyline (specifically near the end). I found myself asking a lot of "But why?" type questions. I guess what I'm saying is that the ending was so abrupt that the willing suspension of disbelief needed for any fictional story (and especially science fiction stories) was stripped away to a certain extent. That being said, I thought the book was otherwise fantastic. Once you get past the slow opening, the story pulls you in and moves along at a great pace, without detracting or distracting from the emotional impact of the storyline. In addition, the ideas explored by this story are truly engaging and worth the read. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A Flawed Diamond
Review: Neal Stephenson is a genius. In The Diamond Age, he combines hard SF with social commentary, political philosophy and touches of high fantasy, serving up a stylish vision of the 21st century in which nanotechnology is dominant and the nation-state has fallen away. Humanity has become divided into many different cultural formations called phyles. The dominant phyles are the neo-Victorians (or Vickys), the Hindustanis and the Nipponese, all of whom base their power on control of the Feed, a centralized matter-conversion technology. The plot revolves around an interactive book called The Primer and its role in the revolutionary conflict between the Feed and a new, alternative technology called the Seed. As the novel unfolds, we meet colorful characters like the Vicky Artifex Sir John Percival Hackworth, the Confucian Judge Fang, the reverse engineer and criminal mastermind Dr. X, and the young heroine Nell, who gets her power from a purloined copy of the Primer. Stephenson writes with zest, humor and mind-blowing creative energy. Almost every page holds an insight, plot twist or at least a good laugh that repays the whole price of the book. That's why I really wanted to give this book five stars. But The Diamond Age is, after all, a novel, and the reader has a right to expect the author to adhere to the conventions of the form. These conventions include an ending that ties up loose ends and provides a satisfying resolution to the plot. Unfortunately, Stephenson closes the book without explaining what happens to most of the main characters or providing answers to many of the compelling questions he has raised. At this point, we can only hope for a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Begin with this Gem
Review: For people who think they might, based on what they've read or heard, enjoy Neal Stephenson's work, I recommend starting with this one. It's the most accessible and in some ways fully realized of his novels. While Snow Crash was his first truly successful novel (previous works, The Big U and Zodiac, were still climbing up the learning curve), I think this one is smarter and more engaging. It's rare that a book in this genre successfully blends fascinating, dynamic characterization with warm, compelling and clever writing, as well as vivid ideas that span from the typical sci-fi "new-technology-and-what-we-do-with-it" to more philosophical ideas about culture and identity, education, and self-realization. This is one of the few.
Rating:
Summary: The trouble with Stephenson
Review: This is a great book. Anybody who's looking into writing interactive narrative should read it. It gives interactivity something to shoot for. Like all the Stephenson books I've read the narrative ticks along. Multiple protagonists run along their converging plot lines beautifully. The stories are engaging, the characters are identifiable and Stephenson continues to twist away from the predictable at just the right moment. The trouble with Stephenson (and he's done it in all the books I've read to date - Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash) is that he doesn't follow up his brilliant content with strong conclusions. His books just fade away. Neal, baby, we love you. Your research, your vision, your imagination and your scope are fantastic. There's nothing better than sitting in a comfortable chair with a great mug of espresso and one of your books. But what about the ends? Don't be Starbucks, Neal. Do the extra work.
| 
