Rating: 
Summary: Stephenson rules!
Review: Anything by this amazing author is worth a look. TDA is not as good as Snow Crash, but it may be better written than SC. It's hard to believe that Stephenson could get any better as a writer, but TDA is an amazing novel and should become a classic. The character development and story are better than Snow Crash, but TDA is not as cutting edge as SC. It is simply a damned good book
Rating:
Summary: JUST READ IT!
Review: Just a little word for Neal Stephenson if you ever see this...
THANKS
Rating:
Summary: Read it! Enjoy it!
Review: Captivating and original. Deeply moving and insightful on
the importance of adults and our influence on children, especially young girls. Don't expect anything from this
story, just read it and enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: Mind blowingly excellent vision of a new world
Review: This book inspired me. It is not just typical science fiction, it's a story about a young girl's life. It had me wanting to change careers and go into educational software. Not only that, but the world Stephenson creates is truly unlike any future you've heard described before. Just as the same old same old cyberpunk landscapes were getting tired (his own Snow Crash being one of the best, and rightly one of the last), The Diamond Age goes into a fantastic new direction
Rating: 
Summary: A mix of marvellous ideas that disappointed as a whole
Review:
Having heard only positive reports of Stephenson's work (especially "Snow Crash") I expected interesting ideas and a good story when I picked up "Diamond Age." I found the former, but not the latter.
The world setting of the story was quite novel, and had great potential. The concept of an interactive educational tool, completely self-customizing for the needs of its user was another attendtion grabber. Besides the technological marvels and the admittedly excellent characterization, the plot was,alas, quite weak. The introduction of unexpected elements ('the Seed'??!) seemed a markedly artificial means of enlivening the story, and the actual conclusion itself was quite unsatisfying.
Overall, the book failed to come anywhere near my expectations of a book from the well-recommended Neil Stephenson.
Rating: 
Summary: This book transcends the genre.
Review: In the tradition of thought provoking science fiction, this book doesn't stop at providing a detailed look at a fascinating possible future socity through an interesting plot. It also examines the education system, and the importance of personal interaction of student and teacher. Machines can provide a vehicle for change, but ultimately, it is people who change other people's lives
Rating:
Summary: Beats Snow Crash into the ground
Review: WOW! The Diamond Age is *really* a good book, one of the best I've read. If I had to genre-ize this book, it would be Anti-Cyberpunk, or Nano-Steampunk. Better than Neuromancer, better than the Difference Engine, better than Snow Crash, this novel kicks! It is as focused and as sharp as the diamond that is its namesake, carrying the story in a coherent beam, glittering like the polished Engines of The Difference Engine. It isn't as misty or dim or unfocused as the still-excellent Neuromancer and Snow Crash. Stephenson has cut the proverbial crap, polished his writing, honed his already-incredible world-building skills, focused his point, and has suddenly become mature. His writing seems modeled after the Victorian works of T. S. Eliot or Charles Dickens. This book couldn't really be called steampunk, or even nanosteampunk, or even science fiction; more like Vicotrian-age historical fiction for the future with new and plausible ideas so numerable a stick could not be shaken at them. Even though it carries the mind-blowing ideas that made Snow Crash famous, it still retains that gas-light, coal-heated, top-hat wearing... quality of Victorian England. Neal shows amazing and pleasing understanding and respect for the Chinese culture, and the China Sea locales are fresh and fun.
The plot(finally) is this: a nanoengineer named John Hackworth steals a device called the Young Lady's Illustrated Primer, designed to teach girls slef-control, charisma, strength, subversion, and other qualities that create futue world leaders. He plans to give it to his daugfhter, but the Primer is stolen and given to one of the thieve's little sisters: Nell. Neal paints a superb portrait of the almost god-like primer, and the effect it has over Nell, who soon must flee. The Primer is a vast, interactive fairy tale, exquisitely sensitive to the user and their current wants and needs. While all of this is happening, a Clave called the Drummers is slowly developing plans for the next jump in nanotechnology, and Hackworth becomes entangled in the construction of a device called the Seed. And a group called the Fists of Righteous Harmony is seeking to reclaim China and restore the Celestial Kingdom. And while all of this is happening, the Primer seems to have a grip on it all.
The characters are great, the world is vaguely but elegantly satirical but at the same time incredibly detailed. So many cool ideas: Dog Pod Grids, Claves, Feed lines, the Fists, Dr. X, Neo-Victorians, growing islands, nanoweapons, and many more. Stephenson is not concerned with the science fiction side of nanotech, but with its influence on the real world, day to day. It is an elegant, satirical, funny, fascinating, mind-bending, entertaining book. Neal, stop reading these reviews and hurry to work on your 7th book! (fifth if you don't count books under your pseudonym
Rating:
Summary: Cross A.S. Byatt's POSSESSION with KING'S QUEST and Get....
Review: Unusual and exceedingly well done...in its way. Book left me with a vague sense of the unfinished. The setting on the OTHER side of the Pacific rim seems to represent a growing SciFi trend, and is a refreshing antidote to the well worked vein of future USAs perverted in various ways. Not up to early William Gibson for me, and almost not even science fiction (though certainly not fantasy) in any way Heinlein would recognize. The image of the BOOK as an enduring human involvement (and The Diamond Age's main character is a book!) is entirely attractive. Skill in weaving Princess Nell's adventures in the video-game-cum-universal-tutor book, into the "external" narrative is good
Rating:
Summary: One of the finest books I've read
Review: This book has turned me on to a whole new genre.
Stephenson's symmetry between the 'real' Nell and the 'Primer'
Nell are remarkable. Moreover, his storytelling ability and his insightful, mind-boggling vision of the future compelled
me to believe that Isaac Asimov isn't alone as a science fiction
writing guru. Stephenson has proven his writing ability to
be more than the silly antagonism of 'Zodiac', a wonderful
"eco-thriller", the smart-aleck goings-on at 'The Big U', and
the fantastic future-telling of Hiro Protagonist's world in
'Snow Crash.' Although I know the order of reading is normally
from 'Neuromancer' by Gibson to other, "lesser" lights, this
book inspired me the other way: after 'Diamond Age', I'm
finally inspired to read Gibson.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting book.
Review: Like all of Stephenson's books, this is about a strange future.
The primer is very interesting, and the whole book is good.
I would like to recommend this book to anyone.
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