The most annoying part of a science-fiction book is when the author is so in love with a new technology in his time that he thinks that the future is basically that technology multiplied by a thousand. It would be like when pants were invented, a science fiction author being thrilled so much by it that he would think that in the future everyone would wear pants at all times and put pants on their hand and have houses that were pant shaped and drive pant shaped cars.

Author Neal Stephenson is so excited by nanotechnology that he inserts it every single part of his story. The plot keeps get sidetracked by Stephenson telling us another nifty use for nanotechnology whether it is to make food, books, or used as a weapon. I bet I could write a science-fiction story where everyone uses facebook for all purposes, like how Osama Bin Laden has a facebook account and the posts angry messages on George Bush’s wall, but it wouldn’t make me smart.

The best science-fiction stories are the ones that use the science of it to place humans in a different setting to see how they will react in a different circumstances, but still be a human story, rather than have the author masturbate about cool new things he can think of using the current new technology that stops being exciting after something new comes along in a couple of years, or more likely, in a few days.

The only cool thing in the book is that the future has divided people into groups, such as a group of people have decided to be like the old Victorians. But unfortunately that concept is lost in a stupid story with characters that could have been developed, if the author did not instead tell us how nanotechnology can be used to make realistic paper or some stupid shit like that.

Enjoyed all 900+ pages of this epic sci-fi adventure. Too complex to summarize, but probably the most cohesive and enjoyable of the Neal Stephenson books I've read to date.

Vile, vulgar and disgusting book with a herky jerky narrative, and a complete lack of an ending. To make matters worse, the book jacket synopsis is a total lie, and the book's sole purpose seems to be to find an outlet for the author's perverted fantasies. Don't bother reading this book, unless you love being disappointed.

I read in an interview that Stephenson has a little pocket mirror on his desk so he can look at his own face while he touches himself after a particularly good writing sesh. Not really haha! But would you put it past him? Don't tell me I'm the only one who does this!!

In the early stages, really great and Stephenson hits nanotechnology from about every conceivable angle, clearly doing the pre-internet thing of using his imagination above technical accuracy- which is better! It's a novel: why write what's possible? Write what could be possible and let it be someone else's job to make it!

Stephenson's overzealous entry into territory that isn't his contributes to the boyish charm of his prose, but is also its downside. He says stuff like omg then the nanobot binds to the axon and you're like well done Neal, that is indeed a word for a thing you find in the body! Or it's domed to better protect it from a pressure differential and you're like omg Neal, well done! You've been hitting the text books! His attempt to describe in detail how a thing that doesn't actually work would work detracts from believability, simply because he's trying to tell me he's very clever, which clearly he is, but could we get on with the story? There's nanobots fighting in the air to eradicate each other everywhere- okay, then what happened? Anything to do with the plot, mate?

Plus I skimmed the second half because the book ran on too long. And I stopped reading the fairytale parallel story pretty quickly. A bit like the pirate story in Watchmen- mhm, that is indeed a different type of storytelling that is significantly less interesting than the main story, so I'm not reading it.

As a result, someone's going to find this review in 2 years and tell me that in the second half every digression eventually amounted to something. I hope it did!

But what am I saying!! This one book is like the single best idea of one novelist, and yet Stephenson goes on to write a whole bunch more!!

Read this and everything this guy wrote- but don't be afraid to skim!!

I read this 15 years ago, but have been thinking of it recently -- virtual tribes, Drummers/Incels, violence, inequality, cybercontrol - the world seems to have caught up to it.

First I'll admit that this book has its flaws. Still, it's so good that I will overlook them,even the non-ending.

I loved the story of Nell so much that I put up with the million other less interesting characters that populate this book. I put up with all the side stuff that was obviously there to build a bigger more complex story. I guess he succeeded well enough. I was able to endure them in order to get back to the story of Nell and her development into a wonderful hero because of that nanotech book. I won't go into detail about all the themes he was trying to cover, I guess there was plenty. But the story of a little girl whose life is turned around by inadvertently getting hold of a piece of technology not originally meant for her was so powerful and so enthralling that this book will always be one of my favorites, though the rape scene was completely unnecessary and I don't understand why he put it in. I just wish Stevenson could figure out how to end a book. It really couldn't have been worse if he'd stopped in the middle of a sentence. He had an opportunity when Nell found Maranda. What happened next could have made a very satisfying ending. Instead, it stopped without a word being spoken between them. Considering how good this book already is, it almost makes me weep to think about how much better it could've been with just a few more paragraphs added at the end.

So, you (my imaginary friend who actually reads this review) may wonder why am I giving it five stars and making it one of my favorites when I have so many issues with it? I don't know if I would have elevated this book so high if I had first read it now instead of when I did. It made a big impression at the time and to this day there are parts of it that have stayed with me. Not many books have affected me like that so I have to give it its due.

It's not often that I get to read science fiction where characters wear top hats. That's the sort of class that Neal Stephenson brings to the table.

I entered into "The Diamond Age" with very few preconceptions. The story had been described on Boing Boing, and it intrigued me enough to pick it up. The idea of a girl being raised by a high tech book was a pretty nifty pitch, especially for someone raised on Inspector Gadget cartoons and a love of computers.

The thing that hit me almost immediately is how effortlessly Stephenson is able to render some really sophisticated ideas. His stylish prose dances around complicated visions of a radically different future society built around commerce tribes and nano technology without the explanation ever feeling labored. It makes for a deeply engrossing read, because I never felt like there was a strain to wrap my head around the descriptions.

In style I found the odd reversal of steampunk to be a nice added bonus. One of the most powerful groups in the book was a group of Neo-Victorians who all follow a code of impeccable manners and stylish retro attire. It's good to see more authors who realize that your future setting comes off as less dated when you ground it in a particular motif.

My only real complaints are the few moments when he delves a little too deep into topics that seemed a bit obvious. The long explanation of the internet and how society functioned in a network environment seemed a bit much until I realized that the book was released in 1995, back when the internet was only starting to emerge as a real force. Those small sections are only going to seem more condescending and basic as the years go by.

Otherwise, this was a book I was sad to see end. He created characters you wanted to follow for as long as possible. The plot dodged left every time I expected it to go right, never following conventional expectations. I will most definitely be checking out Stephenson's other titles.

10/10.
This book is many, many things. Stephenson is a fucking genius.

It is a prescient technofuturist study (a cliche for Stephenson at this point) of how AIs can shape the future of education and individual empowerment.

It's an imaginative experiment on how nanotechnology can disrupt global political order and the balance of violence.

It's a self-referential fable full of great advice and knowledge for youngsters. 

It's an exploration on the nature of intelligence, wisdom and computing.

It's a hilariously surrealist parody of the present full of humor and sassiness.

It's a generously fractal monument to worldbuilding. You can dive deep and won't be disappointed. Every name, offhanded comment, or reference makes sense either inside the book or in the real world. Give your time and undivided attention, and you'll reap ripe fruits.

It's the original source and foundational theoretical proposal for the concept of 'phyles', a new kind of social organization, later developed by David de Ugarte and studied by Vitalik Buterin, Balaji Srinivasan, and others.

It was the right book at the right time for me. I felt I was squeezing my brain to the last drop of capacity. To some, it might be a light read. To others, it may be impossible to follow. To me, it was the perfect combination of challenge and reward. 

Go fucking read this book!

-Entre el cyberpunk más “limpio” y el steampunk más (casi) razonable.-

Género. Ciencia-Ficción.

Lo que nos cuenta. En una Shanghai futurista en el que la nanotecnología lo define prácticamente todo, Bud es un buscavidas pendenciero y poco sensato cuyas acciones afectarán al futuro de su familia, especialmente al de su hija, Nell. Lord Alexander Chung-Sik Finkle-McGraw es un Lord Accionista neovictoriano interesado en el diseño y desarrollo de un sistema informático portátil interactivo y adaptativo que sirva para influir en la educación de su nieta, Elizabeth, por lo que se hace el encontradizo con el brillante ingeniero John Percival Hackworth, empleado de una de sus compañías, que según avanza el proyecto ve en él una oportunidad excelente para la formación de su propia hija, Fiona, pero para poder aprovechar la situación tendrá que recurrir a personas fuera de su círculo político-social, peligrosas de distintas formas, que también tienen sus propias ideas sobre el empleo de un dispositivo con capacidades tan interesantes.

¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:

http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...

I read this book almost 15 years ago, and loved it then. After re-reading, I still love it, and I'm astonished at how much I missed the first time.

In typical Stephenson fashion, he dumps a whole bunch of random geeky ideas in a pot and mixes them up. The Diamond Age is an amalgam of a number of interconnected human journeys, futurist daydreaming about nanotechnology, commentary about societies and cultures, and a love-letter to Alan Mathison Turing and theoretical computer science.

There are still at least six Neal Stephenson books I haven't read yet. I'm going to have to get to work!

Torn between 3 and 4 stars, but it has flashes of brilliance. It's easy to forget how big "nano" was in SF back then. I feel like Stephenson could expand/rewrite this into something great right now, but at this point he hadn't learned how to synthesize his firecracker ideas into a solid novel yet.

A subtle extension of cyber-punk, this was set in a world where nanotech-capable organizations now lead the world. There are the vestiges of nations and ethnic groups, with the addition or translation to "phyles", or groups based on like-minded worldviews. A set of worldwide Protocols exist, to keep opposing phyles from violence and overt sabotage, and provide that all persons have access tobasic needs, but it doesn't address the imbalance between have-lots and have-littles, whether people or phyles or nations.
All of which is just a sidebar the central stories of nanotech designer drawn into an ethical battle, a young phyle-less woman accidentally given the training of a Princess, and the persons and societies drawn into their wakes