My first Stephenson audio book was Anathem. EXCELLENT. Slow at points, but I loved it overall. Second was SnowCrash. It was pretty good, definitively worth a listen, but not as good as Anathem.

Looking for more, i got Diamond Age. I really did my best to get through Diamond Age, but i've had the audio book for a few months now and i can't listen to it for more than 15 minutes at a time. As a result i'm still not through it. It has good points and talks about some interesting hypothetical technology stuff (which i like) but I don't really care about any of the characters and I feel like not much happens. I suppose this could all wrap up into a brilliant ending, but i don't think i'm ever going to make it that far.

The narrator may be partly to blame. She reads well enough and does some voice acting but doesn't draw me into the story. But I am slightly biased against female narrators so she may be fine for other listeners.

Jennifer Wiltsie is a fantastic narrator, and I will be on the lookout for more of her work.

I will start off by saying that I like to listen to audiobooks while I'm doing mindless work, working out, or in the car. Since I wasn't able to give this book all of my undivided attention and brain power, I missed some of the significant parts in it. I'm going to buy this book so I can sit down and read and give it justice, and listen to it again a little more carefully at some point. The narration is good, but it's still a book that you will want to pause and think from time to time. It's easy to get emotionally invested in Nell and her brother, but her story gets strange (and interesting) later on in such a way that the sympathy for her seemed to fade away for me. Both the setting and plot were original and interesting, and strange enough to keep me listening until the end.

I'm coming from the place of someone who thought Snow Crash was fabulous, inspired. I've been wanting a similar ride in the next two Stephenson reads. Sadly, not to be. Anathem was tiresome gibberish and this one - Diamond Age - just tiresome. I'm about 15 hours into this and I just can't stand it anymore. I've learned my lesson. Neal had one good tale in him and has shot his load. Whatever you do, don't pay for this one - although even using a precious credit for it is something I regret.

I had read this title, loved it, and looked forward to the listen. The narration is fantastic, the musical chapter breaks add a nice flavor and the story (and the ideas it contains) were as wonderful as I remembered.

The only marring of the experience was several dropouts in the audio, one near the end of part one and a cluster of 7 or 8 after the middle of part 2. The audio would suddenly turn staticy and unintelligible for several seconds.

This was really very annoying in what was otherwise a stellar read.

I gave this book 5 stars even though the plot was somewhat predictable. The audio production is well done (as I have come to expect from Audio Renaissance).

I am an admitted technophile and I was very amused by the alternate technologies in this book. They have mastered nanotechnology but they travel by dirigible! I loved it!

This was a fun listen that I recommended to friends and family.