The Diamond Age

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life, and the entire future of humanity, is about to be decoded and reprogrammed.

©1995 Neal Stephenson (P)2001 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Hugo Award Winner, Best Novel, 1996

• Locus Award Winner, Best Novel, 1996

"The Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction." (The Village Voice)
"[He] is the hottest science fiction writer in America." (Details)

Bad Quality

The audio here is of terrible quality and it frequently turns into scrambled garbage. Audible, I can't imagine how this ever got past quality assurance.

Tour de force

As is usual with Stephenson, you're going to have to stay on top of things to follow the story line, which-though actually simple-is so interwoven with tech, culture, myth, etc. that you can get lost in the many divergent/convergent paths. He handles it beautifully. Jennifer Wiltsie is an excellent narrator.

The origin of the meta-verse term

This is my fifth or sixth Neal Steffensen novel. So far my favorite has been 7 Eves, Cryptonomicon and REAMDE. I found the story convoluted but interesting. It just went on and on too long. I recommend it knowing that you will have to be a patient reader or listener.

What a phenomenal performance

Jennifer Wiltsie’s performance convinced me that Audible books really are (or can be) profound performances. Her voice captures dozen’s of characters creating crisp identities integral to the story. Wonderful!

Wonderful book, wonderfully read

I'm a huge fan of scifi audio, and this is easily one of my top five. The mix of depth, maturity and imagination are top-class, and Jennifer Wiltsie does a fantastic job bringing the story to life and giving personality to the characters. Apparently Stephenson just doesn't have the hang of writing endings, but it is still worth every word. I liked it better than Snow Crash, which is a tall order...

The Diamond Age

Interesting, bizarre, captivating, but too many loose ends.

Delicious.

Sometimes it takes a while to get into the grove of a story but by the second paragraph of “Diamond Age”, I was hooked. Neal Stephenson is an extraordinary writer, but more than that; a poet, philosopher and futurist. This labyrinthine tale could be described as a “fairy-tale”, painted with luscious prose, sensitive characterization and deep insight; it is a story of rare beauty. The narration is exceptional, the experience delicious.

A Great Tale Missing The End

Similar to other Stephenson books, this one has multiple parallel storylines. Unlike other Stephenson books, these parallel storylines actually start crossing a lot sooner than expected... or else I'm getting better at predicting when they should cross.

At any rate, Stephenson has worked his world-building magic again in this book, leaving tantalizing hints as to the nature of technology and structure of society without delving too far into the weeds. Most of the characters feel like real people with real motivations, and while several scenes may leave you in a state of confusion as to what exactly happened, it generally feels like that was the effect the author was going for, as context is provided later.

Most of the time.

My largest complaint for this story came at the end. I'm not one for putting spoilers into reviews, so I'll leave it that the last 20 or so minutes of the book left me feeling very unfulfilled. The long wind-up to the finale is wonderful; the finale feels rushed. It's especially bad at the end when (in my interpretation, anyway) he essentially unwinds most of the progress that the book had been leading up to.

Good, but Too Long

A primer is defined by the Macquarie Dictionary as "an elementary book for teaching children to read" and "any, often small, book of elementary principles". The subtitle of this work, I suspect, is intended to convey both of these meanings as well as a fundamental feminist message about the education of young ladies. However, the book is anything but small. Unfortunately, I have succumbed to the same fault in this review!

This title is classic Stephenson; flooded with detail, interesting characters who are never wholly rouges or heroes, and stuffed with complexity. But, I regret to write that, in my view, it is too long. I would suggest that it might be worth waiting for an abridged version but I can see no abridged versions of any of his titles.

That doesn't mean this is not worth the effort to listen/read. It is, but you probably already need to be a Stephenson addict to listen through the nearly 19 hours of audio and keep track of the characters. I was forced to write out a dramatis personae and to keep notes as the plot developed. Absent the notes, the detail would have been hard to keep in one's head. Again, that's not necessarily a bad thing (I had to do the same thing for War and Peace and I had the benefit of the hard copy in that case), but it does require effort. If you want an easy read, then this probably isn't for you. Even if you come without that expectation, don't try too hard to understand the lingo for the first 1.5 to 2 hours; most of it is invented and eventually explained or becomes obvious.

The short plot is worth noting. The story is set in Shanghai and the Leased Territories (the LT), but they now have more imaginative names like "Enchanted", "Coastal Republic" and the "Celestial Kingdom" (although the latter is more a political than a geographic description). The story concerns the creation of a primer to educate the niece, Elizabeth, of the influential Lord Alexander Chenk Shek Fingle-McGraw. Theprimer is copied and made available to his agent, John Percival Hackworth's, daughter, Fiona. The primer is an interactive book which teaches the young girls by the use of games, read stories and parables. These two girls and a clever, but uneducated waif from a dysfunctional home, Nell, learn from the primer and develop in self-absorbed but different ways. Nell (Princess Nell in the primer stories) is the principal character and her development and almost messiah like revelation is at the heart of the book. Keep an ear out because Stephenson summarises the entire plot in one paragraph about 2 to 3 hours in.

The themes explore the education of girls (as opposed to boys), the relative value of female children, interactive learning as well as a number of subsidiary themes. All of this is done with Stephenson's normal cleverness, internet nous and wickedly comical sense of humor. For example, the parody of the Wizard of Oz is terrific.

Two notes, bearing on reviews I read of this title from Audible readers. I agree that there is a lot of potentially offensive language, especially in the first two thirds of the book. A lot of this is gratuitous and could have been left out without affecting the listen, but it's there, so you may want to bear that in mind depending on who else might be listening. However, I disagree that the sexual content is unnecessary to the plot of the book. It (including the allusion to orgiastic indulgence) is essential to the plot. Personally, I thought it was well handled, without unnecessary vulgarity. What's there is important (and is really only in the last third of the listen).

Finally, to end this long review, it would be remiss not to congratulate Jennifer Wiltsie. Her characterisations are terrific, especially of the younger females.

I loved this book, and recommend it!

This is a bit long, but it takes you to a place that in some ways is a belivable place -- far in the future, when nano-tech is pervasive. Challenging, I would think, to the non-technical -- The author does not give huge background on technology. But I don't think it's critical to the understanding of the story. It is a long book, and I wish that Audible had more un-abridged books by this author.

Oh, one more thing: This is an adult story for adults, even though the main character is a little girl. When I say adult, I don't mean that it focuses on sex, but there are some rough parts that I wouldn't recommend for the queezy.