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4.03 AVERAGE
4.03 AVERAGE
I loved it overall. Still not sure how I feel about the ending.
I originally read this a number of years ago (shortly after it came out, I think). I'd forgotten most of the story.
This isn't as striking a book as Snow Crash, but it's still a good read.
This isn't as striking a book as Snow Crash, but it's still a good read.
The story starts out well: interesting events, nice pace, a huge potential is built up (5 stars!). And then, about halfway, the pace drops dead (-1), the story gets sluggish (-1) and flares up a little towards the end (+0.4). It feels as if the end of the story (which ideas and characters I really like by the way) doesn't really fit to its start.
From reading The Diamond Age, I have gathered that Neal Stephenson really likes:
-Worldbuilding
-Science
-Lists
-Words
-Really long words
-Made-up words
-Really long made-up words
-KFC
I have also gathered that Neal Stephenson does not like:
-Pacing
-Corgis
What this book is really about is the worldbuilding. There is a core story that persists throughout the book, but (in my opinion) it's clear where Neal Stephenson invested the most effort and felt most passionate. The world he envisioned is dynamic and complex and filled with new societal/philosophical/human questions that arose with the advancement of nanotechnology. It's very cool, but the new!science jargon was a bit much for me. Because all these fake/new terms are introduced with very little context, it often took me several pages/chapters to understand what had happened previously.
It took me a while to go from passively reading to engaged with the story (25% of the way through, to be exact- thanks, Kindle!), but when all the different aspects of the book started to converge along with Nell's interactions with the Primer, I couldn't put the book down. Neal Stephenson has a way with words and I really enjoyed his writing. While not a humorous book necessarily, there were spots where I laughed out loud. I didn't have much of a connection with any character but Nell (they felt rather emotionless and flat), but I loved her POV chapters.
My main complaint was the ending. The first 3/4 of the book was like riding a steadily climbing, well-designed rollercoaster; the remaining part of the book was when the rollercoaster engineers realized they wouldn't finish construction by the deadline if they followed their original plan so they just put in a freefall and said "ta-da, fini, hope you don't get whiplash".
*trigger warning: rape*
Reading this book, I was relieved that its women were treated much better than they are in a lot of classic sci-fi I've read, which is why I was unpleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a scene toward the end of the book where a woman is raped and the rape is framed in a way where she uses that to gather her strength for what is to come. It was not graphic and did have a "point" in terms of the plot, but I strongly feel that plot point could have been resolved in a different way.
-Worldbuilding
-Science
-Lists
-Words
-Really long words
-Made-up words
-Really long made-up words
-KFC
I have also gathered that Neal Stephenson does not like:
-Pacing
-Corgis
What this book is really about is the worldbuilding. There is a core story that persists throughout the book, but (in my opinion) it's clear where Neal Stephenson invested the most effort and felt most passionate. The world he envisioned is dynamic and complex and filled with new societal/philosophical/human questions that arose with the advancement of nanotechnology. It's very cool, but the new!science jargon was a bit much for me. Because all these fake/new terms are introduced with very little context, it often took me several pages/chapters to understand what had happened previously.
It took me a while to go from passively reading to engaged with the story (25% of the way through, to be exact- thanks, Kindle!), but when all the different aspects of the book started to converge along with Nell's interactions with the Primer, I couldn't put the book down. Neal Stephenson has a way with words and I really enjoyed his writing. While not a humorous book necessarily, there were spots where I laughed out loud. I didn't have much of a connection with any character but Nell (they felt rather emotionless and flat), but I loved her POV chapters.
My main complaint was the ending. The first 3/4 of the book was like riding a steadily climbing, well-designed rollercoaster; the remaining part of the book was when the rollercoaster engineers realized they wouldn't finish construction by the deadline if they followed their original plan so they just put in a freefall and said "ta-da, fini, hope you don't get whiplash".
*trigger warning: rape*
Reading this book, I was relieved that its women were treated much better than they are in a lot of classic sci-fi I've read, which is why I was unpleasantly surprised by the inclusion of a scene toward the end of the book where a woman is raped and the rape is framed in a way where she uses that to gather her strength for what is to come. It was not graphic and did have a "point" in terms of the plot, but I strongly feel that plot point could have been resolved in a different way.
medium-paced
A lot of people encountered Stephenson through "Snow Crash," but this book, "The Diamond Age," was actually my introduction. I loved it. It blew my mind and images from it stayed with me. I went on to read many more by the author. I'm guessing when I read this, but my estiamate should be within a year or two.
Probably one of my least favorite works of Stephenson, but still enjoyable on the whole. I spread this read over a couple of months, and I may have lost the plot a bit. Found myself scratching my head a bit at the finish, and not in the best way.
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Stephenson is on his shit again with this one.
It's not that I don't think that Stephenson puts a lot of time into his work, I do. The problem lies mostly in how he chooses to represent that work, how he chooses to show the world to the reader. For every sliver of intrigue in the plot, there are five instances of over cooked world building, where things are told to you about the world with the cold distance of a textbook. There's a lot of unnecessary description, to the point of sheer self indulgence, like the part when he lists the ingredients of a bottle of condiment. These details fog the actually important or interesting bits, until you find yourself in a malaise of bloat.
Despite this systemic problem, this is probably the best I've read from him. The novel starts out a little above average, but looses the little steam it had and putters to clunky finish. I did enjoy his focus on nanotechnology way more than I did when he did the same for the net in Snow Crash, and I enjoyed the exploration of the role of culture and It's a shame that I didn't enjoy the fairy-tale bit of the Primer, because a lot of time is spent on them and boy do they get repetitive and tedious.
It's not that I don't think that Stephenson puts a lot of time into his work, I do. The problem lies mostly in how he chooses to represent that work, how he chooses to show the world to the reader. For every sliver of intrigue in the plot, there are five instances of over cooked world building, where things are told to you about the world with the cold distance of a textbook. There's a lot of unnecessary description, to the point of sheer self indulgence, like the part when he lists the ingredients of a bottle of condiment. These details fog the actually important or interesting bits, until you find yourself in a malaise of bloat.
Despite this systemic problem, this is probably the best I've read from him. The novel starts out a little above average, but looses the little steam it had and putters to clunky finish. I did enjoy his focus on nanotechnology way more than I did when he did the same for the net in Snow Crash, and I enjoyed the exploration of the role of culture and It's a shame that I didn't enjoy the fairy-tale bit of the Primer, because a lot of time is spent on them and boy do they get repetitive and tedious.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No