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murder_burnout_books 's review for:
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
by Neal Stephenson
Wow!
I’m not a huge sci-fi fan. Truly I was surprised that I was so willing to pick up another Neal Stephenson book after my experience with Seveneves (not a bad book but definitely more of a presentation in astrophysics). However, I read somewhere that this is connected to Snow Crash. That being said, I had to read it. The Diamond Age was definitely worth my time and will also be entering my top 5 list for books read in 2024.
This story is infinitely complex compared to Snow Crash. We have a future so far ahead of us thats it’s hard to imagine. We have a society of neo-Victorians. We have China that has been completely transformed by futuristic technology. We have nanotechnology so incredibly complex that it now fights itself and wages war within a human. We have an information exchange that is so unlike our current world that it takes a moment to understand how it works. It is the world if and when the internet and technology becomes the Wild West.
Despite so many characters and stories in this book, Stephenson did a great job at keeping all characters relevant and tying them together in a way that shocked and surprised me. I felt like I was reading a labor of love.
If I had to offer one criticism then it would be the ending. It’s not necessarily that Stephenson cannot make good conclusive endings (he has this issue in many books) but that the book could’ve ended sooner and I wouldn’t have complained. It just felt like the ending was dragged out.
Overall, I felt like I was reading something miraculous. The Diamond Age is worth a read and a few re-reads!
I’m not a huge sci-fi fan. Truly I was surprised that I was so willing to pick up another Neal Stephenson book after my experience with Seveneves (not a bad book but definitely more of a presentation in astrophysics). However, I read somewhere that this is connected to Snow Crash. That being said, I had to read it. The Diamond Age was definitely worth my time and will also be entering my top 5 list for books read in 2024.
This story is infinitely complex compared to Snow Crash. We have a future so far ahead of us thats it’s hard to imagine. We have a society of neo-Victorians. We have China that has been completely transformed by futuristic technology. We have nanotechnology so incredibly complex that it now fights itself and wages war within a human. We have an information exchange that is so unlike our current world that it takes a moment to understand how it works. It is the world if and when the internet and technology becomes the Wild West.
Despite so many characters and stories in this book, Stephenson did a great job at keeping all characters relevant and tying them together in a way that shocked and surprised me. I felt like I was reading a labor of love.
If I had to offer one criticism then it would be the ending. It’s not necessarily that Stephenson cannot make good conclusive endings (he has this issue in many books) but that the book could’ve ended sooner and I wouldn’t have complained. It just felt like the ending was dragged out.
Overall, I felt like I was reading something miraculous. The Diamond Age is worth a read and a few re-reads!