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graceishuman 's review for:
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
by Neal Stephenson
I loved Snow Crash and really wanted to like this book, but for a number of reasons it just didn't work for me. I think Neal Stephenson had a case of imagination run wild in this book. He's working with too many ideas, characters and plot developments and each of them end up getting short shrift instead of being fully realized. I think it ought to have been two or even three books rather than one. The final chapters feel rushed and incoherent, and the ending is very abrupt.
I also had issues with the way the phyles were dealt with in this book. With [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396730s/830.jpg|493634] one got the feeling that the balkanization of society into phyles and burbclaves was a tragic result of American consumerism and provincialism run amuck. In Diamond Age the phyles seem to be natural (for the most part) divisions between people which are unavoidable and even good (the Neo-Victorians and the Nipponese being held up as examples of the 'best' phyles, which also raises other questions about race and colonialism and . . . never mind). Anyway, I found that disturbing.
I also had issues with the way the phyles were dealt with in this book. With [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396730s/830.jpg|493634] one got the feeling that the balkanization of society into phyles and burbclaves was a tragic result of American consumerism and provincialism run amuck. In Diamond Age the phyles seem to be natural (for the most part) divisions between people which are unavoidable and even good (the Neo-Victorians and the Nipponese being held up as examples of the 'best' phyles, which also raises other questions about race and colonialism and . . . never mind). Anyway, I found that disturbing.