Kitap's Reviews > The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

Chris Gladis' insightful review says it all. Stephenson starts strong with fascinating ideas about nanotechnology and its effects on society, inventive sf lingo (e.g., ractives, thetes, etc.), vocabulary that occasionally sent me to my dictionary, and some interesting plots. Alas, the novel goes off the rails about 2/3 of the way in with new, poorly explained subplots about Drummers, group minds, and an even more revolutionary technology called "the Seed." Stephenson did something similar with Snow Crash , a book that had possibly the best opening chapter in all of SF history and a muddled conclusion that made me regret reading the entire thing. I wouldn't be surprised if he did it in his later books too. After hearing all my friends rave about this book in particular, I had higher hopes. I am leery about reading Stephenson's other lauded works like Cryptonomicon (of which I have a signed, numbered copy) and Anathem , although knowing me I will give them a chance once I've gotten rid of the taste of this one.