Dan's Reviews > The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
by
by
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Dan's review
bookshelves: adventure, recommended-to-me, sci-fi, steampunk, coming-of-age
Apr 21, 2013
bookshelves: adventure, recommended-to-me, sci-fi, steampunk, coming-of-age
From beginning to end, I was impressed by the Diamond Age. Stephenson seemed prescient at times (about everything except tape drive storage) and his worlds were truly imaginative. I could not help but be drawn into the story of Nell, Hackworth, and the others. There is much going on here, and it builds into a strong story. Strangely for Neal Stephenson, the book could have used another hundred pages. (Someone must have told him that, and now he uses those pages in every subsequent book he's written, whether he needs them or not.)
I will admit it – I did not love all of this book. Plot gets messy, imagination overwhelms rationality. But the parts that I did love, the windows into storytelling bliss, were more than sufficient to outweigh the truly odd machinations of the final third. The genius of Neal Stephenson pops up over and over again, and I was always excited to see what was coming next.
P.S. In the dedication, one line reads: “Douglas (Carl Hollywood) Crockford” Yes, that Douglas Crockford. I wish I knew why...
I will admit it – I did not love all of this book. Plot gets messy, imagination overwhelms rationality. But the parts that I did love, the windows into storytelling bliss, were more than sufficient to outweigh the truly odd machinations of the final third. The genius of Neal Stephenson pops up over and over again, and I was always excited to see what was coming next.
P.S. In the dedication, one line reads: “Douglas (Carl Hollywood) Crockford” Yes, that Douglas Crockford. I wish I knew why...
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Reading Progress
April 21, 2013
–
Started Reading
April 21, 2013
– Shelved
April 30, 2013
–
43.96%
"PhyrePhox? Bizarre coincidence, or more evidence that Neal Stephenson is actually from the future?"
page
200
May 20, 2013
–
63.3%
"A Turing Machine and a Turing Test in the same chapter? Bold move, Neal Stephenson."
page
288
May 22, 2013
–
Finished Reading
May 23, 2013
–
97.8%
"I'm sorry, Neal Stephenson, you may have gotten 99% of this book exactly right, but we don't use tape drives anymore."
page
445
May 23, 2013
– Shelved as:
adventure
May 23, 2013
– Shelved as:
recommended-to-me
May 23, 2013
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
May 23, 2013
– Shelved as:
steampunk
May 23, 2013
– Shelved as:
coming-of-age
September 26, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 26, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
September 26, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read