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

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...