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Dave's Reviews > The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
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First half of the book gets 4 stars; the second half gets 2 stars. Average = 3 stars.
I really liked the first half of the book. His description of technology is wonderful, and the relationship between Nell and the Primer are quite captivating. Much to my dismay, the book fell apart at the end. Characters are disposed quite expediently, conflict is introduced with little or no explanation, very illogical events occur, and then the book stops. If I could give different ratings to both half of the books, I would.
The whole book is laced with tangents which I found to be rather dull. I cared very little for Hackworth's mission after he created the Primer. I cared very little for what Dr. X was attempting to do with the Primer. In the first half of the book, Nell captures most of the focus, which makes these other aspects simply minor annoyances.
In the end, I found the book to be enjoyable. Although, if I knew then what I know now, I would have stopped reading as soon as the book started to go downhill. My opinion of Stephenson would have been much higher, and I would have saved myself some time and effort of finishing.
I really liked the first half of the book. His description of technology is wonderful, and the relationship between Nell and the Primer are quite captivating. Much to my dismay, the book fell apart at the end. Characters are disposed quite expediently, conflict is introduced with little or no explanation, very illogical events occur, and then the book stops. If I could give different ratings to both half of the books, I would.
The whole book is laced with tangents which I found to be rather dull. I cared very little for Hackworth's mission after he created the Primer. I cared very little for what Dr. X was attempting to do with the Primer. In the first half of the book, Nell captures most of the focus, which makes these other aspects simply minor annoyances.
In the end, I found the book to be enjoyable. Although, if I knew then what I know now, I would have stopped reading as soon as the book started to go downhill. My opinion of Stephenson would have been much higher, and I would have saved myself some time and effort of finishing.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
November 1, 2004
–
Finished Reading
September 19, 2007
– Shelved
September 21, 2007
– Shelved as:
sci-fi
Comments Showing 1-4 of 4 (4 new)
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by
Dani
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rated it 2 stars
Dec 06, 2008 09:02AM
You and I seem to have enjoyed the same bits of this book. I was much more interested in Nell and how she would end up than I was in Hackworth and Dr. X and the Alchemist and the Seed. I was especially disappointed in what Stephenson did with the character Miranda.
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While I agree with the general gist, I'd probably give 5 stars to the beginning and 4 stars to the end as the material is still captivating.As usual, Stephenson (like in Cryptonomicon) doesn't do endings very well. But this is unfortunately common in the genre. Perhaps this book could use a sequel
Excellent explanation. This is nearly identical to how I feel about this book.
I'm not sure why everyone feels that there's such a disconnection between the earlier and later parts of the book.The connection seems obvious to me. The beginning is about the development of Nell's character, through the medium of the Primer. The end is about how she uses that character to destroy the Seed and save Miranda, as well as her adopted culture.
The upshot is the point of the book - the importance of culture and nurture in producing successful people and a successful society.
