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Lyn'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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If Charles Dickens climbed in an H.G. Wells time machine and went forward in time and he decided to create a post cyber-punk, progressively dystopian bildungsroman novel with a strong female lead and with a fascinating glimpse of a future that expands on the world begun in Snow Crash, he would have written this novel.
This is Great Expectations with nanotechnology.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is to post-modernist science fiction thought as what Dickens was to his era: a smart, entertaining and groundbreaking new literature. In this work I also see the inspiration for such books as Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. In fact I think a study could be made to determine how many works Stephenson may have influenced from this remarkable 1995 publication that won both the Hugo and Locus award for best novel.
** 2018 - I need to read more from Neal Stephenson, this book was so cool and sophisticated, so rich with new ideas and fresh thoughts. His illustration of nanotechnology has been highly influential and his writing seems to be the state of the market for SF. Good stuff.
This is Great Expectations with nanotechnology.
The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson is to post-modernist science fiction thought as what Dickens was to his era: a smart, entertaining and groundbreaking new literature. In this work I also see the inspiration for such books as Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and Paolo Bacigalupi’s The Windup Girl. In fact I think a study could be made to determine how many works Stephenson may have influenced from this remarkable 1995 publication that won both the Hugo and Locus award for best novel.
** 2018 - I need to read more from Neal Stephenson, this book was so cool and sophisticated, so rich with new ideas and fresh thoughts. His illustration of nanotechnology has been highly influential and his writing seems to be the state of the market for SF. Good stuff.
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Reading Progress
February 8, 2014
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Started Reading
February 8, 2014
– Shelved
February 20, 2014
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Finished Reading
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Matthias
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Nov 26, 2015 07:28AM
Nothing will get an author faster on my to-read list than a comparison with Charles Dickens. Thanks for this review, Lyn!
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Great review Lyn. As with William Gibson, there hasn't been a Stephenson novel I've loved yet, though, like Gibson, clearly, they are both exceptionally talented authors. It is I that must learn to appreciate their sort of work.
Thanks Denis, they can be over the top
I struggle to describe Neal Stephenson books; I think you nailed it here! Thanks!
Wow, thanks Mary Catherine
Me too. Didn't even need to read the blurb.
Thanks Chris and Dennis
Agree, this work surely influenced Windup Girl.
Lyn, your reviews are always great; you just convinced me to give Stephenson another chance!
This is Great Expectations with nanotechnology.Strong praise
Very disappointing. I found it turgid, an almost constant apologia for theoretical Victorian and Confucian ideals quite at odds with the actual story of the female lead, but no dramatic tension or story derived from that. It also just petered out for me.. the last 10% just wound down and abandoned characters and plotlines.
I recently read Seveneves. It's a haul, but it's mind-blowing.
