Tuesday, April 19, 2005
The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
You should read this book.
If I had a room crammed full of publicity goons at my call I would use every trick they had up their sleeves to convince you to read it.
With the exception of some brief intense affections with Clark, Asimov, Pournel/Niven and Card, I never really read Sci-Fi...it wasn’t my thing. I missed the whole cyberpunk craze during the 90—choosing instead to read techno thrillers and other republican action operas and when I finally got around to reading the book that started the whole cyberpunk movement (Neuromancer) I wasn’t all that impressed. But I figured I would give the whole genre another go around and also thought “what the hell I loved Stephenson’s other books, I should give it a shot”. I am glad I did…what more can I say the man is an amazing writer.
The story is set in the not too distant future (as all cyber punk novels) where nanotechnology has rendered all forms of national government as irrelevant, leading to the formation of hundreds of small groups, or phyles, each with their own rules and world views. One of the main storylines follows a poor girl who inadvertently receives a highly advanced interactive book (the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer) designed to train a child in the ways of innovative thinking and street survival. The book is designed in such a way that it adapts its teachings to her thoughts and what ever is happening to her growing and changing with her. The story also follows the maker of the primer, a neo-Victorian gentleman, as he is immersed into a crypto underworld of rival factions who are each trying to create new world order.
As always Stephenson is the master storyteller and explainer, few authors can create a new world as he can. When this book ended I wanted more. I was giggling madly with glee on the subway while finishing this book surrounded by jaded New Yorkers on their way to work and I would do it again in a heart beat.
If I had a room crammed full of publicity goons at my call I would use every trick they had up their sleeves to convince you to read it.
With the exception of some brief intense affections with Clark, Asimov, Pournel/Niven and Card, I never really read Sci-Fi...it wasn’t my thing. I missed the whole cyberpunk craze during the 90—choosing instead to read techno thrillers and other republican action operas and when I finally got around to reading the book that started the whole cyberpunk movement (Neuromancer) I wasn’t all that impressed. But I figured I would give the whole genre another go around and also thought “what the hell I loved Stephenson’s other books, I should give it a shot”. I am glad I did…what more can I say the man is an amazing writer.
The story is set in the not too distant future (as all cyber punk novels) where nanotechnology has rendered all forms of national government as irrelevant, leading to the formation of hundreds of small groups, or phyles, each with their own rules and world views. One of the main storylines follows a poor girl who inadvertently receives a highly advanced interactive book (the Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer) designed to train a child in the ways of innovative thinking and street survival. The book is designed in such a way that it adapts its teachings to her thoughts and what ever is happening to her growing and changing with her. The story also follows the maker of the primer, a neo-Victorian gentleman, as he is immersed into a crypto underworld of rival factions who are each trying to create new world order.
As always Stephenson is the master storyteller and explainer, few authors can create a new world as he can. When this book ended I wanted more. I was giggling madly with glee on the subway while finishing this book surrounded by jaded New Yorkers on their way to work and I would do it again in a heart beat.
# posted by Tom Smith @ 3:14 PM 
