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THE DIAMOND AGE: OR, A YOUNG LADY'S ILLUSTRATED PRIMER (ROC)
NEAL STEPHENSON
ROC
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Average customer rating:
Overpriced
As I write this, the Kindle edition is only 50 cents cheaper than the paperback, and text-to-speech is disabled.
Best intro to Cyber Punk out there
I have given at least 20 copies of the book away, and everyone has loved it. The receivers have ranged from total novice to science fiction girls who were curious what it was I read all the time, to my parents who only read Tom Clancy normally. The story is easy, and the writing is delicious.
Save Yourself Time! Do Not Read This Book
I am a deep lover of Science Fiction. This book was a major disappointment, a waste of time, and can be categorized as pure goobly-gook! I wanted to like this book, but it was full of maddening obessive verbriage. The first 400 pages of the book was hyper-reflixive technology-speak. There existed no character development that emboided humaness nor humanity. I felt I should have been paid for enduring the torture involved in sticking with the book until the end. What a labor of false hope. At least the Science Fiction works of Paolo Bagigalupi's (Pump Six) and Brandon Sanderson's (The Hero of Ages) embraces eternal themes, philosophy and caringiness in their essence. I am so angry at myself for being fooled into reading this obessive junk.
superb
I could not put it down. Were it not so superb, I would say, "this is worth reading for one's understanding of current events", because, like much great science fiction, The Diamond Age describes a world which ours well may become; in this case, very soon. The story-telling is first rate in all respects, and the author dazzled me with his perspectives on culture, economics, history, science, and even mythology. But I had to keep my dictionary handy; I had to look up so many words that I have probably already forgotten half of them. Lastly, it was a treat to find all of the principal characters wholly believable, fascinating, and admirable.
Fantasy/Scifi
I read science fiction because I like to speculate on possible futures. Diamond Age seems more like a fantasy novel to me. I do not believe nano-technology will ever be developed to the extent protrayed in the book.