The Diamond Age

The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Diamond Age is a brain-stretcher, an equilibrium-jerker. Most of all it is a dream-invader: the sort of book that, bit by bit, replaces your version of reality with its own, so that when you eventually look up from the page you are surprised to see that the world is not all exactly as the author portrayed it.

Stephenson kidnaps us and takes us galloping off to places both familiar and strange -- cities like Shanghai, Seattle or Vancouver, but not as we know them now. The modern world has been radically altered by a nanotechnological revolution, so that anything one needs can be assembled, molecule by molecule, in a matter compiler drawing on the Feed.

Through the Feed flow all the atoms and molecules required to create almost anything a person could want. Thus, society's most highly revered members are the nano-engineers, those skilled and imaginative elite who program the compilers to create elegant, effective, miniscule devices to accomplish any task imaginable.

Such as the task of raising a young lady.

For although a matter compiler cannot assemble love or kindness, nor eject happiness from its sterile vacuum-sealed chamber, in the hands of the neo-Victorian genius engineer Hackworth, anything seems possible.

Part of the joy of reading The Diamond Age is in the beauty of Stephenson's inventions. The world of nanotechnology that features so prominently in the story seems simultaneously incredible and yet, strangely plausible. From the immunocules that protect each tribal enclave from the threat of nano-terrorism to the bat-eared spy-bots designed to track down one very special book, this futuristic world is populated with functional devices that each serve their purpose.

These nano devices aren't perfect; they break down, corrode, disintegrate, or wash away with the rain. But they are part of the WAY THE WORLD IS in a very real and believable way.

Another joy of reading Stephenson, a big reason why I like him so much, is the language play. Listing a bunch of technological terms here would make it seem like the book overwhelms you with new vocabulary, and that's not the case at all. New words for new things -- for example, mediatron -- are part of the fabric of the story and are woven in gently, yet playfully.

Stephenson clearly enjoys language and employs it creatively. I wrote down a short list of [pre-existing] words I wasn't familiar with, but I could have added a few dozen more to this list:

• tantivy
• apogee
• gallimaufry
• fungible

Now tell me the author isn't having fun!

One more word I took note of was 'alamodality'. At first my eye skipped over this one, as an unfamiliar word with too many syllables to bother with. Then I looked at it again. Stephenson offers a careful reader many such rewarding moments.

I haven't discussed the story much (young girl receives riveting instruction from 'magical' interactive book and her life path is changed radically), or the themes (conformity and individuality, loyalty and subversiveness, intelligence and creativity). But I don't think I need to.

There are so many reasons why I love this book. It sets my mind abuzz and makes me pine for the future (and for my own Young Lady's Illustrated Primer). I revel in its post-nation-state, post-economic societal structures. The book has its minor flaws and a few disappointing bits -- but nothing worth nitpicking over.

Rereading The Diamond Age makes me want to reread Snow Crash, my first Neal Stephenson novel and the one that turned me into a fan. These two books transcend genre, unless 'mind-blowingly awesome' could be called a genre.

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Passages from The Diamond Age

I've always loved copying favorite passages from books. Here are a few I'd like to share from my current read:

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson.


Now nanotechnology had made nearly anything possible, and so the cultural role in deciding what should be done with it had become far more important than imagining what could be done with it. (31)


It was always foggy in the Leased Territories, because all of the immunocules in the air served as nuclei for the condensation of water vapor. If you stared carefully into the fog and focused on a point inches in front of your nose, you could see it sparkling, like so many microscopic searchlights, as the immunocules swept space with lidar beams... The sparkling of tiny lights was the evidence of microscopic dreadnoughts hunting each other implacably through the fog, like U-boats and destroyers in the black water of the North Atlantic. (52)


The trees were giants, rising branchless to far above their heads, the trunks aglow with moss... They passed through the remains of an abandoned timber town, half small clapboard buildings and half moss-covered and rust-streaked mobile homes. Through their dirty windows, faded signs were dimly visible, stenciled THIS HOUSEHOLD DEPENDS ON TIMBER MONEY. Ten-foot saplings grew up through cracks in the streets. Narrow hedges of blueberry shrubs and blackberry canes sprouted from the rain gutters of houses, and gigantic old cars, resting askew on flat and cracked tires, had become trellises for morning glories and vine maples. (340)


It is their view that one day, instead of Feeds terminating in matter compilers, we will have Seeds that, sown on the earth, will sprout up into houses, hamburgers, spaceships, and books -- that the Seed will develop inevitably from the Feed, and that upon it will be founded a more highly evolved society. (348)

Photo by J. Steuben