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Mario the lone bookwolf'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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The logical dystopian continuation of a feudal system in a cyberpunk, no wait, the cyberpunk, yes you heard right, setting.
Such a laconic, badass writing style, such a messed up, gritty, sick world. As if China Mieville and Alastair Reynolds created a hybrid and doped it with philosophical undertones. Stephenson thematizes the consequences of nanotech in a Blade Runner style scenario that is coming closer each day, letting and enabling fiction to be history one day, making it seem as if it´s the inevitable fate of human societies to invite, celebrate, and realize each possible dystopian vision. Everything is already on the horizon:
The social injustice, a technological singularity, poverty, slums, redlining, crime, etc. out of control, corporations and organized crime becoming more and more potent thanks to free trade and new inventions, not to forget the lobbyism undermining democracies and escalating media consumption thanks to VR, AR, internet, etc. of course. I don´t even know where, except for the technology that will need a few decades to come, are any differences to reality which once again shows the immense Nostradamusian potential of sci-fi.
We´ve become cyberpunk, that might sound cool, but it´s a freaking nightmare, it´s at the moment becoming so strange that it couldn´t be even used for a movie, script, novel, or series some decades ago because many would have deemed it improbable and exaggerated, especially the stupidity. But it´s no fiction, humans are doing and gonna do all this stuff, this disturbing options will get real Cyberpunk 2077
style.
Stephenson completely lost control over the length and redundancy, wordiness, and infodump detection and preventions systems over his career, Diamond Age and Snow Crash are still the perfect balance of length and content, but others escalated quickly and made him kind of unreadable for bookworms used to less egocentric and unconventional writers. Experiments over a few hundred pages are ok, but if it´s that extreme, many audiences get lost for a reason. I´m a nerd, I can handle it, heck, I love it, but it´s unnecessary that so many people won´t ever enjoy the wisdom and mindblowing ideas Stephenson weaves in his colossi of books that are exhausting to read, but extremely satisfying.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
Such a laconic, badass writing style, such a messed up, gritty, sick world. As if China Mieville and Alastair Reynolds created a hybrid and doped it with philosophical undertones. Stephenson thematizes the consequences of nanotech in a Blade Runner style scenario that is coming closer each day, letting and enabling fiction to be history one day, making it seem as if it´s the inevitable fate of human societies to invite, celebrate, and realize each possible dystopian vision. Everything is already on the horizon:
The social injustice, a technological singularity, poverty, slums, redlining, crime, etc. out of control, corporations and organized crime becoming more and more potent thanks to free trade and new inventions, not to forget the lobbyism undermining democracies and escalating media consumption thanks to VR, AR, internet, etc. of course. I don´t even know where, except for the technology that will need a few decades to come, are any differences to reality which once again shows the immense Nostradamusian potential of sci-fi.
We´ve become cyberpunk, that might sound cool, but it´s a freaking nightmare, it´s at the moment becoming so strange that it couldn´t be even used for a movie, script, novel, or series some decades ago because many would have deemed it improbable and exaggerated, especially the stupidity. But it´s no fiction, humans are doing and gonna do all this stuff, this disturbing options will get real Cyberpunk 2077
style.
Stephenson completely lost control over the length and redundancy, wordiness, and infodump detection and preventions systems over his career, Diamond Age and Snow Crash are still the perfect balance of length and content, but others escalated quickly and made him kind of unreadable for bookworms used to less egocentric and unconventional writers. Experiments over a few hundred pages are ok, but if it´s that extreme, many audiences get lost for a reason. I´m a nerd, I can handle it, heck, I love it, but it´s unnecessary that so many people won´t ever enjoy the wisdom and mindblowing ideas Stephenson weaves in his colossi of books that are exhausting to read, but extremely satisfying.
Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
March 7, 2018
– Shelved
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Damn, now I want to read this! I don’t mind a rambling, long, convoluted story. Actually I love them and I’m not a fan of AI either. Awesome review Mario.
Such a great book. I adore this and Snow Crash, but also Cryptnomicon and his Baroque Cycle, but find that it's after that Stephenson loses that balance between plot & ideas vs loquaciousness, although that is just me.And, yes, I confess that while I've read those two more than once the idea of jumping into the Baroque Cycle again does make me shudder a bit.
Kevin wrote: "Yes! Great review, & spot on about Stephenson’s style—it can be maddeningly digressive at times. Although, as you say: “exhausting to read, but extremely satisfying.�
Couldn’t agree more!"
Thanks!
Imagine Neal Stephenson and Alastair Reynolds writing a series together, that would be a marathon of an overachieving, complex read.
David wrote: "Great book!"One of these milestones one has to have read.
Pat wrote: "Damn, now I want to read this! I don’t mind a rambling, long, convoluted story. Actually I love them and I’m not a fan of AI either. Awesome review Mario."Thanks!
If you are getting deeper into sci-fi, you will inevitably begin loving AI, because she, he, it, they, etc. is just so freaking cool.
Paul wrote: "Such a great book. I adore this and Snow Crash, but also Cryptnomicon and his Baroque Cycle, but find that it's after that Stephenson loses that balance between plot & ideas vs loquaciousness, alth...""but find that it's after that Stephenson loses that balance between plot & ideas vs loquaciousness" I couldn't agree more.
He had the potential to be in one line with Reynolds, Corey, and Hamilton, but he kind of went the eccentricity, not caring about readers, route, and completely lost track.
Resulting in fans like us shuddering when thinking about again jumping in one of his too big books again, very probably avoiding rereading and not unlimitedly recommending all of his works.
�exhausting to read, but extremely satisfying.�
Couldn’t agree more!