Bookshot #41: The Diamond Age

Neal Stephenson rocks my face clean off.

There. I said it. And with The Diamond Age, he does what he does so well which is creating an absolutely fantastic world and telling an absolutely fantastic story to go right along with it. Set in a futuristic Shanghai of the 21st Century, The Diamond Age is the story of Nell, a young street urchin that accidentally finds a piece of advanced technology called The Young Lady's Illustrated Primer which functions as sort of a storybook/educational tool over the course of Nell's childhood and her growth into adulthood. Nell's many adventures in and out of the Primer eventually lead her to discover her true destination and the explosive development of new technology that might well change the future of humanity as they know it...

(That's about as light on the spoilers as I can go- and I want to go light on spoilers because this is an AWESOME book that you should go and read.)

Anyway, Stephenson does his usual amazing job of building a world that might seem confusing at first but gradually begins to make more and more sense as the story moves along. In his future, nanotechnology is everywhere- matter compilers can pretty much create whatever people want and economics runs off nanotechnology. The idea of the nation state has fallen away to smaller phyles- groups of people that cluster together around shared values whose interactions are governed by a set of rules called the Common Economic Protocol and whose nanotechnology is something called The Feed a very hierarchical, centrally planned kind of thing. What they're bounced off against is the chaotic, anarchic technology that's mysteriously called 'The Seed' and how Nell is tied into these conflicts is something I'm not going to tell you because you should go read the book yourself.

This book is awesome. It's compelling, intresting, the story is amazing- and it's a thought provoking blend of science fiction with touches of cyberpunk, steampunk and flashes of speculation about the emerging power and potential of nanotechnology that makes this science fiction of the best kind- the kind that makes you think as well as good literature. I loved Cryptonomicon when I read that- I plunged into Quicksilver but for some reason didn't persevere (something I'll have to remedy at some point) and I have yet to read Anathem, Reamde or Snow Crash- but reading this just gives me extra motiviation to get on that at some point. (My reading schedule is pretty booked for the summer.)

Overall: Awesomeness personified. Read this book. Love this book. Pick this book up and let it rock your face clean off. Further confirmation that along with Ken Macleod, Kim Stanley Robinson and John Scalzi, Neal Stephenson ranks right up there with the best science fiction authors out there.