Treating nanotechnology as he did virtual reality in Snow Crash-as a jumping-off point-Stephenson presents several engaging characters. Here, the author avoids the major structural problem of that book-a long lump of philosophical digression-by melding myriad perspectives and cogitations into his tale, which is simultaneously SF, fantasy and a masterful political thriller. Stephenson's fourth solo novel, set primarily in a far-future Shanghai at a time when nations have been superseded by enclaves of common cultures (``claves''), abundantly justifies the hype that surrounded Snow Crash, his first foray into science fiction. His quest and Nell’s will ultimately lead them to another seeker whose fate is bound up with the Primer-a woman who holds the key to a vast, subversive information network that is destined to decode and reprogram the future of humanity. Expelled from the neo-Victorian paradise, squeezed by agents of Protocol Enforcement on one side and a Mandarin underworld crime lord on the other, he searches for an elusive figure known as the Alchemist. When he and his gang waylay a certain neo-Victorian-John Percival Hackworth-in the seamy streets of their neighborhood, Harv brings Nell something special: the Primer.įollowing the discovery of his crime, Hackworth begins an odyssey of his own. Neglected by their mother, Harv looks after Nell. Young Nell and her brother Harv are thetes-members of the poor, tribeless class.

Unfortunately for Hackworth, his smuggled copy has fallen into the wrong hands. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called A Young Ladys Illustrated Primer Commissioned by an eccentric duke for his grandchild, stolen for Hackworth's own daughter, the Primer’s purpose is to educate and raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. Vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, The Diamond Age is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our timeĭecades into our future, a stone’s throw from the ancient city of Shanghai, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful neo-Victorians.

The diamond age book