pharder's Full Review: Neal Stephenson - Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's ...
Not as good as Cryptonomicon!
Even so, Stephenson's novel does a good job of playing "what if" with the idea of deploying "matter compilers" ("M.C.") throughout society so that, whenever you want something, you simply tell your M.C. to build it for you, one atom at a time, from a "feed line" of basic atoms that can be assembled nanotechnologically.
This hypothetical future society (with much of the plot set on an artificial island built nanotechnologically off the shore of Shanghai, China) would seem to have everything. Cheap air travel: with complete control over individual molecules, just have your nanofactories build a huge airship envelope that's only a molecule or two thick but so incredibly rigid that literally all the air can be sucked out of it -- instant lift; just add engines and passenger accommodations. You're hungry? Just go to a public M.C. and pull out a free meal. You want a mattress to sleep on? Get it from the M.C.
Somewhere in all this is buried the concept that people still pay for the things they use. Money is in the form of "ucus", which I think means "Universal Credit Units". Money seems to be handled through some logical descendent of the modern bank account. The novel never really made it clear how ucus are transferred from one person to another.
However that happens, it apparently does happen, so it does seem justifiable to portray the world as still having both poor and rich people. Much of the early part of the book takes place among the very wealthy. In fact, the whole plot hinges on a single action taken early on by an "Equity Lord" who is one of the very most wealthy of the Neo-Victorians, who are one of the most wealthy "phyles" on the planet. Phyles have taken the place of the obsolete nation-states of our time.
In this setting, an Equity Lord commissions the creation of a very special book, "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his granddaughter. This "book" is really an extremely sophisticated nanotechnical computer and communications device. The engineer who directs its creation wants one for his daughter, so he bootlegs a copy which then gets stolen and falls into the hands of a slum girl named Nell. Much of the novel is about her growing up under the tutelage of the Primer, which essentially becomes her mother. And much of the novel is also about powerful forces trying to get control of the Primer or additional copies of it.
It sort of sneaks up on you that there are still poor people, conflict and war. But there is a war in China, led by the revolutionary "Fists of Righteous Harmony", who are intent on returning China to its old ways, getting rid of all nanotech, and kicking out all the foreign devils.
The last part of the book focuses on how Nell copes with this revolution and finds her place in the world. This last part is what I found very dissatisfying. The social forces depicted here are bewildering and not well explained. For example, one of the phyles is a society of "drummers" who live under the ocean in nanotechnologically created tunnels and caverns, where they constantly drum on the walls and floors and engage in huge orgies. Uh, how exactly does that make any sense? Well, I understand part of it: They're all infected with little nanotech bugs that latch onto their nervous systems and influence their thought processes. So, okay, it makes some kind of weird sense that this phyle's culture is wacko. Still, I didn't like this part of the novel. It seems very unmotivated.
There were also several technical points that Stephenson doesn't seem to have thought out very consistently. For example, this world that bases its whole economy on huge feed lines that supply matter to the matter compilers, has made the incredible mistake of building those feed lines from materials that are easily flammable, so that a large part of the revolution of the Fists of Righteous Harmony consists of setting fire to the feed lines. Huh? These people can make nanotech clothing that is impervious to bullets. They can't protect the basis of their technology from something as primitive as fire?
Before I close, I must add one disclaimer: I know very little of modern or historical Chinese culture. Some of the cultural forces that Stephenson uses in this novel may be a good projection of Chinese culture(s) into the future. I can't evaluate that. But one of the key characters is a Confucian judge who was raised in the U.S. but now works in Shanghai, and this character's transformation in the novel is very interesting.
One of the reasons I didn't rate this novel above average is that it's just a little too dark for me. I don't like dark novels. Sure, I know that any good story will have conflicts and complications, problems for the characters to overcome. But parts of this novel came way too close to portraying a nihilist future in which there's no point to life, no reason to go on living. The fact that it does have a basically happy ending doesn't completely save it from that flaw.
Set in 21st century Shanghai, this is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin nam...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.