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The Diamond Age

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The Diamond Age

By: Neal Stephenson
Narrated by: Jennifer Wiltsie
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About this listen

 In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in 21st-century Shanghai, it is the story of what happens when a state-of-the-art interactive device falls into the hands of a street urchin named Nell. Her life - and the entire future of humanity - is about to be decoded and reprogrammed...©1995 Neal Stephenson (P)2001 Audible, Inc. Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Cyberpunk Mind-bending China

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Critic reviews

The Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction. ( The Village Voice)
"[he] is the hottest science fiction writer in America." ( Details)
All stars
Most relevant  
.. was wildly irritated every time the othewise excellent narrator said "primmer" for "primer". Aaargh. I know it's a tiny thing but it was constantly distracting as it's a word that is said rather often.

That aside ("primmer" - bleugh) it's a cracking listen and full of wild flights of nano-tech fancy. Although I did get a bit bored in the company of the drummers. The New Victorian enclave was so much more fascinating.

I love the story but...

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Midway through the book, I started to think it was the greatest thing I'd ever read. But then the parts with the drummers and the fucking and Hackworth's fugue state came along, and I felt a tad let down.

Brilliant, but perhaps a stretch too far.

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I love Neal Stephensons books and this one is great too - including fantastic narration (if you’re used to British English you may have to get used to US English pronunciation as ‘primmer’). But the recording quality is really sub-standard: mono. Narrow spectrum and occasionally with distortion / interference. I expect better from Audible

What’s going on with the audio!?!?

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I chose this recording because I had enjoyed 'Cryptonomicon' by the same author and Neal Stephenson is certainly very inventive and imaginative, creating an entire alternative future world. Some parts of the story jogged along quickly and we made good progress together but at other times the pace slowed to a tedious crawl. Although I laughed out loud once or twice at this book I also found myself looking forward to the end - not so I could find out what happens, just so I could stop listening!

In two minds...

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The voice artist is very impressive with a different voice for each character and beautiful nuances. The story is set in a very strange juxtaposed world of old world colonies and new world technology, so it required white a lot of concentration to immerse myself in the world being described.

An enticing adventure in an original world!

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Cool, Dazzling, ingenious often satisfyingly brutal.. a feast for the mind and the senses as I've come to expect from Neal Stephenson. An exploration of memetics and the boundary between information technology and physical engineering with both levity and severity which keeps the tale whipping on.. so long since I read Snow Crash I didn't get the references (and cross over characters??) at first !
The narrator is talented and emotive but the audio quality is extremely low and has some alarming bit-crushy anomalies towards the end which made me think the digital file may have been salvaged from an ancient wreaked hard drive ..

A juicy classic

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I've not read or listened to a Neal Stephenson book I didn't thoroughly enjoy and this was no different, but as others have noted this was let down by the audio quality, audio glitches, and the mind jarring pronunciation of "Primer" as "Prim-er" which bugged my British brain every-time it was said. However still worth a listen and I would recommend this unless a better recording became available.

A great story slightly let down by the audio

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I loved the worldbuilding and characters, the performance was amazing apart from pronouncing "primer" as "primmer". It's just a shame Stephenson's early books all end weirdly, very glad he ultimately got the hang of ending books well.

Good apart from the ending

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There are lots of things to like about this book, and lots of things to like about the author. He's really imaginative; the worlds he creates are exotic but believable - and Diamond Age is no exception. And the story in many places is really good - at times gripping. There's a but coming though . . . three things. Firstly, the storylines can get so cokmplicated it's at times difficult to follow. Secondly, it is surely impossible to pronounce primer 'primmer'. Probably not he author's fault, granted, and possibly unreasonable but NO. Finally, it's a disappointing ending - the book builds up to a great ending . . . and then it just stops. But overall a good read, loads going on and just about worth the effort.

It's good, but

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This is one of my favourite books and I thoroughly enjoyed hearing it read. I have only one gripe and that is this: Being British I am used to the word 'primer' being pronounced 'prime' with an 'r' on the end not 'prim' with an 'er' on the end and I winced every time it occurred.
This does not, however, in any way prevent me from heartily recommending this fabulous audiobook. :0) x

Really enjoyed this...

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