Book Review: The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson

I just finished reading this yesterday. It took me quite a while to complete since I was interrupted by “A Short History of nearly everything” by Bill Bryson in the middle. It’s what is called a “post cyberpunk” novel and it’s won many prizes for its depiction of many interesting themes. As a work of science fiction, its main theme is nanotechnology. Stephenson shows how it’s possible for nanotechnology to play a role in every aspect of our lives giving us stronger building materials, invisible protection systems, execution methods and essentially remove hunger from the world.

But surprisingly, far from making us happier, it seems to have unforeseen consequences. An example is “mite warfare” where various criminal elements unleash millions of tiny mites into the air in an attempt to achieve some goal or the other. These efforts are countered by law enforcement’s own mites. Cities have a complex security apparatus to prevent nanotechnological invasion.

This technology has impacted everything else – from the clothes we wear which are untearable and uncuttable, to building materials which are stronger than anything we currently have and are yet lighter than air itself. But it’s not just the field of nanotechnolgy which Stephenson explores. Other advances in finance made it possible for a parallel economy to grow where private individuals could receive and transfer wealth without any supervision. This essentially cut governments of the loop depriving them of tax revenue which led to the collapse of the “nation state” concept as we know it. The result is a strangely anarchic environment where laws change from area to area and there’s hardly any notion of “country.” It’s pretty dystopian.

The plot of the book is interesting, but takes a back seat to the exploration of the various themes. At one time, I really grew to like a little girl called Nell who’s educated by a book called “The Primer” – but later on, she became quite unlovable with very little character development. But as I said, the interesting ideas which the book provides makes up for the relative lack of plot. The ending of the book is pretty chaotic and doesn’t make too much sense to me either.

One example of the disconnect between the reader and the characters in the story is a scene where Nell gets raped by a disorganized gang of thugs. Rape is a pretty traumatic event and in a book where I actually cared about the characters, it would be pretty distressing to read about it. And while I felt very sorry for what had happened to her, I was surprised by how quickly I got over it. The story itself glosses entirely over the effects of rape on Nell’s psychology and she doesn’t seem to give it a second thought which I think is pretty unrealistic.

So would I read it again if I had a choice? I dont’ think so. Now that I have read it, I’ve certainly got something out of it. But I could have spent the same amount of time reading something else which would have been more interesting. And while I can see why the book won so many prizes, it’s not quite my cup of tea.