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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
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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)

What listeners say about The Diamond Age

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

An enticing adventure in an original world!

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.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

In two minds...

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!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A juicy classic

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 ..

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great story slightly let down by the audio

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.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I love the story but...

.. 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.

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12 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Brilliant, but perhaps a stretch too far.

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.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

What’s going on with the audio!?!?

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

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

the book's good

But the narration suffers a serious flaw: "primer" is pronounced as "primmer" throughout.



I love the book, own it on paper as well, and the narrator has a lovely voice.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A fine book with poor production

The publisher needs to re-record this great early Stephenson title. The sound production here is not up to today’s standards and the narration is, in many places, ruined by mispronunciation (It’s primer as in timer NOT primmer as in trimmer - a major flaw here) and some terrible if not bizarre accent choices.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Ended suddenly without much resolution

Hmm not my favourite Neal Stephenson story and cringed everytime the narrator said 'primmer'

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