The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (full title is The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer) is the next novel by Neal Stephenson after Snow Crash. Where Snow Crash dealt with the internet and Sumerian myths, The Diamond Age deals with nano-technology and historical ages. The Han age for the Chinese and the Victorian Age for Europeans are the ones most used, with Nippon (Japanese) and Hindustan (India) referenced as well. The book follows a young girl raised by an electronic, dynamically generated book and her impact on the world.

Harvey is the oldest child of a mom who disappears for days at a time (and then shows up with men who don’t treat the children well). His younger sister is Nell and Harvey loves and desperately wants to protect her. While out with his gang one day, Harvey robs a neo-Victorian gentleman, steals a book and gives it to Nell. Unbeknown to them, the neo-Victorian gentleman was stealing a copy of the book from his employer to make a copy for his daughter. The book is a dynamically generated book for raising young girls. The book analyzes the girl it bonds with and by uses it’s analysis to generate content that will teach the girl everything she needs to know to grow up. When it comes time to act out the book’s story, the book hires a ractor (an actor who works in cyberspace melodramas) to help. Nell lucks out and gets Miranda, who puts together what’s going on and spends years raising an unknown young lady that she will never meet.

The book mainly follows the growth of Nell, but also deals with how society will deal with a post-scarcity society. With nano-technology available to everyone (the only difference between rich and poor is the size of the hose bringing material in to be created), society is significantly changed. Stephenson spends a lot of time showing us how different groups will react to the post-scarcity world. Nell is used to move us between the different groups and her book is used to push them together in ways that are unexpected and exciting.

While I was reading Makers by Cory Doctorow, I kept thinking that Makers could be seen as a prequel to The Diamond Age, showing us how the post-scarcity world came into being. But it wasn’t as interesting as Stephenson’s world. Following Nell and the various societies she interacts with is an amazing adventure that is well worth following.