In Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson took science fiction to dazzling new levels. Now, in The Diamond Age, he delivers another stunning tale. Set in twenty-first 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.

Winner of the Hugo Award for Best Novel, 1996.

"[Stephenson] has gotten even better. The Diamond Age envisions the next century as brilliantly as Snow Crash did the day after tomorrow."
   NEWSWEEK

"[Stephenson is] the hottest science fiction writer in America... Snow Crash is without question the biggest SF novel of the 1990s. Neal's SF novel The Diamond Age promises more of the same. Together, they represent a new era in science fiction. People who plow through these mind-bogglers will walk around slack-jawed for days and reemerge with a radically redefined sense of reality."
   DETAILS

"Neal Stephenson is the Quentin Tarantino of postcyberpunk science fiction.... Having figured out how to entertain the hell out of a mass audience, Stephenson has likewise upped the form's ante with rambunctious glee."
   THE VILLAGE VOICE

"Snow Crash drew its manic energy from the cyberpunkish conceit that anything is possible in virtual reality; in The Diamond Age the wonders of cyberspace pale before the even more dazzling powers of nanotechnology."
   THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

"The Diamond Age establishes Neal Stephenson as a powerful voice for the cyber age.... At once whimsical, satirical, and cautionary."
   USA TODAY

"Stephenson's world-building skills are extraordinary.... The Diamond Age should cement Stephenson's reputation as one of the brightest and wittiest young authors of American science fiction."
   THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE