Halfway through first book, great read

The Diamond Age is everything I like about reading a Neal Stephenson book. I was starting to have my doubts after trudging through the first of the Baroque cycles, but not with this book. His (Stephenson's) attention to detail is astonishing. He describes working with scanning electron microscopes, which I have some familiarity with, and he even goes into the low vacuum requirements, with three stages of pumps. He obviously has had some experience as well. This is one of those books that I savor each page, not wanting it to end.