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A review by richardrbecker
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
4.0
Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's 1992 breakout late-to-the-cyberpunk-party novel that is a little less disciplined than his later works but just as much fun. Toggling between an intellectual mashup of Sumerian myth and binary computer programming with a high-octane mobster-pizza-delivery-hacker adventure story set in the near future, Snow Crash is a flash-bang novel that sucks in readers who appreciate a science fiction story with cyberpunk riffs (or maybe the parody of cyberpunk riffs).
What's mostly missing is character depth, but that doesn't mean you won't like them. Hiro Protagonist, a computer hacker responsible for the most popular virtual reality site in existence, has been forced out of the company and makes ends meet by delivering mob-run pizzas. He runs around with some Samurai swords that work in reality and virtual reality.
Y.T. is a rebellious 15-year-old skatepunk courier whose mom happens to work for the FBI. She carries a full arsenal of techno-fetish gadgets.
Hiro's nemesis is Raven, a disgruntled bad dude who decided to hitch a ride with a bigger world-is-not-enough villain because Raven hasn't formalized any long-term goals beyond nuking the United States (for nuking his people). Raven does all the bad-guy heavy lifting for most of the book, introducing a human virus hack into the virtual space that can affect people in the physical world.
There are a half dozen notable supporting characters whom Stephenson parades around in one-dimensional glory, but most of them (except Uncle Enzo, maybe) play second fiddle to an endless rambling of strung-together speculations and fantasies that are both part fun and frightening.
Stephenson, for example, hits a home run on civilizations' propensity for entropy — a condition that may have started with the Tower of Babel. He atomizes near-future American politics. He digs deep into the details of the hardware and software of the day. He celebrates puts in a ton of political incorrectness not because he celebrates it but because he observes it. He makes you wonder, especially after living through the last year or so, whether the government and/or media have stumbled into a human hack that can influence us at the most primal level (and whether some of us are just immune).
Of course, saying all that might make Snow Crash sound heavier-handed than it is. Really, it's just a fun read with plenty of rabbit holes if you want to cash them down beyond the book. Or don't. Either way, it's one of those books you'll be glad you read even if it isn't as disciplined as the Diamond Age or some of his other works.
What's mostly missing is character depth, but that doesn't mean you won't like them. Hiro Protagonist, a computer hacker responsible for the most popular virtual reality site in existence, has been forced out of the company and makes ends meet by delivering mob-run pizzas. He runs around with some Samurai swords that work in reality and virtual reality.
Y.T. is a rebellious 15-year-old skatepunk courier whose mom happens to work for the FBI. She carries a full arsenal of techno-fetish gadgets.
Hiro's nemesis is Raven, a disgruntled bad dude who decided to hitch a ride with a bigger world-is-not-enough villain because Raven hasn't formalized any long-term goals beyond nuking the United States (for nuking his people). Raven does all the bad-guy heavy lifting for most of the book, introducing a human virus hack into the virtual space that can affect people in the physical world.
There are a half dozen notable supporting characters whom Stephenson parades around in one-dimensional glory, but most of them (except Uncle Enzo, maybe) play second fiddle to an endless rambling of strung-together speculations and fantasies that are both part fun and frightening.
Stephenson, for example, hits a home run on civilizations' propensity for entropy — a condition that may have started with the Tower of Babel. He atomizes near-future American politics. He digs deep into the details of the hardware and software of the day. He celebrates puts in a ton of political incorrectness not because he celebrates it but because he observes it. He makes you wonder, especially after living through the last year or so, whether the government and/or media have stumbled into a human hack that can influence us at the most primal level (and whether some of us are just immune).
Of course, saying all that might make Snow Crash sound heavier-handed than it is. Really, it's just a fun read with plenty of rabbit holes if you want to cash them down beyond the book. Or don't. Either way, it's one of those books you'll be glad you read even if it isn't as disciplined as the Diamond Age or some of his other works.