Snow Crash

The good: This book reminded me of A Scanner Darkly. The bad: It also reminded me of The Da Vinci Code.

A dystopian cyberpunk world, with strong elements of virtual reality, of programming concepts, a paragraph about the perks of Lisp, futuristic skateboards, a swarm of refugee rafts, the mafia, Sumerian Mythology, and an over the top rope usage of Linguistics. Oh and sword fighting. Stephenson went full retard with this book and cooked up a hodge-podge of the ingredients above. And it’s a joy to read. Although, with his storytelling skills, he could write a 400 page novel on the origin of white bread and that'd be interesting to read. On the back cover, one of the quoted reviewers called it a Pynchon novel but with no breaks, and that I think is the best description of this book.

I have mixed feelings about Snow Crash. I loved the core story of a linguistic virus and how the author has mixed history, linguistics, science, and religion. Unfortunately, the book read like something Dan Brown or Jeffrey Archer would write. Fast-paced, crazy action and very little character development. The ending wasn't satisfying and I had to rush past the last 30-60 pages just so I could finish it. I think there is a better book in this world of Snow Crash but this isn't it.

For an overall rating, I thought this book was kind of mid. The first half sets up the story and the world and seems really complex, the promise of a mystery virus (especially reading it so close to the Covid19 pandemic) was exciting and intriguing. I also really enjoyed the satirical, often silly, metaphors and descriptions throughout.

The thing that killed a 5 star, or even a 4 star, rating, is that the ending was just not satisfying. The 'final battle' sequence was just drawn out so long, and was often hard to follow along. I also found that most of the characters were just not relatable or realistic at all. Which may have been partly the point, but I feel like it really diminished the impact of the rest of the story. I empathized the most with the robot dog, Fido, because I understood his motivations. I did not feel like Hiro or Y.T. had any clear motivations throughout the book beyond 'being cool'..

Fun, highly dated in ways that I find charming rather than vitiating (e.g. he has to explain to us what a hard disk is). His depiction of software, that ineliminable agent of our present and our future, is still better than 95% of scifi and 99.9% of lit-fic. The plot is so clunky and over-the-top that Stephenson needs to actually embody all the necessary exposition in the form of a scholar personal assistant (which I would give bags of cash to have). I fail to see what's satirical about it; certainly I know Stephenson doesn't believe that Sumerian is a neurolinguistic virus - but author disbelief is not sufficient for satire. Is he satirising Julian Jaynes? Cyberpunk? Hacker supremacism? If so, he failed because Snow Crash is a vivid and sympathetic instance of these things.

Cons: rampant pedophilia, racism, casual homophobia, convoluted story, possibly the worst ending I've ever read

Pros: it ended

This could have been so good but I truly struggled to finish it. Stephenson had all the ingredients for an epic cyberpunk novel—rogue hacker and badass skater sidekick, post-apocalyptic corporate hellscape, weird ideas about linguistics, high-tech virtual reality, the list goes on.

But somehow, the finished product is absolutely soulless. (I see why the Zucc has taken inspiration from it.)

The pervasive racism in this book, especially in descriptions of side characters, really sucked.

Also, look how Neal Stephenson massacred my girl Juanita. It was such a letdown that after her introduction, Stephenson essentially forgets about her, reviving her only as a cheap, cardboard cutout love interest.

The writing style was a little too absurd for me to fully enjoy, but the story world is well-developed.

With this novel is born the concept of metaverse. it's a cliché Heroe's Journey story with great points as a distopy and critisims of us as society that are only moving the same problems to a different playground and all its implications

Even though I tried my best, I just couldn’t finish this book. There’s so much info dumping that the whole story got bogged down with it, and the characters lacked the depth I needed to even remotely connect with them. This is such a pity as I love the concept 🤷‍♀️

Finished my re-listen just in time for my book club. This was a wild ride. I HATED the society depicted, but holy cow, the idea that evil (and other ideas) are a virus? Seems scarily relevant in today's society. And I hate that.

Re-read this 25 years later

Never judge a book by it's cover. Well not the edition I had, yeah yeah yeah - metaverse, techno, cyber, woooh, action crazy. Ignoring the major themes of language, linguistics, religion as a virus that carry the book to it's finale. Anyway, good book, bounded along at a good pace. Reading it now ( as opposed to when it came out) ads the beauty of hindsight. Stephenson managed to predict a lot, (essentially most of the internet) but still thought we would be using video tapes. Aaawwww bless. If there was any downside it was the "ooooh hackers will become the most important people in the world" vibe that was very prevalent back when thsi book was written.

This book has a lot of cursing and a description of sex with a 15 year old girl. I would have put the book down if the sex scene hadn't been so near the end of the book. Stephenson has an apparent knack for taking actual history and using it as a plot device for his fiction. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the ride. There were (seemingly) endless chapters where the main character talks with a librarian about "history" - because who doesn't love a good librarian conversation?! It is painful to read. Perhaps it's more difficult if you happen to know something about the ancient near east cultures, because Snow Crash takes incredible creative liberty in re-imagining it to suit the devices of the story. I understand that it is fiction, but I think it would have been a drag to read even if it was somewhat accurate. The action scenes and the way that Stephenson envisions the world is pretty interesting and given the year it was published and it's popularity, Snow Crash probably had a lot to do with the Cyberpunk genre. But it wasn't enough to make the story enjoyable for me...especially the abrupt ending...not cool.

Literally the only book I've ever read that felt like I was reading an action movie.

I finished this audiobook a couple of weeks ago after hearing several tech podcasters recommending it. It's a cyberpunk novel, whatever that might mean, set in the near future. The main character, Hiro Protagonist, starts out as a pizza delivery guy working for Uncle Enzo, head of the Mafia. The USA is broken up into corporate franchises and the mafia is now one such franchise. Hiro is a hacker and was involved in programming The Black Sun, the geek hangout in the metaverse. The metaverse is an idea of the future of the internet, more sort of AI where users goggle in and wander round using avatars to represent themselves. The book gets into religion and linguistics and, as a former linguist and a current geek, I found Stephenson's ideas intriguing. Some of the best parts of the novel are when Hiro is discussing science and linguistics with the librarian (a piece of software that has access to the digital info archives). All in all I found it to be an enjoyable, well-written and well-researcehd novel and I liked it well enough to consider reading more of Stephenson's novels.

A better Neuromancer. Some say it’s a parody - possibly because of larger-than-life characters and, um, everything. I think another good explanation is that this was meant to be a graphic novel. When you read it like this, the sheer intensity of it seems almost natural.

** spoiler alert ** Although well written I struggled to make it through this book. There is a lot of problematic content in regards to YT. And worse, a lot of it is usually defended because of the tone of the book. However people justify it in order to enjoy it, I couldn't. That being said, the story was enjoyable for me in so far as the overall plot about language being a virus traced back to ancient origins. That was pretty cool. I'm a big fan of cyberpunk, but I prefer stories about the human condition so was left a bit unsatisfied. YT exists solely to support a divergent plot thread, it's a gonzo, balls to wall story that doesn't have a grander plot in mind. There's something to be said for reading a book that is just a thriller, but I was looking for more from it after all the praise. Still, not bad. Maybe a victim of hype and sensitivity to some content that made me uncomfortable.

Has that cinematic expanse and inventive vividity that would make it do just as well on the screen and it already is on the page (say, a film visually similar to that of Tron: Legacy, or the recent Blade Runner). Loved the acknowledgments page; as a novel Snow Crash is teeming with ideas and it was nice to see Stephenson acknowledging his sources which gives this reader an idea of where and how he might've pulled everything together into a stunning plot blending Sumerian myth narratives, human and computer viruses and the Tower of Babel and futuristic technology, with an interesting cast of characters that benefited from the virtue of each being distinct and integral enough that none of them felt out of place or superfluous. I was very fond of Y.T.; she deserves especial mention as an example of a successful 'cool teenager' type of character that did not stretch the limits of credulity. Hiro Protagonist was naturally a tongue-in-cheek christening and puzzlingly some reviewers apparently did not grasp that. He was, I sense, intentionally crafted as a racial and cultural mosaic and himself emblematic of a world pieced together from, but also rendering slight criticism of, stereotypes, pop culture,, advertising and technological spinning (see also the character of Mr Lee, from Mr Lee's Greater Hong Kong), but he, like many characters here including Mr Lee and Uncle Enzo, was larger than the 'point' made, and more interesting for that.

an essential work of science fiction. what a fun, wild ride.

Niiiiiiice. The worldbuilding was the selling point of this novel. Stephenson has a really, really complicated and multilayered world going on, but the reader isn't confused for long. Hiro Protagonist (ha ha ha) and YT were the selling characters, even though Hiro was a borderline Gary Stu (??? or was that the point as reflected by the name? Still deciding), but YT was kickass and an excellent main character. Too bad it didn't past the Bechdel test and I'm still contemplating the rest of the novel. But it was very nice.

DNF. What a disappointment! I enjoyed the beginning of the novel very much (granted, the whole virtual reality thing is a bit outdated, but the book was written in 1992) but the book pretty much comes to a halt after the first half. Stephenson gives a tedious lecture on Sumerian mythology, Hebrews, Pentecostals... It just got too boring for me and I just couldn't finish the book.

When it comes to a) science fiction narratives and b) length books, I occasionally feel that the pure workload that is required deserves merit, whether I particularly end up enjoying reading or not. A few years back, when I read ‘War and Peace’, I couldn’t honestly say I enjoyed every moment, but a book with that much content and complete focus on presenting the story the author wanted, length be damned, meant I came out of it feeling my time had been well spent, even if some evenings spent with the book were not particularly enjoyable. ‘Snow Crash’ isn’t anywhere near the length of ‘War and Peace’, but Neal Stephenson clearly had the story he wanted to tell and he was going to tell it without any desire to hold his reader’s hands or dumb things down for those who were unwilling to work for it. Unfortunately, this kills the pace of the book at times as crypto-religious exposition takes up page after page whilst I was left waiting for the action. If you bought into what Stephenson was selling you, this would have all been worthwhile. For me, it just felt like a lot of sizzle with no steak. What Stephenson does do well is world building and action sequences. You get a keen sense of the world that Hiro Protagonist and Y.T. as one that sits just close enough to what exists now for it to be eerily feasible, yet also allowing some wilder flights of fancy across the narrative. Calling one of your main characters Hiro Protagonist is a little bit too cute for my liking, something which Stephenson is want to do at times. However, little touches like the rule book for using toilet paper at the Fed are legitimately funny and show Stephenson at his best. The use of two main protagonists allows Stephenson to send them both off in different directions. This comes in handy when Hiro’s ‘part’ of the story slows down as he engages in crypto-religious discussion with The Librarian as at least Y.T. is engaged in action and adventure. Though Hiro’s discoveries are key to the overarching narrative, as well as showcasing some deep knowledge by Stephenson himself, it slows things down in a way that feels unnecessary to me. To others, I’m sure they’d love the slow unveiling of all this mystical and historical information. Even though it was central to the plot in many ways, the delivery of this never quite sat right with me. Though at times this may sound like I didn’t enjoy the book, it still all worked together to make the last hundred pages or so a genuinely riveting read. I cared enough about the outcomes for Hiro and Y.T., alongside an interest in other characters who had been introduced by this point, most specifically Raven, a guy who is incredibly dangerous and not so good at keeping his temper. This race to the end was where the book did pick up pace, helped by the narrative/world building Stephenson had done up until that point and an increased focus on the action as the end game became more apparent. It leaves me in an odd position. I celebrate the intelligence of Stephenson’s writing, as well as his unflinching approach to long form storytelling, whilst not necessarily being desirous of reading anything else he has put out there as I’d expect more of the same. It isn’t hard to see why Stephenson has built up a decent, if niche, following and reading ‘Snow Crash’ was definitely worthwhile, just not the eye opening experience I had perhaps expected.