Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson


My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of my favorite novels and I need to re-read it. The plot was both hokey and epic. It needed to only be minimally interesting however (though it was much more than that) because it was a an anarcho-capitalist world. I loved it. I love the “hero” (Hiro Protagonist) and I loved the skater/message service girl (whose name escapes me) and I loved the horribly arrogant and impotant corporation that the Federal Government had become. I loved the “burbclaves” (suburban, franchised, “nations” [sort of:]). I loved that the whole thing sounded like a comic book (it was originally intended to be one).

The only thing about the set-up that bothered me was that the technology of the “metaverse” (3d, 1st-person, internet) seemed incomplete. Stephenson should have had people go ahead and plug in directly into the computer, rather than merely using visors and keyboards.

This closed out the cyberpunk era if I remember right. It wasn’t nearly as literary as William Gibson’s Neuromancer, which started it all. But it was much more fun.

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One thought on “Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

  1. Jim Irwin

    It used to be easier to comment on your various entries in Friendfeed, but now they’ve changed it (and it sucks–why change something when it already works?). I’ll have to comment here and perhaps I won’t be able to make as many comments on friendfeed anymore.

    So, here goes. As with much of all modern literature, one must always mention that one must edit in one’s conscience the few scenes where “personal relations” are described in too great detail. I thought that this book was really good. Cyberpunk isn’t dead, it just flows in cycles as future-tech concepts are brought into the social consciousness. I echo sentiments from your post, but I think that the booting straight to the computer from our minds, while a great concept, is still a ways off.

    Check out Neal’s book, “Cryptonomicon”. It’s not cyberpunk, but it has some interesting thought experiments.

    Reply

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