I reread this book recently, and was surprised that a 25 year old book could hold up so well. Speculative fiction can often be overtaken by reality, but there were few examples of that in Snow Crash.

The book offers a lot for a reader who wants some real substance in fiction. The backstory of the "Snow Crash" virus (about 2/3 the way through the book) was perhaps the longest pure exposition section I've ever seen in a work of fiction, yet I was riveted by it. Neal Stephenson is perhaps the smartest person writing fiction today, and it shows in the way he can research a topic, comprehend it deeply, and then render an entertaining explanation in the context of a story.

It takes amazing chutzpah to name your main charcter "Hiro Protagonist", but Stephenson pulls off what others probably couldn't, and Hiro is indeed an excellent protagonist. A man of multiple and amazing talents, nevertheless the book opens with him delivering pizzas. Early on, Hiro seems to just blunder into key events, but eventually he rises to be more pro-active and becomes a true hero.

The dystopian society is at times all too plausible. It seems Stephenson saw in advance the breakdown of our institutions in the 21st century. (That also helped him generate a completely different dystopia inThe Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book), which you should definitely read if you like Snow Crash.)

If Stephenson has one flaw as a writer, it's that most of his books have abrupt endings. This one leaves a few loose ends. Without spoiling things too much, I'll mention one example. A main character possesses a nuclear warhead and rigs it to protect himself from attack, yet we never see that resolved in the ending. It's not clear for a couple of the main characters whether they even survive or not.

So I wish his books has at least a minimal denouement. But I'll take that flaw for some of the most entertaining and though-provoking books I've ever read.

0101 1100 1101 0001

1111 0010 0101 1010

What if looking at these seemingly innocent binary numbers could not only affect your computer, but your brain as well? After all, your brain is simply a biological computer itself.

This is one of the main themes in Stephenson's SNOW CRASH, a becoming-more-recognizable future where people divide their time between Reality and the Metaverse.

The other theme is more complex, but tries to draw parallels between Sumerian mythology and computer viruses. It's interesting in that it challenges the reader to alter their view of history, but the analogies are not as well drawn as they could be.

Fortunately, these two suit-and-tie topics are woven into a story that features an eccentric cast of characters and an action-packed storyline. I couldn't use the phrase "colorful cast of characters" as some of them are literally black and white in the Metaverse!

For example there's the main hero, Hiro Protagonist. I haven't come across a name that creative since Prince S., a character in Dostoyevsky's THE IDIOT.

The sword-wielding, motorcycle-riding Hiro reminded me heavily of Cloud from the famous FINAL FANTASY 7.

Then there's the skateboarding Y.T. (not Whitey!), a 15-year old, skateboarding female Kourier that reminded me of the rebellious John Conner of TERMINATOR 2.

The locations are just as interesting, where people live in storage units or the neighborhoods of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, The Sacrifice Zone, Nova Sicilia, Narcolumbia, et al.

It's not exactly Mister Roger's Neighborhood either as each place has their own rules and lots of security to keep out unwanted people.

Just off the shore of the West Coast (where most of the story takes place) is a mass of ships called The Raft. Very similar to Mieville's ship-city of Armada in his book THE SCAR (written many years after this book). It is here where Hiro and gang meet up with several of the major antagonists as the novel draws to a close.

With so many crazy ideas all into one book, it is understandable that the first hundred pages read like SNOW CRASH FOR DUMMIES, complete with laugh-out-loud humor, to make your transition into this world easier than Orientation Day at school or work.

After those first hundredish pages, the story races along like a mechanical guard-dog on a straight highway.

The mythology portions come up about halfway, but are presented by a Librarian. The best way to imagine the Librarian: What if GOOGLE could talk? or What if that stupid paperclip in MICROSOFT OFFICE actually did something useful for once?

The ending, while action-packed and exciting, is where I felt some disappointment. The last line is good, but there is not much closure on what happens to the characters and the chapters that were previously ~15 pages are rapidly narrowed down to ~5 pages--a sign of an author who can't contain his excitement at almost finishing his book.

But on the whole, I found this novel much more enjoyable and understandable than William Gibson's earlier NEUROMANCER.

If Hiro were rating this book, he would give it 0100 out of 0101 Stars.

Neal Stephenson writes science fiction that requires a certain level of attention and concentration to follow and stay on top of. You can’t lay a Stephenson novel down for a few days and hope to come back and take up where you left off. This is not pulp science fiction.

In this audacious novel, Stephenson crafts a dystopian Earth near the end of the 20th century. Most civilization has broken down and even in the United States, society has devolved into semi-sovereign “franchulates” (franchise consulates) and “burbclaves” (suburban enclaves). A rampant form of pure capitalism reigns, with private ownership of roads and police protection. Existing alongside this “free for all” is a Metaverse, an on-line world governed largely by hackers. Now, dystopia coupled with virtual reality is nothing new, however Stephenson takes it up a notch, weaving Sumerian and Old Testament mythology throughout the story.

Some may find elements of Stephenson’s world silly, and some of it is pretty far out there, but much of it comes across as biting satire and I found it enormously entertaining. The “heroes” of the story are Hiro Protagonist, a freelance stringer for Central Intelligence Corporation (a privatized successor to the Library of Congress), a computer software designer and the greatest sword fighter in the world (in the Metaverse) and Y.T., a souped up skateboard riding 15 year old courier.

With the help of the Mafia (Cosa Nostra, Inc.) and assorted other supremely interesting characters, Hiro and Y.T. discover a new designer drug, Snow Crash, whose purpose is to inject a virus into the deepest level of the brain, acting much the same as a computer virus. Seeking to prevent spread of the virus, Hiro and Y.T. cross swords with Bob Rife, the richest man on the planet, who seeks to use Snow Crash to exert total control over the world's population. Elements of economic theory, religion, virtual reality, Sumerian mythology and linguistics take this story out of the realm of anything you’ve ever experienced. Four and a half stars, rounded up to five simply on the basis of its originality, scope and audacity.

The Bad:

Tonal shifts. “Snow Crash” starts with some legendary levels of satire, but the consistency for said tone drops off after 50 or 60 pages. The satire remains, but the more the novel progresses, the more an afterthought that satire seems. In the middle of the book, the tone becomes one of ‘discovery/revelation’ that persists until the end… at which point the tone graduates to ‘let’s get this over.’ The shifts are never quite abrupt, but are somewhat stark.

Changing voice. “Snow Crash” never quite feels like it’s written by three different people, but the beginning, middle and end all feel radically different from one another. Some difference is to be expected as a story nearly 500 pages in the telling is unraveled… but there’s a difference between progression of events having a subtle impact on how the story is told and the feeling that the author is changing how they’re drafting the story in their own mind.

Wandering plot. Why did Hiro need to go to Oregon to learn that thing about Raven? The Raft was cool, but did it need to occupy so much time or focus for the reader to grasp its significance or otherwise appreciate the information Stephenson was offering? There are a couple of other plot points that beg the question ‘why that’ or ‘why present it this way,’ but the goal is to remain as spoiler-free as possible, so those points will remain unmentioned. There is a fair amount of wandering/meandering in the storytelling that’s hit or miss; for every enjoyable moment of superfluous world building or character development, there is a head-scratching moment to offset it.

The Good:

The Deliverator (the first ~50 pages, really). Y.T. The ideas behind Babel, protolanguage and religion, in general.

The Takeaway:

Entertaining if a bit dated (as far as many of the technical predictions or conventions are concerned). “Snow Crash” was no doubt a hell of a read when it was released: immensely entertaining; rife with observations and commentary regarding the era in which it was written (much of which is still shockingly relevant); offering statements about how we got to where we are; great observations about people, their hopes, dreams and motivations.

Recommended for: fans of cyberpunk; those interested in a topical examination of neurolinguistics; people looking for a wild, trippy ride that will trigger some fierce 90s nostalgia. Anyone that enjoyed “Neuromancer” or “Lexicon” may want to give “Snow Crash” a shot.

“It was, of course, nothing more than sexism, the especially virulent type espoused by male techies who sincerely believe that they are too smart to be sexists.”

“Software development, like professional sports, has a way of making thirty-year old men feel decrepit.”

“To condense fact from the vapor of nuance.”

“The Deliverator lets out an involuntary roar and puts the hammer down. His emotions tell him to go back and kill that manager, get his swords out of the trunk, dive in through the little sliding window like a ninja, track him down through the moiling chaos of the microwaved franchise and confront him in a climactic thick-crust apocalypse. But he thinks the same thing when someone cuts him off on the freeway, and he’s never done it-yet.”

“They do a lot of talking about Jesus, but like many self-described Christian churches, it has nothing to do with Christianity except that they use his name. It’s a postrational religion.”

Beyond what is an enthusiastically rendered tale of the coming world of 3D interactivity (and I personally believe coming sooner than most realize), this was an insightful look at the vulnerability of the social infrastructure that is growing on the web.

Most have celebrated Richardson for foreshadowing the realm of "Second Life" and paralleling the cyberpunk world of Neuromancer. After reading this book 17 years after it was written, I think the idea of "Snow Crash" specifically is interesting when, in 2008, some of the broad imagery has already taken form.

"Snow Crash" is a drug that moved from the physical world and through a battalion of programmers to the digital world wherein it became known as a virus that, in essence, effected the same result as the physical drug. Of course it took an offline set of motives and the story certainly has an offline plot, but Richardson fictionally describes a real possibility as the web becomes more tactile and social. The effect of the virus was a real world infection of human users. The Metaverse became simply a delivery mechanism.

This particular concept is intriguing and left this reader considering our own brains and the future possibility of nefarious psychological influences that might accompany our participation in the digital world. There is certainly significant evidence pointing to the effects of a related concept: subliminal messages. So much concern was expressed that the FCC outlawed subliminal messaging in advertising in 1974 and the UN stated that "the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination is a major threat to human rights throughout the world."

Its doubtful folks will treat this concept with any real interest for years to come. Many still believe that first-person kill games don't proactively influence violence in the real world. In the future (and somewhat presently), I can certainly see where electronic/online games and other digital environments could be created that could effectively brainwash participants through a barrage of misinformation, self-induced fatigue, and other psychological techniques.

Social groups managed via the web become particularly vulnerable to the spread of such a construct because of the rapidity to which a group of sometimes thousands of people can respond to a call to action from a member of that group. Literally "before you know it" a "Snow Crash" type attack could spread around the globe utlizing the social group infrastucture of the web. This already happens everyday with bits of misinformation such as false news articles and digital attacks such as viruses. I wonder if we should research "anti-virus" for our brains? Worst case we should at least better understand the psychological and physiological influences of the bits moving across our optic nerves...

"Snow Crash" was a great story and sparked many tangents in thinking given its relevance to the Internet world. Enjoy!

I recall reading this story back in the late 90's thinking how cool and freaky-futuristic it was ... I re-bought it recently and re-read it and ... wow, the tech in this story has not aged well at all.

The biggest problem I have is with timelines ... without ever giving us any explicit dates for the storyline, it's relatively easy to extrapolate once you put the clues together ... the main character is approximately 30 years old (he tells us), there are constant references to his father being in WW2, and by reference to a peer-age character, we can determine he was born in the 1970's ... so the events of this story take place somewhere between the late 90's and the early 2000's.

America has deconstructed itself, become a hodgepodge of mini city-states that are actually business franchises, each franchise being a wholly independent and sovereign nation yet non physically contiguous. How a massive nation-state republic could devolve in such a manner is not hard to imagine what with the populist Republican mantra being that only business is good and government is bad, but the speed at which such dis-integration of the nation could occur ... it would take decades for government to unwind, not the paltry 5 to 10 years between when Stephenson wrote the story and the presumed timeline in the story.

Some of the tech he imagined in this story is nearly prophetic ... his descriptions of virtual reality are almost dead on with what is currently state of the art today, however much of the tech available in his 'real world' is sadly too futuristic to fit. Supersonic cyborg dogs; armorgel uniforms that are bulletproof, fit like spandex, and have self contained defensive weaponry; 'smart' skateboards with radar/lidar and wheels that change shape and size every millisecond in order to keep the ride smooth even over broken concrete/bodies/other rough terrain; other stuff that is mildly interesting and often unrealistic. We certainly don't have that tech today, let alone 15 or so years ago when this story seems to have taken place.

His story goes off the deep end with the main thrust being neuro-linguistic hacking based on ancient Sumerian mythology. I'm sure Stephenson researched a lot of actual info on Sumer, but the way he puts the pieces together is entirely his own creation. And after all is said and done, it basically fails the logic test. Near the end of the story, the main character (I'm trying to avoid saying "protagonist" ... because the character's name in the story is actually "Protagonist" ... Hiro Protagonist ... arg! funny, but still ... ) puts the whole concept together in one big expository scene and while all the little nubs we saw throughout the course of the story could have been reasonably accepted (suspension of disbelief) once the whole concept was explained is was blindingly obvious to me how unrealistic and irrational the idea was. It utterly and completely failed the logic test.

Oh well. This is one of Stephensons earliest novels, and his biggest reach into cyberpunk genre that I'm aware of (his other novels having some cyberpunk attitude are mostly hard historical fiction/hard sci-fi) so I won't totally dismiss this story. It's a fun read, has some interesting and entertaining characters, and lots of cool action scenes, so if you can ignore the timeline issue and get past some of the illogic, you should be able to enjoy this book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

They told you to read 1984 before it was too late. Well, it's too late. This, like a lot of cyberpunk classics, provides a vision of an imagined future that eerily parallels the current era. The tone is almost satirical in its bleak but functioning idea of the world now divided between corporate-owned franchise districts as laws, nations and the political shadowplay we know in this world have been fully eroded and dissolved, with money being the only power acknowledged by most. Impressively, the more absurd some of the ideas in the book may seem, they actually hold more realism than some of the more solemnly discussed concepts in the book. It's like if Neuromancer had been written by Jello Biafra and frankly it's better. The characters' experiences inform the dialect of their narration and the voice of the book is full of smartass attitude even for cyberpunk, but also helps immerse us in the futuristic world without having to over-explain the mundanities of the era. As a fan of Sumerian history, the Babylon story/mother tongue, cults and magic, I was happy to see these incorporated to the storyline as well, in a way that really satisfyingly links up with the cyber-techie story. The characters are all entertaining and unique, including the dog, whose internal monologues be assessments of situations were not only cute and funny but really add to the whole variety of ways the book presents LANGUAGE.

"Cyberspace" is presented as the metaverse- which is essentially Google running on a VR Second Life engine, where people walk around as avatars of their own choosing. Like a lot of cyberpunk classics, the nerds who read it are now making the planet and thus a lot of the language we use today to discuss computer and internet-related concepts have caught on in the real world, most noticeably the use of the Indian religious concept of an Avatar being the word to describe a person's visual appearance online.

I could go on about reasons I feel this book issa ma la ka na an absu wa ho I mel sep na aya ra gi hkk

"Snow Crash" is a very good book especially considering it was written in 1992/3 -- a nice bit of forward looking of how society and computing evolves. The mixture of the genres is done very well with some very good and interesting character development.

If you enjoy cyberpunk or cross-genre stories, then you must read 'Snow Crash'. You will not be sorry.

Main ideas in the novel:

1) virology -- biological and computer viruses share several interesting things

2) languaage evolution -- intersting how written languages evolved from cuniform and how spoken languages change

3) corporations will control the world and governments steady change into one world order

4) A prediction of what virtual will be like -- a very good prediction of what has become Second Life.

5) Direct information absoption into the brain via the optic nerve

World Setting:

The world setting is very well done and introduced in a "in your face" way that quickly draws you in the same way "Clockwork Orange" does. The lack of government control and the rise of corporations is well done. I particularly enjoyed having the Mafia being a sympathetic corporation due their strict moral code and strict adherence superior customer service at all costs.

Characters:

Hiro Protagonist -- great name for a cyberpunk/hacker. The name fits the character very well. I loved the part where Hiro is the greatest swordsman in the (in the cyberspace as he wrote the sword fighting subroutines) and actually good in real life as well. It makes a nice linkage between real life and cyber life.

"Raven" -- a crazed Aleute / Russian assassin specializing in traditional Aleute weapons and hunting skills. The linkage between "Raven" and Hiro is very interesting, well done and provide a good plot arc.

starting with a "known" (deja vú) set of sci-fiction topics, it turns out to be a bit far fetched and elementary plot and uncovincing development;

The story is good but the main deal is the setting. Imagining how things eventually turn out and the degradation of society as a whole is a interesting perspective - where pizza delivery is a top notch job and requires a degree! A must read.

The delivery of the item itself was OK. However, the shipper forgot to put my flat no. on my parcel. It was sitting in the mail room for days until I finally noted and picked it up.

Very poor edition. I have spotted several typos.

Considering this was published thirty years ago, it’s incredibly prescient. Stephenson is acknowledged as the person who coined the term ‘metaverse’ with its immersive virtual reality concept.

It’s a high octane fast-paced (mostly) tale about bad guys who want to mind control others in a fractured post-USA world, while unlikely heroes fight against them in scrappy ways.

What I liked: great descriptions of people, action scenes that are full throttle, and spunky female character. But did she have to be 15? I felt uncomfortable with her being so young. Just a reader sensitivity there.

Things that irked: a couple of big info dump sections on babel and other background context. But otherwise, this well-respected novel lives up its reputation.

C’est à parieur de ce roman d’anticipation que les GAFA et autres acteurs du numérique envisagent l’avenir. Pour autant, cet opus réserve des surprises bien différentes et, avouons-le, plus humaines et prometteuses. À lire en anglais si possible.