Customer Reviews

Snow Crash

5 star:		(341)
4 star:		(157)
3 star:		(76)
2 star:		(50)
1 star:		(30)

 

 

I came to _Snow Crash_ on the recommendation of a few people who had read it (they called it "great!" and "hilarious!," and knowing that Neal Stephenson is sometimes listed as a "cyberpunk" writer along with William Gibson et al.

I had liked William Gibson's books, so I gave _Snow Crash_ a try.

_Snow Crash_ is primarily about Hiro, a young man who delivers pizzas and collects information for the Central Intelligence Corporation (freelance), for a living. He lives in a storage unit with a cult-hero rockstar named Vitaly Chernobyl. He owns a futon, two awesome Japanese swords, and a laptop computer, where he stays "jacked in" to the "Metaverse" a lot of the time, where he is the world's greatest swordfighter.

Hiro witnesses a crime while interacting with others in the Metaverse. One of his friends is deliberately exposed to a dangerous block of text, which fries his brain (in the real world), and renders him a vegetable. Hiro and his friend Y.T. (15-year old skateboarding female, and knee-slappingly funny smartaleck) set off to find out why, and save the world in the process.

From the getgo this is a funny book. Sure, the vision of the near-future is dark, a little alarming, and at times depressing (there are NO general laws in _Snow Crash_, for example, and private corporations run everything, even the police, just as an example). That's what cyberpunk is like. But the HUMOR is one thing that sets Neal Stephenson aside. Hiro Protagonist? Come on, that's FUNNY, PEOPLE! One reviewer called it an 'odd' name. Yes, it's odd, and it's absurd, and it's funny! Did this author mean it is an unusual choice for a character name? I don't know. I hope not. It would be an odd choice for a character's name in a Jane Austen novel, sure. But this is cyberpunk, or something like it. Among this genre's leading inspirations are the works of Thomas Pynchon, and "Hiro Protagonist," as a character name, would fit in perfectly among his merry bands of misfits, especially in _V._ or _Gravity's Rainbow_.

Repeatedly reviewers are slamming Stephenson for his use of Sumerian myth, exploration of Sumerian culture, etc. in the book... calling it inaccurate, poorly connected to the rest of the story, and, (my personal least favorite), BORING. I tell you, besides the great sense of humor, the Sumerian-myth link is what sets this novel heads above so much other cyberpunk. I don't care if it's inaccurate (this is FICTION, see?). Stephenson "traces" computer/textual viruses and biological viruses quite nicely back to Sumerian times, and he links them to one another, biological virus to digital/informational virus (a debt to another pre-cyberpunk luminary, William Burroughs, who said "Word is Virus?")-- it's all very well connected to the metaverse/here-and-now portion of _Snow Crash_'s plot.

This is a funny, riproaring tale. I raced through this nearly 500-page paperback in half the time I read most books of this length. I enjoyed it beginning-to-end. My only complaint with the book was that, at times, it too much resembled a Hollywood action movie, what with all sorts of incredible stunts being performed, by boat drivers, skateboarders, swordsmen, etc.

I say, if you like William Gibson or Thomas Pynchon, or if any of this review makes _Snow Crash_ seem a bit appealing to you, give it a chance. I enjoyed it 10 times as much as I thought I would.

ken32

To the extent that a book can be described as original, "Snow Crash", by Neal Stephenson is deserving of the moniker. About the only common ground that his work shares with others is that ink is applied to paper using the same letters, and then pages are bound to create a book. Much beyond that and you are in the midst of this Author's view of a given world he has modified and created. He is not only incredibly unique; his wit passes the cutting edge to the bleeding edge of razor sharp sarcasm, and irony. And when he uses words he assembles them in arrangements you have never listened to before. An important aspect that sets his work apart in this genre is that while delivering enormous amounts of information, he keeps the reader informed, he does not lose you, he ensures you stay with his wickedly fast pace by keeping you educated. Other Authors of Science Fiction are weak on this point, and it weakens their books.

One date to remember when reading this work is that it was first released in June of 1992 after three years in the making. This is critical, as so much of what was absolute fiction then, may now be found within the pages of Wired Magazine. There are even words he originated that are common to most people who use a computer, especially if you have ever tried what he calls the Metaverse, touring it as an Avatar.

One of the reasons his work is so authentic and exceptionally good is that he knows his material. If he talks about code he's qualified, as he has written it. When he is speaking of Sumerian Mythology an Author who spent years researching his material is again relating it. And when he just lets go with dialogue or descriptive prose it is mind binding for being clever, unique, and hilarious. He also has raised sardonic prose to an art form. If he were any less a craftsman, a main character named Hiro Protagonist that at one point delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizzeria, would be moronic.

Technology, a version of what today's society might look like one day, viruses that share traits whether attacking a human or a silicon life form, the origins of language based on Biblical text, it just never stops. He is an extraordinary artist who chooses to express his art through words. It is a unique ride if you have yet to take it, and one that you will never forget.

...of someone who took a previous reviewer's advice to have another buy the book, then lend it and be forced to buy another copy when it doesn't return!

From the opening description of Hiro Protagonist (the main character--couldn't you tell?), I was caught by the irony, sarcasm, wit, and sheer fun with the English language that Neal Stephenson has in his repertoire. Snow Crash is gutsy, innovative, witty, and fun. It rewards anyone who churn out code for a living. Anyone who wonders what happens to our brains with all the advertising thrown at us. Anyone who is tired of the same old science fiction. Anyone who has wondered if the Tower of Babel story, combined with Sumerian mythos, would make a good computer-age read... the answer is yes.

It's almost impossible to review a cyberpunk book without comparing it to uberauthor William Gibson's works. I find Gibson to be cooly intellectual, reserved, methodical--a great read for a day when I'm ready to think hard. Stephenson is white-hot, down and dirty, in the trenches, while not losing touch with the thoughtfulness and underlying structure that makes Gibson satisfying.

Snow Crash: The idea of a virus being both biological and technological. Intriguing concept - but its explanation, rooted in Sumerian myth, comes off as if the author knows way too much about the subject and couldn't make it accessible to his audience (but read the novel's acknowledgments to find out the truth). For the most part, explanations involving the application of Sumerian myth to the novel's conflict take part in long, involved passages, which equate to Hiro Protagonist having long, involved conversations with a computer program. This literary set-up smacks of Stephenson researching Sumerian mythology, and rehashing conversations that he might have had with experts on the subject. It is rather clumsy: The reader will cruise along Stephenson's action-packed, cyberpunky adventure, then suddenly hit a chapter that explains why it is all happening. Kind of like the bad guy telling you his plan before he executes you: It's not subtle. An essay on the possibility of verbal viruses - condensed from explanations in the novel - would be an enjoyable read.

On the other hand, Stephenson is at his best when he dabbles in cyberpunk pursuits rather than scholarly ones. The idea of 'franchulates', corporate ownership, and religious fanaticism tying together in the near-future is a common one (suggest reading Palahniuk's "Survivor") but pizza delivery and courier service are envisioned especially well [Stephenson takes skateboarding to an entirely new level]. Snow Crash is full of puns, and bits of irony and wit, which shouldn't be overlooked.

Although Hiro renders avatars with the greatest of ease in the Metaverse, Stephenson's main characters are a bit flimsy - on the whole, they give off the impression there was a labored attempt to make them three-dimensional. Or: Characters may be introduced once, serve a purpose, then simply fade away or are very conveniently disposed of. The characters are loosely tied together - or just ridiculously (read: the protagonist and his nemesis share a rather unlikely connection). Characters - especially secondary characters, which there are (in my opinion) far too many of them - also tend to come off as stereotypes: hero, nemesis, love interest, boss, fiesty girl, brooding sniper.

The novel's structure is a bit disjointed and unbalanced. There are many loose ends. The first few chapters are unique; the ending is contrived.

(Alternative title that involves harpooning - since Snow Crash seeks to tackle many varied subjects, including references to Moby Dick: Ahab's Wife.)

I give the book 5 stars, as I love the style & the humour. What I give 1 star is the Kindle edition compared to the printed book. Did this book not exist as an electronic file prior to the Kindle version? I find that hard to belive, but nevertheless, Amazon must have thought so because the Kindle edition has very obviously been scanned & OCR'd from the printed page, and the OCR software they used must have come from the same year when Stephenson wrote the book longhand on paper, apparently.

There are many, many OCR errors in the text, particularly misinterpretation of rn as m, which often makes non-words, or, worse, makes actual words which make no sense, or, even worse, makes actual words that change the meaning of a sentence and bring your reading to a grinding halt.

Amazon; if you must OCR books to Kindle, spare a few hours to proof-read them. This is my first bad Kindle experience. Very amateur electronic publishing job.

This is a great book, and I was excited about making it my first Kindle purchase for the iPhone/iPad app.

What a disappointment!

The layout is poor; lots of text that should appear different from the body text is badly presented, but the real killer is the number of typos - simply atrocious. Literally (or so it seems) there is an error on every page - missing punctuation but also basic spelling errors. The name of the main character, Hiro often appears as 'Hire' and so on. It reads like it was fed through a cheap OCR system and then not actually checked by anyone at the publishing house or Amazon (or whoever digitised it for Kindle).

If I was Neal Stephenson, I'd be pretty angry about by work being presented this badly. The Kindle app is good, and Whispersync, enabling me to carry on reading from where I left off on one device, on another, is a really nice feature, but if the other titles on the Kindle store are like this, I won't be making any more purchases (and I'd like my money back for this one).

I must admit that Stephenson has a vivid imagination even if his general vision of the future seems to be consistently bleak in his novels about them. "Snow Crash" is another book in the tradition of "The Diamond Age" that imagines what the next era will be like. "Diamond" looks farther down the line, into the next century, while "Show Crash" looks at how things will be just decades from now. It sees a world in which the US has collapsed under its own weight, in which the Mafia controls pizza delivery, and the FBI has its own city-state. Electronic guard dogs patrol the Asian community and skating is now even more firmly rooted as its own sub-culture.

The main character, the not-so-subtly named Hiro Protagonist, is a sword-wielding freelance programmer who stumbles upon a shadowy conspiracy by powers unknown that threatens hackers worldwide with a virus that seems to leave them in a vegetative state. He takes on the challenge of finding out who is behind it and how to stop them mostly through a series of accidents. He is joined by a plucky young skater who has drawn attention from the local Mafia king. Lurking in the shadows is a dangerous Eskimo who goes by the name of Raven and rides a motorcycle powered with a nuclear bomb in its frame.

Like I said, Stephenson has an active imagination. His characters are colorful but not really that broadly drawn. We get a sense of what they are like from what they do, but we only get snippets of background information about them. It was hard to really root for the characters because I did not feel I really knew or identified with them. Still, I really enjoyed his descriptions of the strange places they travel to, including the Mafia and FBI states, and an aircraft character that houses its own nation of people from every culture.

As far as the conspiracy goes, it was unclear to me what the motivations of the people behind it were supposed to be. The technical aspects were also pretty hard to follow; it gets heavy in the nature of languages and programming. Even as someone who has dabbled in programming languages I had trouble understanding it. Other than Raven, who as a villain is fleshed out pretty well and is the most interesting character, I got the sense that the threat was really a clothesline on which to hang Stephenson's world vision and weird characters. I felt unsatisfied when the conclusion rolled around, since it is so abrupt and had little to do with the nature of the people involved.

Still, I had fun reading this book. It has a wild and strange vision of the future that may prove eirily accurate if things continue to move in the direction they are in. I liked the characters even if I didn't completely identify them. And the story is gripping even if you can't follow the plot. It is the mark of a good writer that he can bite off more than he can chew and yet make it palateable.

Have your friends buy this book, then steal it and make them buy it again!

Seriously. Stephenson is great at illuminating the world of the hacker. This book does so, but not the overly self-aware coolness associated with Cryptonomicon or Heavy Weather (by Bruce Sterling).

It's fun, it's never serious - even when someone is trying to destroy the world - and it makes you turn the pages.

I read a lot of science fiction, and am a rabid Gibson fan, and when I read this book, all I could say was 'cool'. The world, and the cyberworld. The arcane references to the Sumerians. Da5id. My personal favorite, Sushi K.

And of course, Hiro Protagonist - freelance coder, swordmaster, information seller and pizza deliverydude.

Remember, Americans do 4 things better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode and pizza delivery.

And the position of baddest mother is taken.

Piques your interest? You'll like Snow Crash. Think the attitude is childish? Pass this book up. Read Zodiac instead. Or Diamond Age.

It's difficult to say anything about this brilliant book that hasn't already been mentioned in the other reviews. Suffice to say, this is a brilliant cyberpunk novel. Descended from William Gibson's genre-making "Neuromancer", "Snow Crash" is an entertaining, wild-eyed look at the near future, but is not as bleak, either in writing style or imagination. The three strongest points to make about the book are its plot, characters, and pure imagination. The first half of the book is an introduction of the characters and the discovery of a technological and biological virus named Snow Crash, which a person can get through blood, exposure, or by looking at diseased data in the Metaverse, a kind of populated, mall-like cyberspace. The last half is a mad, action-filled rush to the conclusion. It has enough action to keep a thriller fan happy but requires plenty of brains to follow the origination of Snow Crash, which moves from Sumerian myth to populist religion in modern times. The idea is completely hair-brained, but somehow Stephenson makes you want to believe in the possibility of what he writes, which belies his talent. Secondly, his bizarre assortment of characters like the attitudinal skater Y.T., the cool but psychotic Raven, and the familial mobster Uncle Enzo populate a world strange enough to belong to the Twilight Zone, but frighteningly familiar. There's not much substance behind the characters, including the aptly-named Hiro Protagonist, but they make up for it with style. Stephenson's imagination links his plot into the environment of an imploded USA, most of which is pure fiction that couldn't happen in the next twenty years, if not longer. Still, what they lack in reality is made up for in hilarity. His look at the possibility of Mafia-run pizza delivery and what's left of the government are hilarious! Add that to an image of cyberspace VR intertwined with the mall-going culture, and you have a wild ride through a nearly-insane world. All in all, this is a fabulous book, and even if the characters and plot aren't so deep, the sheer power of Stephenson's imagination and humor shoots it into the atmosphere.

Published shortly before the Internet boom, this book is a hopeful but realistic look at the future of humanity, ecology, religion, computers and business.

None of these really interest me as simple subject matter to base a book on, but this book covers all of these topics in such a wonderful way.

Characters maintain their personalities throughout the book, but Stephenson has a brilliant way of making you change your mind about them without changing the characters personality, making them more realistic and relatable.

The humor is subtle in most parts, which doesn't make the author seem like he's trying too hard and the writing is fantastic.

The only drawbacks were located in the middle of the book, where an entire background on almost every religion imaginable was introduced, making it seem like a thesis in religious studies rather than a novel, but it does raise some interesting alternative views, and all in all is related to the story and it's characters even though I found my mind straying through many of these parts and had to re-read them.

Overall, a great book I'd highly recommend for anyone who reads.