Paperback, 470 pages
English language
Published Sept. 1, 2008 by Bantam Spectra.
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you’ll recognize it immediately.
An absolute classic masterpiece of cyberpunk with social commentary and themes just as relevant today as when it was written. Marred by its creepy obsession with a 15 year old character.
For all the high-flying cyberpunk action, my favorite parts were the conspirasist digressions on ancient linguistics.
One of my all-time favorites (although not quite my favorite Neal Stephenson book, that would be The Diamond Age), I read this way back when, and it's held up over time and many rereadings. If I'm wandering a bookshop and don't see anything that grabs me, I'll just get another copy of this book. It's a fun, zippy read (not as epic an undertaking as his later 500+ page behemoths), and its metaverse still sparks the imagination more than the present-day Meta metaverse. The characters are all great, but for emotional depth, I'm going with the Rat Thing.
I've read this a few times over the years and It holds up. Interesting to see many things in the tech landscape emerge that hark to this book. Also fun to see what didn't launch into our lives no matter how hard the tech bros tried to make it happen. Maybe in another 20 years.
Wonderful classic with both action and philosophical depth
the opening is one of the best things I've ever read, ever. huge shame that it fails to maintain the momentum for long long periods. hugely flawed but extremely entertaining
A little difficult to get into at the start, turned a corner sharply and hooked me right to the end. An interesting use of ideas surrounding the history of language, of virtual and physical viruses, and the ‘metaverse’ seeing it’s first outing (before Facebook borrowed the name) - and a pair of protagonists who you find yourself desperately hoping will get to the source of the problem.
A little difficult to get into at the start, turned a corner sharply and hooked me right to the end. An interesting use of ideas surrounding the history of language, of virtual and physical viruses, and the ‘metaverse’ seeing it’s first outing (before Facebook borrowed the name) - and a pair of protagonists who you find yourself desperately hoping will get to the source of the problem.
I’m not sure why I had never read this book. It was in the back of my mind for years as something I should read. I heard Stephenson in an interview discussing the 30th anniversary of its publication and decided it was time. I’m so glad I did.
If there’s one thing I love in a book, it is an authentic voice. Something the author is wholly committed to, and is not quite like anything else. If you’d like to know if this novel’s voice will appeal to you, just read the first chapter. It’s only a dozen pages, and it’s a whirlwind.
I really enjoyed the premise of this fictional universe. It was imaginative, slightly deranged, and steeped in history, linguistics, and computer programming—all things I love. If you want to pick on the book, it is definitely “tell-y”. You’ll find long chapters where the protagonist (who’s name, …
A defining book of the cyberpunk genre, I enjoyed reading this novel thoroughly. Although captivating, the occasional bursts of lore explanation introduced just a little hint of boredom to my reading experience. Additionally, I was often left confused (not the good kind) about some plot elements, with this confusion only being alleviated a few chapters later. Despite these hardships, I still loved Snow Crash, and I recommend it to anybody interested in cyberpunk or dystopian science fiction.
P.S.: Raven is weird as fuck.
Just re-read this book, and it's amazing how prescient Stephenson was in 1992. Re-reading gave me a strange combination of nostalgia, hope and fear of how technology can be used. The wide-open possibilities of the early net have been largely foreclosed by commercial interests, but the current implosion of Tw*tter and growing awareness of the dangers of siloed spaces may be creating a renaissance of DIY, distributed and free (as in speech) media. Or it could still move into the hypercapitalist hellscape of Snow Crash. The power is in our hands.
(re-post for experimental reasons)
Just re-read this book, and it's amazing how prescient Stephenson was in 1992. Re-reading gave me a strange combination of nostalgia, hope and fear of how technology can be used. The wide-open possibilities of the early net have been largely foreclosed by commercial interests, but the current implosion of Tw*tter and growing awareness of the dangers of siloed spaces may be creating a renaissance of DIY, distributed and free (as in speech) media. Or it could still move into the hypercapitalist hellscape of Snow Crash. The power is in our hands.
Es una novela cyberpunk original, gamberra y algo divertida. La podía visualizar como una peli de risa sin muchas pretensiones, pero debido a su originalidad y ambientación únicas se podría convertir en un hito. Me recordó en algunas partes chorras a Kung Fury. Creo que el autor era un frikazo de la programación pero bastante visionario con el futuro de internet.
Neal Stephenson is famous for throwing in everything and the kitchen sink.
As this is an earlier work of his, he has put more effort into the story and writing, with so many more ideas than his later work.
Would recommend if you have read his later work. Considered one of the best Sci-fi books of the year by critics when it was released.
The dates are a total guess; (side note: an annoyance I have on BookWyrm right now is that in order to list a book as read, you have to give exact read dates, which I don't track, especially for a book I read roughly 25 years ago). I enjoyed this a great deal; back at that time the techno-libertarian themes of the book appealed to me, 'Hiro Protagonist' was a cute joke, and there was useful social commentary. It was a fun way to explore things that have now come to be.
