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Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book) by Neal…
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Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book) (original 1992; edition 2000)

by Neal Stephenson

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
20,094395221 (4.09)667
Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:The brilliantly realized (The New York Times Book Review) modern classic that coined the term metaverseone of Times 100 best English-language novels and a foundational text of the cyberpunk movement (Wired)
 
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzos CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse hes a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus thats 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 . . . youll recognize it immediately.… (more)
Member:Khepresh
Title:Snow Crash (Bantam Spectra Book)
Authors:Neal Stephenson
Info:Spectra (2000), Paperback, 440 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:ebook, kindle

Work Information

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (1992)

  1. 273
    Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (moonstormer)
  2. 190
    Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (davesmind, jbgryphon, fulner)
    davesmind: Although Snow Crash is a classic of cyberpunk, I think Ready Player One has a more captivating story - especially if you played video games in the 80's
    jbgryphon: RPO's OASIS owes it's existence as much to Neil Stephenson's Metaverse as to the miriad of geek universes that are included in it.
    fulner: Ready player one is what Snow crash should have been. A story focused primarily on the inter-personal-relationships of others "online" in a futuristic version of the internet in which we live in a 3-D world as the real world around us crashes and burns. The biggest difference is Ready Player One Doesn't Suck. Still somewhat heretical, but its heresy can be easily dismissed on that the protagonist is an atheist.… (more)
  3. 120
    Neuromancer by William Gibson (thebookpile)
  4. 70
    Daemon by Daniel Suarez (thehoodedone)
  5. 60
    The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson (atrautz)
  6. 50
    Count Zero by William Gibson (thebookpile)
  7. 62
    Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (JFDR)
  8. 40
    Halting State by Charles Stross (infiniteletters)
  9. 30
    Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick (ecureuil)
  10. 20
    Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan (electronicmemory)
  11. 20
    Omnitopia Dawn by Diane Duane (pammab)
    pammab: To explore the possibilities of virtual reality in the near future. Duane's is much more traditional and pro-corporate fantasy; Stephenson's is more humor-based anti-corporate cyberpunk.
  12. 20
    The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod (Noisy)
    Noisy: Anarchy viewed from both sides of the fence. 'Snow Crash' offers the capitalist view and 'The Star Fraction' offers the socialist counterpart.
  13. 32
    Virtual Light by William Gibson (Moehrendorf)
  14. 10
    The Stone Canal by Ken MacLeod (bsackerman)
  15. 21
    City of Golden Shadow by Tad Williams (romula)
  16. 10
    Trouble and Her Friends by Melissa Scott (vwinsloe)
    vwinsloe: Cyberpunk
  17. 11
    This Gaming Life: Travels in Three Cities by Jim Rossignol (infiniteletters)
  18. 13
    The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (fulner)
    fulner: Heretical Fiction
1990s (94)
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» See also 667 mentions

English (386)  French (3)  Italian (2)  Hungarian (1)  German (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (394)
Showing 1-5 of 386 (next | show all)
This book was pretty good. Started off a little slow and disjointed, but as you learn more and more of what's going on it all starts fitting together. Some familiar tropes with the Metaverse and a sword-wielding hacker, but a lot of moving parts throughout the book and an interesting theory/idea to build a plot around. ( )
  teejayhanton | Mar 22, 2024 |
I quite enjoyed this-- it's not my favorite, or even my favorite [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192826259p2/545.jpg], but it certainly captures a lot of the things I enjoy about his writing style. Stephenson does really good near-future sci-fi because he excels at taking something from our own time and going crazy with it, but at the same time keeping it detailed and sprawling and very realistic. In the case of [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396730s/830.jpg|493634], all you have to do is accept one possibly science-fictional idea in order for the rest of the story and world to fall into place with a resounding crash.

Near the end where they're author-dumping philosophy of religion... I can even agree with the line of thinking to an extent, but the part where Judaism is summoned up and just as quickly dismissed as 'a good attempt for the time, but outdated and replaced by Christianity' felt like a punch in the stomach. That's a pretty good simplification of the way it looks from the outside, but it's something Jews hear all the time, as if Judaism is made irrelevant and pointless by its eventually more popular offshoot.

Almost as a side note, I was entertained to notice the similarities of Hiro's "Earth" program to Google Earth. I wonder whether Google got their inspiration from the book, or if it's just an obvious idea. (Probably more the latter.) ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 23, 2024 |
Re-read this after a number of years, and I must say it held up much better than I expected it to, especially for something originally written so long ago. Long before there was anything like Second Life or any of the elaborate MMORPGs we have today, Stephenson conjured up a digital world for his characters to play in. This gives him the title of techno-prophet, in my book. Ultimately, though, it is the characters of Hiro Protagonist (best character name, ever) and Y.T. and Stephenson's not-entirely-dystopian-but-certainly-not-utopian future that draw me in and hold me even a second time around. ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
Meh, I am not quite sure what all of the fuss is about this book. I just read it because I had previously read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and an old room-mate of mine recommended it to me since I liked the aforementioned book quite a bit. However, this proved to be a disappointment. Maybe it served as some screenplay for The Matrix movies which speaks volume as I think the second and third of the trilogy are complete garbage. ( )
  tyk314 | Jan 22, 2024 |
Meh, I am not quite sure what all of the fuss is about this book. I just read it because I had previously read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and an old room-mate of mine recommended it to me since I liked the aforementioned book quite a bit. However, this proved to be a disappointment. Maybe it served as some screenplay for The Matrix movies which speaks volume as I think the second and third of the trilogy are complete garbage. ( )
  tyk314 | Jan 22, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 386 (next | show all)
Hiro Protagonist (who has chosen his own name, of course) turns out to be entertaining company, and Mr. Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow that is as farcical as it is horrific.
 
Stephenson has not stepped, he has vaulted onto the literary stage with this novel.
added by GYKM | editLos Angeles Reader
 
A cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole.
added by GYKM | editSan Francisco Bay Guardian
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Stephenson, Nealprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Davis, JonathanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Jensen, BruceCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Körber, JoachimÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Podevin, Jean-FrançoisCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
snow n. . . . 2.a. Anything resembling snow. b. The white specks on a television screen resulting from weak reception.

crash v....--intr. . . . 5. To fail suddenly, as a business or an economy.
---The American Heritage Dictionary

virus. . . . [L. virus slimy liquid, poison, offensive odor or taste.] 1. Venom, such as is emitted by a poisonous animal. 2. Path a. A morbid principle or poisonous substance produced in the body as the result of some disease, esp. one capable of being introduced into other persons or animals by inoculations or otherwise and of developing the same disease in them. . . . 3. fig. A moral or intellectual poison, or poisonous influence.
--The Oxford English Dictionary
Dedication
First words
The Deliverator belongs to an elite order, a hallowed subcategory. He's got esprit up to here.
Quotations
HIRO PROTAGONIST
Last of the freelance hackers
Greatest sword fighter in the world
Stringer, Central Intelligence Corporation
Specializing in software-related intel
(music, movies & microcode)
When you are wrestling for possession of a sword, the man with the handle always wins.
"Did you win your sword fight?"
"Of course I won the fucking sword fight," Hiro says. "I'm the greatest sword fighter in the world."
"And you wrote the software."
"Yeah. That, too," Hiro says.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
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Original language
Canonical DDC/MDS
Canonical LCC

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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:The brilliantly realized (The New York Times Book Review) modern classic that coined the term metaverseone of Times 100 best English-language novels and a foundational text of the cyberpunk movement (Wired)
 
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzos CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse hes a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus thats 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 . . . youll recognize it immediately.

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Book description
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra 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.
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