Snow Crash (original 1992; edition 1993)

Stephenson's first major book, as I recall, which established him as an important science fiction writer. It introduces the Metaverse, a 3D virtual space that is the next evolution of the Internet. Possible candidate for rereading, although I am now more interested in Stephenson's later novels.

Read in the 1990s. ( )

While the concept of this book has potential, I feel as if the story never developed beyond the "this is a great idea" stage. The book takes place in a post-apocalyptic America ruled by corporations and follows Hiro Protagonist, a hacker/sword-fighter, as he attempts to unravel the mystery of snow crash, a new drug that can affect you through a computer. Cool right? Unfortunately, the narration does not give readers credit for having any intelligence and comes off as exceedingly condescending. Add the fact that the characters do not develop at all throughout the story, the pacing is static, and the obvious-type humor gets old after the first 50 pages, I finished this book unimpressed.

Note: This book would have gotten 3 stars but it lost one because of the character Y.T. When adult male writers create over-sexualized 15 year old girls, my skin crawls. I support strong, female characters, but this one went way too far. Every time the narrator mentioned her being objectified by pretty much every single man in the book (or making excuses for why so-and-so did not check her out) I increasingly got the feeling that the only real creep was the author. ( )

This is a weird book. I will talk about it later. My brain is still full of weird. ( )

A fun ride, after the first 20 pages. I found this difficult to get into, for some reason, and started it 5 or 6 times. Once I got past all the invented words and jargon, I was hooked. Glad I persevered! ( )

For something written in 1992, this book has proved prophetic in some ways, which was interesting reading it from here in 2010. It reminds me of something Cory Doctorow (I think) said about predicting the present -- taking what's already in the present, extrapolating just a little, and then seeming prophetic when what you picked up on becomes big and relevant to everyone.

I enjoyed Snow Crash partly because I liked seeing how Neal Stephenson thought things were going to go. I did like his main characters, too, though I'm not sure how much they'll stay with me. It's the technological detail that I think is more likely to stick with me -- Y.T.'s dentata, the poons, etc.

One major drawback for me was the sheer amount of exposition going on in "conversations". It was basically the equivalent, in some chapters, of exhaustively recounting every result a character got by googling, whether entirely relevant or not.

Interesting ideas anyway. ( )