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Loading... Snow Crash (1992)by Neal Stephenson
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Best Dystopias (41) » 52 more Overdue Podcast (29) Unreliable Narrators (59) Books Read in 2016 (1,548) Books Read in 2021 (974) Books Read in 2017 (1,348) Books Read in 2015 (1,148) Top Five Books of 2019 (376) Best Cyberpunk (23) 1990s (94) One Book, Many Authors (225) Books Read in 2018 (3,391) um actually (43) SF - To Read (6) Protagonists - Men (11) Unread books (900) No current Talk conversations about this book. Absolutely bonzo extrapolation of a privatized future and science fiction application of computer viruses to the human condition. When the protagonists are samurai pizza delivery men, renegade computer hackers, underage skateboard messengers, Mafia dons, and Asian businessmen, you know things are messed up. But it all seems perfectly plausible here. This was such a fun and interesting book. Very fast moving and full of a billion little details that just tweaked my brain in all kinds of directions. Really, a very cool book. The ending might be a little too pat, but that's okay, I kind of like them that way. More like 3.5, starts out incredibly strong, presents intriguing ideas and the setting is groundbreaking (for its time). Unfortunately, it gets bogged down about 2/3 of the way through and never recovers. Also, for a 550 page book, the actual climax is just the last 10 pages and there is no denouement. It's almost like his friends were going out for drinks and Stephenson said "give me 5 minutes guys" and finished the book. I was asked to read this book, reluctantly started it, dragged through it (only because I was constantly told how awesome it was by someone who barely reads) and found myself struggling to care. I confused about what the whole point of it was (if there was one). I could see it as a film or a graphic novel. Definitely one of the books I chose to not finish.
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. A cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole. Belongs to Publisher SeriesGoldmann (45302) Is contained inContainsHas as a student's study guideAwardsNotable Lists
Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison--a writer so original, he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age. Snow Crash 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. "Brilliantly realized...Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow." --New York Times Book Review No library descriptions found.
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![]() GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:![]()
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Into this world comes a computer virus, Snow Crash, that not only destroys the computer host it arrives at, but enslaves the user creating a sort-of zombie army.
The story revolves around plucky heroes initially trying to grab some personal advantage from the virus’ impact, but later working to defeat the masterminds trying to enslave the planet.
This is a book chock full of ideas and predictions that takes a hard look at impacts and consequences, good and bad. Stephenson has a knack for seeing beyond what a technology can do into what it means when that technology has become a ubiquitous part of everyday life. Even though it is 30 years old, this book has a lot to say and show us about how the technologies we rely on today are affecting how society works and where that could lead.
The book does not have the sophistication of Stephenson’s later work and relies too much on crash-bang action, but is nevertheless an important work in the science fiction field, and a good read as well. (