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


RadiKally different book...   April 14, 2002
 76 out of 104 found this review helpful

In keeping with my personal philosophy of exposing myself to different literary genres, I picked up a copy of Snow Crash -- a cyber punk novel. It's a different experience when you start out. You're not sure whether you're missing some background information or a special dictionary to go through the book. It starts off at a fast pace and uses words like Burbclaves, Franchulates, Kouriers, pooning, loglo, etc. Our protagonist is called Hiro Protagonist, a pizza deliverer for the Mafia-controlled pizza chain Cosa Nostra, who also happens to be a hacker supreme in the Metaverse and greatest sword fighter in the world.

Did you do a double take on what I just said? If you did, welcome to the world of cyber punk. If you didn't, welcome to the world of cyber punk. The author has to lay down the groundrules of his "future world" while at the same time using that as a foundation to tell a story. (Everyone's vision of the future is different.)

This novel will be very different from the others you've read. It is erratically paced. The action scenes from riding a skateboard to sword fighting are exciting and fast. The scenes in Hiro's office figuring out the mystery of Snow Crash with the Librarian is slow and sometime downright boring, preachy and dull. The plot is really simple. Once the dynamic duo of Y.T. and Hiro determine what Snow Crash is, the rest of the plot is predictable.

The seemingly self-contradicting characters in this novel alone make it worth reading. Y.T. has real spunk. Her attitude is that of a typical carefree 15 year old rebel. She delivers packages on her hi-tech skateboard while keeping it a secret from her mom (a government programmer). Her dialogue is true to her character. Hiro is at times a curt, savage and indifferent person, yet at other times a loquacious, compassionate and loyal friend. His dialogue and actions display both extremes. Raven is described as Asian, but in reality he's a giant thug. There are many other characters that complete the book.

Two weeks ago, if you asked me whether I'd pick up another cyber punk novel again I would have answered no. But lo and behold, I'm finishing up The Diamond Age by the same author, and I thoroughly enjoy it so far. Look for my review to come.

All in all, I did enjoy this novel. It was a great intro to the world of cyber punk.

LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3.5 (Hiro wavers, Y.T.'s a blast)
E (Erotica) - 2 (one scene sticks out)
A (Action) - 4 (pooning, katana-wielding, Reason)
P (Plot) - 3 (simple, just complicated by cyber punk lingo and the "future")


Control Alt Delete Restart   July 17, 2001
 42 out of 48 found this review helpful

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.


Snow Crash--Simply a Must-Read   May 24, 2000
 40 out of 44 found this review helpful

If you're a computer geek, computer geek-wannabe, or in any way interested in the 'cyber-culture' which has grown up around the Internet, this book is a must read. It takes a good idea (Gibson's _Neuromancer_ novels) and improves on it by spending as much time investigating the society in meatspace as it does cyberspace. The result is an entertaining novel which shows how both worlds interact with and change each other. The plot revolves around a drug called Snow Crash which is available both in Virtual and Real reality. After one of his friends becomes infected by this 'drug', Hero Protagonist and his skate-boarding female sidekick (if only I could find a girl like this...) must investigate who is behind this whole scheme and stop the onrushing Infopocalypse. Along the way they meet an assortment of memorable characters: a psychotic Aleut who uses razor-sharp glass knives to gut his opponents and carries a live nuclear weapon in the sidecar of his motorcycle, a cybernetic dog that can run at Mach2, a Mafia Godfather/Pizza Mogul with a penchant for straight razors, and a quadraplegic war vet who's wheelchair doubles as a tank. The settings range from the city-states of ancient Sumer to Virtual Reality libraries to a huge surplus aircraft carrier/refugee ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I swear I'm not making this up! Simply put, this is the most entertaining and thought provoking book I've read in years. If you liked Gibson's books, you'll love this one.


A Rare Accomplishment In the Genre   January 27, 2001
 26 out of 33 found this review helpful

NOTE: I wrote a review of this novel a couple of months ago, but it was never posted. I won't speculate on the reason or reasons why (although I have my suspicions), but I promise to be a good little Phrodoe this time out. Onward:

Snow Crash is an astonishing, clever, funny, suspenseful work of the imagination. I've read a couple of Neal Stephenson's books (Cryptonomicon and The Diamoind Age, both of which I highly reccommend), and I still think this is his best novel. In Snow Crash, a part-time hacker, information-scrounge, and delivery boy for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizzerias, and full-time Metaverse (virtual reality) samurai named Hiro Protagonist (one of the best names since Billy Pilgrim!), is slowly drawn into a mystery involving a virus program called Snow Crash, which is claiming not only the computers but the minds on hackers the world over, including Hiro's best friend. Who is behind all this, and what it has to do with Sumerian mythology and the hard-wiring of the human language centers is what Hiro must find out, while at the same time he attempts to prevent the further spread of the Snow Crash virus. Along the way he falls in with a skateboard punk named Y.T., who is more instrumental to the story than might first be suggested, and who is the novel's most intriguing character, if only because her investigations are almost more revealing than Hiro's are -- in fact, Hiro comes off as a bit of a cypher compared to her. But I digress. All of these events take place in Stephenson's richly- imagined near-future, where the American government has become a tight-sphinctered, half-failed corporation, while corporations have become governments, and a multimedia mogul has cobbled together a vast fleet of refugee boats from various countries, in the most questionable act of philanthropy since Ted Turner tried to buy the UN. There are also gated communities that are not just gated but practically self-contained universes. And then there is the Metaverse...Stephenson's delightful extrapolation of the Internet, where you can be anyone you want to be, whether that person is yourself or someone else, within reasonable limits of course. The Metaverse is also as overloaded with advertising as the 'net is, and it was Stephenson's clever description of M.V. ads that really hooked me on this book for good (not that I needed much more persuasion at that point). The Metaverse, and the weird, wired world which surrounds it, are both so enthrallingly, memorably...I was going to say realistically, but perhaps a better term would be surrealistically, rendered, that reading about it is one of the novel's high points. Every moment of Snow Crash, practically, is full of mystery, intrigue, brightly-drawn (for the most part) characters, and humor. Oh, didn't I mention that Stephenson is a bloody riot to read? The man is a futurist-humorist-satirist of the first caliber...I would say worthy of Vonnegut, but that's pretty lofty company, and probably not entirely accurate. yet Stephenson comes darned close, and he, along with Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, and Douglas Adams, is one of the few authors who can make me laugh right out loud, so mordantly witty is his stuff. But Stephenson is also more than a wit, as the clever premise behind Snow Crash suggests. His concept, that human consciousness and language concepts are as programmable as any computer, is as intelligently-reasoned as any science-fiction concept I've ever come across, and one which would later be revisited, reexplored, and expanded upon by Greg Bear in Darwin's Radio (see my review, he said in a shameless plug), although Bear added some wrinkles even Stephenson didn't think of. And in linking his concept back to both the Biblical story of the Tower of Babel, and to the Babylonian creation myth Enuma Elish, Stephenson creates a tapestry of invention that few writers in my experience have been able to equal, all told elegantly in Stephenson's supple, muscular prose. And if none of what I've written here convinces you to pick up Snow Crash, maybe this will: There is a tendency in science-fiction for writers to create improbable post-apocalypse dystopias (i.e., The Matrix, Mad Max, or any one of a hundred bad stories written by good writers -- even the great Harlan Ellison has written his share), and in my opinion such stories are not only ill-conceived but also a cheat. It's easy to imagine a post-apocalyptic world (where there seems to be all the gasoline, computer time, and electric energy available, no matter how wretched the rest of the world has become) -- in fact, it's too easy, which is part of the problem. Show me instead a far more difficult feat...instead of a blue-sky approximation of the post-apocalypse, show me how the world is GOING to end. That is what Vonnegut has done time and again (cf. "Harrison Bergeron" and the novel Slaughterhouse Five), and that is pretty much what Stephenson is doing with Snow Crash. He isn't worried about the post-apocalypse...but rather, about the aptly-named Infocalypse which may be happening all around us even now, right under our noses. And that, above all else, is why I love Snow Crash so much. It is rare, unique, and a thrill to read, and I would reccommend it without reservation to anybody.