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dasonic's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A great beginning, a boring and hard to read middle, an exciting buildup and a fumbled ending.
I loved the start of this book, I couldn't put it down, then there is suddenly chapters of just a character dumping information on Hiro and we go from a cyberpunk story totwo characters talking about an ancient religion and viruses. I struggled through this section, hoping it would get back to it. And it does, eventually, and I started to enjoy it again, although not as much as before. And just when I thought the book was getting good again, it ends. I stared at the last page and went "oh. I guess that's an ending". It was very underwhelming and felt like a lot of build up with no payoff.
I also found the sexualisation of YT (a 15 year old girl) uncomfortable, feeling out of place and taking away from what otherwise was a great character.
Do I regret reading the book? No. Would I read it again? I doubt it. Would I recommend you read it? Not really, but I wouldn't actively try and convince you not to.
For me, this book is the epitome of "just okay"
I loved the start of this book, I couldn't put it down, then there is suddenly chapters of just a character dumping information on Hiro and we go from a cyberpunk story to
I also found the sexualisation of YT (a 15 year old girl) uncomfortable, feeling out of place and taking away from what otherwise was a great character.
Do I regret reading the book? No. Would I read it again? I doubt it. Would I recommend you read it? Not really, but I wouldn't actively try and convince you not to.
For me, this book is the epitome of "just okay"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Rape
dianapiskor's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
It's not every day I can say I truly hate a book. I usually try to find the positives within it, as I think every book, no matter my personal feelings, has merit. For this book, I am struggling to find even ONE good thing to say about it. I hated it from the moment I started. And my hatred continued to grow as I read more.
This book is incredibly influential. People, especially those that now make up our technological lives, LOVE this book. It guessed about personal computers and AI and VR. Big whoop.
And I don't get why tech bros love this book so much. It's incredibly problematic. From the racism to the sexualizing of a 15 year old character, who the author, by the way, makes sure to note that when she engages in intercourse with a 40 year old it is "consensual" and he makes her "uncomfortably horny" this book is just a HARD PASS. I also hated his writing style, the necessary information he includes, the terrible ending, the way the author wrote any and all female characters,
Do yourself a favor, don't read this book. It's not worth it. It has little to no value, I feel, beyond the ideas it presented in 1992. Don't waste your money. Go read something better instead. If I could give it 0 stars here, I absolutely would.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Rape, and Pedophilia
cattit00d's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Drug use, Rape, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, and Homophobia
ejpass's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
2/5 stars
Recommended if you like: hard sci-fi, dystopian sci-fi, tech bros, sword fighting, VR
TW statutory rape
So...let's have this be the last time I'm fooled by pretty colors and Sumerian cuneiform (also the last time I take a book recommendation from another book). This book and I did not get off to a good start, what with it opening with a million random words thrown together with exposition on what those words meant. Then I got used to it, then Stephenson had to bring in the anthropology and linguistics.
Now, normally I love seeing those things in books. I love both of those subjects and studied them in college and on my own time. That being said, Snow Crash is like if a tech bro was court mandated to take linguistics 101 and anthropology 101, only paid attention 33-50% of the time, then retold his tech bro buddies all about ancient civilization and ancient languages after having a couple of beers. This is, perhaps, a bit mean, because Stephenson does get some of it right. But then he goes off the rails and while I understand this is sci-fi....well, the basic facts are just plain wrong. Go off, but at least base it in fact.
A slight rant, so perhaps skip these next two paragraphs if you don't want to read about me complaining about linguistics and anthropology more, I'll try to make it brief. Stephenson was off to a good start talking about Sumer and Sumerian religion, he actually stays pretty on track with Sumerian religion, interestingly enough, but then he goes and starts talking about how Sumer was stagnant and yet somehow everyone spoke Sumerian and how me dragged Sumerians out of cave-man-hood.....except, Sumerian wasn't the first language. It's just the oldest language we have written attestation for. People could speak, and were modern humans, well before Sumer became a thing. Hell, Akkadian and and some form of Proto-Old-Chinese (among others) were both spoken at that time, the Sumerians just got to writing first. (and let's not even get into the "cave man" concept)
Further, Sumerian didn't just magically vanish, what happened was a series of smaller and larger civilization collapses caused by a whole host of factors, through which Sumerian gradually went from being the predominately spoken language of the area to a language spoken almost solely religiously due to the influx of newcomers and conquerors to the region combined with certain conquering dynasties forcibly migrating native Sumerians to the outskirts of the empire (where they had to interact with the natives there, who definitely did not speak their language) and bringing other cultural, linguistic, and ethnic groups into the traditional Sumerian heartland. Also, more minor, but there were not "tens of thousands" of languages being spoken in the 1980s. We have approximately 7000 languages today and while we are losing languages at a rapid rate, we are not losing them that quickly. Language, and by some extension culture, was the whole basis of this book and Stephenson just got so much of that basis wrong that, while I enjoyed a decent portion of it, I just couldn't get over the incorrectness of it,
Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming. As far as plot goes, it was actually pretty interesting following Hiro and Y.T. as they got tangled up in web after web of this conspiracy. There were so many moving parts that seemed disparate from one another and yet somehow connected, and I really enjoyed seeing how it all came together. I liked how things built up and I think the showdown with Hiro gets a good climax, but stuff in the real world fell a little flat. I would've liked to have a firmer resolution with things, even if it left some things open ended. As is, it just feels like a let down.
Hiro was a hard character to get into. He's just kind of there for the beginning part of the book, a problem which is compounded by the sheer amount of lingo and information being dumped on readers at the beginning of the book. He turns out to actually be a pretty chill dude later on and even when he was confused, he at least seemed to grasp things quickly, so there wasn't too much just standing around and questioning things.
Y.T. was a bit easier to like from the get-go, though her lingo is just as confusing as Hiro's. 15 definitely seems young to be doing a lot of the things she's doing, and while I know her mom works long hours for the Feds, I'm surprised she has 0 clue what her daughter is doing. I liked Y.T.'s spunk and tenacity. She could get freaked out at times, but she was a go-getter and immediately jumped into doing anything she was interested in or thought would help.
While I did spend a good portion of this review complaining about the technical linguistic and anthropological side of the book, I did enjoy some of the book. The problem is, is that combined with the factual problems, the book reads too much like your stereotypical hard sci-fi that's easy to make fun of because the authors are using a gazillion weird words to enforce the 'futuristic' idea. Things like "franchulate" I can see where it comes from; 'Kouriers' are on thin ice, but whatever, they're trademarked; but there was a lot of stuff that I thought was just unnecessarily in "sci-fi lingo." All of this put together, plus the very ending of the book, reduced my overall enjoyability.
Recommended if you like: hard sci-fi, dystopian sci-fi, tech bros, sword fighting, VR
TW statutory rape
So...let's have this be the last time I'm fooled by pretty colors and Sumerian cuneiform (also the last time I take a book recommendation from another book). This book and I did not get off to a good start, what with it opening with a million random words thrown together with exposition on what those words meant. Then I got used to it, then Stephenson had to bring in the anthropology and linguistics.
Now, normally I love seeing those things in books. I love both of those subjects and studied them in college and on my own time. That being said, Snow Crash is like if a tech bro was court mandated to take linguistics 101 and anthropology 101, only paid attention 33-50% of the time, then retold his tech bro buddies all about ancient civilization and ancient languages after having a couple of beers. This is, perhaps, a bit mean, because Stephenson does get some of it right. But then he goes off the rails and while I understand this is sci-fi....well, the basic facts are just plain wrong. Go off, but at least base it in fact.
A slight rant, so perhaps skip these next two paragraphs if you don't want to read about me complaining about linguistics and anthropology more, I'll try to make it brief. Stephenson was off to a good start talking about Sumer and Sumerian religion, he actually stays pretty on track with Sumerian religion, interestingly enough, but then he goes and starts talking about how Sumer was stagnant and yet somehow everyone spoke Sumerian and how me dragged Sumerians out of cave-man-hood.....except, Sumerian wasn't the first language. It's just the oldest language we have written attestation for. People could speak, and were modern humans, well before Sumer became a thing. Hell, Akkadian and and some form of Proto-Old-Chinese (among others) were both spoken at that time, the Sumerians just got to writing first. (and let's not even get into the "cave man" concept)
Further, Sumerian didn't just magically vanish, what happened was a series of smaller and larger civilization collapses caused by a whole host of factors, through which Sumerian gradually went from being the predominately spoken language of the area to a language spoken almost solely religiously due to the influx of newcomers and conquerors to the region combined with certain conquering dynasties forcibly migrating native Sumerians to the outskirts of the empire (where they had to interact with the natives there, who definitely did not speak their language) and bringing other cultural, linguistic, and ethnic groups into the traditional Sumerian heartland. Also, more minor, but there were not "tens of thousands" of languages being spoken in the 1980s. We have approximately 7000 languages today and while we are losing languages at a rapid rate, we are not losing them that quickly. Language, and by some extension culture, was the whole basis of this book and Stephenson just got so much of that basis wrong that, while I enjoyed a decent portion of it, I just couldn't get over the incorrectness of it,
Okay, back to the regularly scheduled programming. As far as plot goes, it was actually pretty interesting following Hiro and Y.T. as they got tangled up in web after web of this conspiracy. There were so many moving parts that seemed disparate from one another and yet somehow connected, and I really enjoyed seeing how it all came together. I liked how things built up and I think the showdown with Hiro gets a good climax, but stuff in the real world fell a little flat. I would've liked to have a firmer resolution with things, even if it left some things open ended. As is, it just feels like a let down.
Hiro was a hard character to get into. He's just kind of there for the beginning part of the book, a problem which is compounded by the sheer amount of lingo and information being dumped on readers at the beginning of the book. He turns out to actually be a pretty chill dude later on and even when he was confused, he at least seemed to grasp things quickly, so there wasn't too much just standing around and questioning things.
Y.T. was a bit easier to like from the get-go, though her lingo is just as confusing as Hiro's. 15 definitely seems young to be doing a lot of the things she's doing, and while I know her mom works long hours for the Feds, I'm surprised she has 0 clue what her daughter is doing. I liked Y.T.'s spunk and tenacity. She could get freaked out at times, but she was a go-getter and immediately jumped into doing anything she was interested in or thought would help.
While I did spend a good portion of this review complaining about the technical linguistic and anthropological side of the book, I did enjoy some of the book. The problem is, is that combined with the factual problems, the book reads too much like your stereotypical hard sci-fi that's easy to make fun of because the authors are using a gazillion weird words to enforce the 'futuristic' idea. Things like "franchulate" I can see where it comes from; 'Kouriers' are on thin ice, but whatever, they're trademarked; but there was a lot of stuff that I thought was just unnecessarily in "sci-fi lingo." All of this put together, plus the very ending of the book, reduced my overall enjoyability.
Content Warnings
Minor: Rape
cedardleland's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
This book is not Neal Stevenson's best work. I enjoyed Diamond Age despite its flaws, but this book was nearly unreadable. The characterization was weak, I couldn't stand the main man's POV, and the solution to everything was just to be good at fighting, which isn't a very interesting way to explore a sci-fi world. Also there's a graphic rape scene of a minor that isn't framed well as rape, so that was awful
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Child abuse
strawberrypinch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, Gore, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Colonisation, Xenophobia, War, Death, Police brutality, Classism, Drug use, Cursing, and Drug abuse
Minor: Sexism, Genocide, Homophobia, Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Car accident, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Rape
saturniidae's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
this book is uh. Wow.
I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to see Hiro as the incompetent nerd way out of his depth he clearly is or if I'm somehow supposed to think he's actually cool.
The first half of the book does a good job of building the anarcho captialist hellscape that the characters inhabit, but the second half quickly spirals into an incomprehensible mess with muddled themes.
Really exemplifies why silicon valley techbros are how they are, if this book inspired them.
I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to see Hiro as the incompetent nerd way out of his depth he clearly is or if I'm somehow supposed to think he's actually cool.
The first half of the book does a good job of building the anarcho captialist hellscape that the characters inhabit, but the second half quickly spirals into an incomprehensible mess with muddled themes.
Really exemplifies why silicon valley techbros are how they are, if this book inspired them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Police brutality, Rape, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Ableism and Animal death
Minor: Racial slurs and Transphobia
No seriously this book's second half includes a 15 year old girl being brainwashed and groomed eventually culminating inbrigitte's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Racism, and Racial slurs
Minor: Rape
jtivel's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Weaponized cringe. It is an amazing example of sci-fi anarchocapitalist dystopia (or utopia for them, I guess), and an unreliable narrator.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
You'll almost think he knows how to write a female character. Then, it turns out he does not.wikipedia's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Racial slurs
Moderate: Rape
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