Scan barcode
saintlazarus's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexual harassment and Sexual assault
venti's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
disappointed… in many aspects…. but also intrigued. as someone who was once a 15 year old girl i also reclaim Y.T. as a character because she was very cool aside from the male author constantly fucking talking about her ass.
as one user on goodreads so aptly put it — “juvenile nerd power fantasy in a nutshell”
also on a note unrelated to my personal feelings about this book i think sci-fi written pre 2000 is just too outdated to be good anymore… like sure in the 90s the terms “avatar” and “metaverse” were novel but now if you hear those words irl it’s just an average tuesday
as one user on goodreads so aptly put it — “juvenile nerd power fantasy in a nutshell”
also on a note unrelated to my personal feelings about this book i think sci-fi written pre 2000 is just too outdated to be good anymore… like sure in the 90s the terms “avatar” and “metaverse” were novel but now if you hear those words irl it’s just an average tuesday
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content
laudelui's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Promete mucho el argumento, o igual tenía unas expectativas equivocadas. Pero me dio la sensación que algunas partes no enlazan bien o que faltaban trozos por explicar. Sobre explica algunas partes de la historia que luego no vienen al caso y otras dices pues se ha flipado.
Si te gusta una historia con contenido de mitología y/o religiones antiguas con trazas de ciberpunk, persecuciones locas e invento con energía nuclear, es para ti .
La parte del final remonta y me recordó a una película de Hollywood de los años noventa.
Si te gusta una historia con contenido de mitología y/o religiones antiguas con trazas de ciberpunk, persecuciones locas e invento con energía nuclear, es para ti .
La parte del final remonta y me recordó a una película de Hollywood de los años noventa.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Drug use, Pedophilia, and Gun violence
Minor: Racism
casim's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Adult having sex with a minorfahyhallowell's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I just reread this book after decades, and enjoyed again the hyper cool dystopian world building. But. As a parent of young adults I found elements of the character of Y.T. a major downer. Like did the author ever meet a 15 year old? The character is preternaturaly expert at everything she does, including sex with a monstrous man at least twice her age. Basically a spophmoric male fantasy trope. I'm glad so many current sci fi writers are moving past that stuff now!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Sexual content, and Gun violence
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug use, and Kidnapping
em_p2's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-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
3.0
If this book was just YT and Fido, it would have been a lot better. The philsophizing and religion just got repetitive by the end, especially when it all felt like Hiro was just saying the same things over and over. By the end section, I skipped most of it and still understood what was happening. The chase scenes and all of the Kourier and skate scenes are really well paced and fun. There is a gratuitous sex scene with a minor and an adult that was off putting, because it doesn’t seem to be addressed in a significant way from YT’s point of view. It made uncomfortable and was another section that I skipped. overall, it was a fairly fast and enjoyable read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Xenophobia
itsmekt's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Racism
nikogatts's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I'm confident in saying that every major element in this book had something about it that I really liked and something that I really disliked.
Worldbuilding
Liked: The vision. Snow Crash's near-future United States has many of the usual dystopian hallmarks: pollution, a powerless government, religious zealots, hyperinflation, a refugee crisis. One of this world's defining features is that nearly everything in it, from suburban neighborhoods to highways to public restrooms, is privately owned and part of a corporate chain. Many of these chains are owned by criminal organizations (the most prominent in the book being the Sicilian Mafia), religious groups, or the remnants of nation states. The employees of rival organizations openly engage in armed combat with one another. Access to certain locations is impossible unless you're able to pay for entry, qualify for membership, or, in the case of the suburbs, become a full citizen of an exclusive neighborhood. These divisions are enforced by a variety of (also privately owned) security and police forces, as well as a plethora of sci-fi weapons. Is it an America that I would like to live in? Absolutely not. But it is a fascinating read, and it's grounded enough in the realities of modern capitalism to hit a bit close to home.
This segmentation of a formerly open world ties into the book's central theming around the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. Instead of separating humans into various languages, as God did by destroying the Biblical Tower, Snow Crash's humanity has segmented itself into enclaves of corporate loyalty. In this torn and shredded world, two potential Towers of Babel rise.
One Tower is the Raft, a massive floating community of refugee boats and pirate ships tethered to an aircraft carrier owned by the Jim Bakker-esque billionaire L. Bob Rife. From here, Rife distributes the drug known as Snow Crash, which hacks into people's brains and forces them to act as loyal drones that speak in tongues.
The other Tower is the Metaverse, an online virtual reality open to anyone who can find a point of access. The quality of one's avatar and the ownership of virtual property is dependent on the user's hacking ability or wealth, but the world is generally open to, and able to be explored by, anyone tech-savvy enough to log on. The problem here is that the Metaverse is only used by a fraction of the population, and the more knowledgeable users are uniquely susceptible to Snow Crash's effects.
These settings are populated by more speculative concepts and fantastic technologies than I could possibly list here, and the imaginative near-future that Neal Stephenson creates is by far the most interesting part of this book.
Disliked: The execution. I went into this book knowing that it would be info-heavy. I'm not opposed to infodumps (I actually often enjoy them), but they have to be done in a way that doesn't halt or impede the rest of the story. This book can be very difficult to read for the first ten-or-so chapters, because a character will take a single action and then there will be pages and pages (sometimes the rest of the chapter) explaining the technologies being used or the origin and structure of the organizations involved. Many of these infodumps include information that isn't relevant at the time or that never becomes relevant, and some of it is downright insulting (I know that all of these numbers are 2 to the power of something; you don't have to tell me every time).
As the main characters gather more information about Snow Crash, the infodumps expand into entire chapters where a character word-vomits about a concept for five to ten pages. Even to me, a person who enjoys learning new but useless things, these chapters are tedious, especially when they occur in the last 75 pages of the book.
Characters
Liked: Y.T. She's a smart-talking teenage courier trying to make her own way in a harsh world. She's no-nonsense without being try-hard and she doesn't hesitate to smack a creep (until the last third of the book, when the author insists on having her sleep with a middle-aged man, <i>ugh</i>). Under her tough exterior, she has affection for the few close people in her life, especially her overworked mother. And for all of her street smarts, Y.T. is still a teenager in a world run by adults and she has to figure out how to survive when the people in power point their crosshairs in her direction.
Disliked: Pretty much everyone else. The main character is called Hiro Protagonist, and his name is the most interesting thing about him. His personality can be summed up as "cool geek guy." That is to say, he doesn't have a personality at all, but he has several cool skills, like computer programming and katana-wielding, that are supposed to fill the void. He largely exists as the reader's access point to the bulk of the information relevant to the plot, since he's both the Designated Guy Who Explains Things and the Designated Guy People Explain Things To.
Uncle Enzo would be interesting if the book had leaned into the evil underneath the mobster cliche. The Mafia isn't a noble or honorable criminal group and Stephenson missed an opportunity to use a corporatized Mafia as a way to satirize the mainstream Hollywood portrayal. Instead, the book pushes Enzo into a kindly father-figure role for a teenage girl he barely knows and the Mafia organization gets a stereotypical but sanitized portrayal.
There is an attempt to give Raven a tragic backstory to justify him wanting to nuke America, but it just falls flat because...is there even an America anymore? (Maybe that was the point, but it's a poorly made point.) This character is a blunt instrument and it's slimy as hell that the author makes him attracted to (and then "in love" with) a 15-year-old.
The remaining characters -- Juanita, Da5id, various allied goons, various opposing goons -- either existed as tools to move the plot along or weren't around long enough to make an impression.
Story
Liked: The content and themes. With all of the sci-fi speculation and satire stripped away, Snow Crash is a thriller about a dangerous new drug and the unlikely duo investigating its spread. Instead of a good cop and a bad cop, or an FBI agent and a captured serial killer, the two protagonists are a freelance hacker and a teenage courier. Their equipment is futuristically enhanced, but their goals and actions mirror those of any detective duo: collect intel, interview a handful of involved parties, follow the trail, find the source of the drug, and get into a few gun/sword fights in the process.
This type of premise could normally go either way in terms of quality, and Neal Stephenson elevates it beyond a standard guns-and-drugs story by tying in themes of language (from ancient Sumerian to modern programming), ancient historical and religious theory, and the psychological concept of viral knowledge. Combined with the above-mentioned worldbuilding and this story, for all of its issues in execution, was an amazing read.
Disliked: The writing and pacing. It takes more than two dozen chapters for Hiro Protagonist to start actively investigating Snow Crash and the breadcrumb trail left behind by a murdered man. Some of this is because of the density of the aforementioned infodumps, but some of it is because it takes more than 200 pages for someone to tell Hiro to do something.
It also can't be overstated how the glut of background information pushes relevant story details, both major and minor, off the page. I don't remember reading how Y.T. makes it to The Raft in the latter half of the book. I don't remember what Y.T.'s mom was being questioned for or what bearing that had on the plot. I don't remember how Hiro went from not knowing who Vitaly Chernobyl was to being his roommate and concert promoter. I don't remember why Hiro and Y.T. call each other "pod." Maybe these things are never explained; maybe the explanations got lost in some lengthy description. Either way, the writing emphasizes background information over storytelling, and the story suffers for it.
The Ending
Liked: Y.T.'s helicopter escape. Cinematic and kickass. An overconfident cult leader brought down (literally and figuratively) by a bunch of teens answering the call of one of their own.
Disliked: Oh god he's still explaining things. The last fifteen to twenty chapters are rough because it feels like the book should be rapidly building toward a climax. But instead of accelerating, the action keeps stopping for more explanations, including explanations of things that were already explained earlier in the book. The worst part is when Hiro and Raven are reciting their fathers' tragic backstories to each other over voice link while they're also doing a high-speed motorcycle chase through the Metaverse.
Bonus
Liked: Fido, the robot dog who defied his programming to save the nice girl who took care of him. Also, the accompanying philosophical question of whether Fido's virtual fate, along with the largely virtual existence of another character, is truly satisfying.
Disliked: The '90s-era racism and sexism, particularly the sexualization of 15-year-old Y.T., the double standard of how Colombian narcos are portrayed compared to the Mafia, and the bizarre, nerd-culture-specific way that Japanese people are portrayed.
Liked: The vision. Snow Crash's near-future United States has many of the usual dystopian hallmarks: pollution, a powerless government, religious zealots, hyperinflation, a refugee crisis. One of this world's defining features is that nearly everything in it, from suburban neighborhoods to highways to public restrooms, is privately owned and part of a corporate chain. Many of these chains are owned by criminal organizations (the most prominent in the book being the Sicilian Mafia), religious groups, or the remnants of nation states. The employees of rival organizations openly engage in armed combat with one another. Access to certain locations is impossible unless you're able to pay for entry, qualify for membership, or, in the case of the suburbs, become a full citizen of an exclusive neighborhood. These divisions are enforced by a variety of (also privately owned) security and police forces, as well as a plethora of sci-fi weapons. Is it an America that I would like to live in? Absolutely not. But it is a fascinating read, and it's grounded enough in the realities of modern capitalism to hit a bit close to home.
This segmentation of a formerly open world ties into the book's central theming around the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. Instead of separating humans into various languages, as God did by destroying the Biblical Tower, Snow Crash's humanity has segmented itself into enclaves of corporate loyalty. In this torn and shredded world, two potential Towers of Babel rise.
One Tower is the Raft, a massive floating community of refugee boats and pirate ships tethered to an aircraft carrier owned by the Jim Bakker-esque billionaire L. Bob Rife. From here, Rife distributes the drug known as Snow Crash, which hacks into people's brains and forces them to act as loyal drones that speak in tongues.
The other Tower is the Metaverse, an online virtual reality open to anyone who can find a point of access. The quality of one's avatar and the ownership of virtual property is dependent on the user's hacking ability or wealth, but the world is generally open to, and able to be explored by, anyone tech-savvy enough to log on. The problem here is that the Metaverse is only used by a fraction of the population, and the more knowledgeable users are uniquely susceptible to Snow Crash's effects.
These settings are populated by more speculative concepts and fantastic technologies than I could possibly list here, and the imaginative near-future that Neal Stephenson creates is by far the most interesting part of this book.
Disliked: The execution. I went into this book knowing that it would be info-heavy. I'm not opposed to infodumps (I actually often enjoy them), but they have to be done in a way that doesn't halt or impede the rest of the story. This book can be very difficult to read for the first ten-or-so chapters, because a character will take a single action and then there will be pages and pages (sometimes the rest of the chapter) explaining the technologies being used or the origin and structure of the organizations involved. Many of these infodumps include information that isn't relevant at the time or that never becomes relevant, and some of it is downright insulting (I know that all of these numbers are 2 to the power of something; you don't have to tell me every time).
As the main characters gather more information about Snow Crash, the infodumps expand into entire chapters where a character word-vomits about a concept for five to ten pages. Even to me, a person who enjoys learning new but useless things, these chapters are tedious, especially when they occur in the last 75 pages of the book.
Characters
Liked: Y.T. She's a smart-talking teenage courier trying to make her own way in a harsh world. She's no-nonsense without being try-hard and she doesn't hesitate to smack a creep (until the last third of the book, when the author insists on having her sleep with a middle-aged man, <i>ugh</i>). Under her tough exterior, she has affection for the few close people in her life, especially her overworked mother. And for all of her street smarts, Y.T. is still a teenager in a world run by adults and she has to figure out how to survive when the people in power point their crosshairs in her direction.
Disliked: Pretty much everyone else. The main character is called Hiro Protagonist, and his name is the most interesting thing about him. His personality can be summed up as "cool geek guy." That is to say, he doesn't have a personality at all, but he has several cool skills, like computer programming and katana-wielding, that are supposed to fill the void. He largely exists as the reader's access point to the bulk of the information relevant to the plot, since he's both the Designated Guy Who Explains Things and the Designated Guy People Explain Things To.
Uncle Enzo would be interesting if the book had leaned into the evil underneath the mobster cliche. The Mafia isn't a noble or honorable criminal group and Stephenson missed an opportunity to use a corporatized Mafia as a way to satirize the mainstream Hollywood portrayal. Instead, the book pushes Enzo into a kindly father-figure role for a teenage girl he barely knows and the Mafia organization gets a stereotypical but sanitized portrayal.
There is an attempt to give Raven a tragic backstory to justify him wanting to nuke America, but it just falls flat because...is there even an America anymore? (Maybe that was the point, but it's a poorly made point.) This character is a blunt instrument and it's slimy as hell that the author makes him attracted to (and then "in love" with) a 15-year-old.
The remaining characters -- Juanita, Da5id, various allied goons, various opposing goons -- either existed as tools to move the plot along or weren't around long enough to make an impression.
Story
Liked: The content and themes. With all of the sci-fi speculation and satire stripped away, Snow Crash is a thriller about a dangerous new drug and the unlikely duo investigating its spread. Instead of a good cop and a bad cop, or an FBI agent and a captured serial killer, the two protagonists are a freelance hacker and a teenage courier. Their equipment is futuristically enhanced, but their goals and actions mirror those of any detective duo: collect intel, interview a handful of involved parties, follow the trail, find the source of the drug, and get into a few gun/sword fights in the process.
This type of premise could normally go either way in terms of quality, and Neal Stephenson elevates it beyond a standard guns-and-drugs story by tying in themes of language (from ancient Sumerian to modern programming), ancient historical and religious theory, and the psychological concept of viral knowledge. Combined with the above-mentioned worldbuilding and this story, for all of its issues in execution, was an amazing read.
Disliked: The writing and pacing. It takes more than two dozen chapters for Hiro Protagonist to start actively investigating Snow Crash and the breadcrumb trail left behind by a murdered man. Some of this is because of the density of the aforementioned infodumps, but some of it is because it takes more than 200 pages for someone to tell Hiro to do something.
It also can't be overstated how the glut of background information pushes relevant story details, both major and minor, off the page. I don't remember reading how Y.T. makes it to The Raft in the latter half of the book. I don't remember what Y.T.'s mom was being questioned for or what bearing that had on the plot. I don't remember how Hiro went from not knowing who Vitaly Chernobyl was to being his roommate and concert promoter. I don't remember why Hiro and Y.T. call each other "pod." Maybe these things are never explained; maybe the explanations got lost in some lengthy description. Either way, the writing emphasizes background information over storytelling, and the story suffers for it.
The Ending
Liked: Y.T.'s helicopter escape. Cinematic and kickass. An overconfident cult leader brought down (literally and figuratively) by a bunch of teens answering the call of one of their own.
Disliked: Oh god he's still explaining things. The last fifteen to twenty chapters are rough because it feels like the book should be rapidly building toward a climax. But instead of accelerating, the action keeps stopping for more explanations, including explanations of things that were already explained earlier in the book. The worst part is when Hiro and Raven are reciting their fathers' tragic backstories to each other over voice link while they're also doing a high-speed motorcycle chase through the Metaverse.
Bonus
Liked: Fido, the robot dog who defied his programming to save the nice girl who took care of him. Also, the accompanying philosophical question of whether Fido's virtual fate, along with the largely virtual existence of another character, is truly satisfying.
Disliked: The '90s-era racism and sexism, particularly the sexualization of 15-year-old Y.T., the double standard of how Colombian narcos are portrayed compared to the Mafia, and the bizarre, nerd-culture-specific way that Japanese people are portrayed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Murder, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, and Death
Moderate: Racism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Drug use, Gun violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, and Racial slurs
Minor: Kidnapping
bites_of_books's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
I wanted to like this book much more but there were simply too many things that didn't do it for me.
The first couple of chapters I really enjoyed. As Stephenson described this futuristic world where corporations are the leaders of the world and where it is better to work for the Mafia than to get an education and try to have a traditional job, I could see how our world could end up like this in a couple of decades. The idea of the Metaverse was also very promising and interesting but unfortunately that never really took off.
Once Stephenson started to try to add too much logic to this futuristic, sci-fi world, it started to fall apart for me. There were chapters where one of the protagonists (called Hiro Protagonist ha) is basically getting a lecture from an AI about religious history, linguistics, and anthropology. Which are very interesting on their own but basically took me way out of the story and made my logic mind show up and be like "this makes zero sense." Then, in the next chapter we are back into exploring more of the ways that this corporation-led world is messed up and following (or trying to follow) the ways that our main characters are trying to solve the mystery of a virus that is affecting hackers but is also a drug in the real world... There's definitely mystery and intrigue but I ended up just wanting to know what was going to happen in order to be done with the book once and for all without really caring much about the main characters.
I am mostly frustrated because Stephenson has some great ideas, some really promising characters, and it all just ended up going nowhere for me. Like Y.T. was a super interesting character, a 15 year old girl who is super independent and wants to live her own life and not follow in her mother's footsteps as a government worker. Meanwhile she's just a means to an end and like that's it? Zero character development for anyone here. Oh and another super interesting character was Ng, a man who is paralyzed and heads one of the best security systems and rides around in a car that's been adapted so he can use it as a wheelchair/transportation/apartment/storage of very cool weapon system. His character was probably the best one who had clear intentions and purpose and I wish we'd had more of him throughout the book (he would have been a great main character!)
So disappointing... I'm not sure I'd want to try another of Stephenson's works, but who knows, maybe if he's done something a bit more cohesive and less all over the place I'll give it a shot.
The first couple of chapters I really enjoyed. As Stephenson described this futuristic world where corporations are the leaders of the world and where it is better to work for the Mafia than to get an education and try to have a traditional job, I could see how our world could end up like this in a couple of decades. The idea of the Metaverse was also very promising and interesting but unfortunately that never really took off.
Once Stephenson started to try to add too much logic to this futuristic, sci-fi world, it started to fall apart for me. There were chapters where one of the protagonists (called Hiro Protagonist ha) is basically getting a lecture from an AI about religious history, linguistics, and anthropology. Which are very interesting on their own but basically took me way out of the story and made my logic mind show up and be like "this makes zero sense." Then, in the next chapter we are back into exploring more of the ways that this corporation-led world is messed up and following (or trying to follow) the ways that our main characters are trying to solve the mystery of a virus that is affecting hackers but is also a drug in the real world... There's definitely mystery and intrigue but I ended up just wanting to know what was going to happen in order to be done with the book once and for all without really caring much about the main characters.
I am mostly frustrated because Stephenson has some great ideas, some really promising characters, and it all just ended up going nowhere for me. Like Y.T. was a super interesting character, a 15 year old girl who is super independent and wants to live her own life and not follow in her mother's footsteps as a government worker. Meanwhile she's just a means to an end and like that's it? Zero character development for anyone here. Oh and another super interesting character was Ng, a man who is paralyzed and heads one of the best security systems and rides around in a car that's been adapted so he can use it as a wheelchair/transportation/apartment/storage of very cool weapon system. His character was probably the best one who had clear intentions and purpose and I wish we'd had more of him throughout the book (he would have been a great main character!)
So disappointing... I'm not sure I'd want to try another of Stephenson's works, but who knows, maybe if he's done something a bit more cohesive and less all over the place I'll give it a shot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Classism, Drug use, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual content
sakusha's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-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
Content warning: the book contains an adult having sex with a minor.
Reminded me of Ready Player One and Jennifer Government, but I liked both of those better than this book.
Takes place in a futuristic world where corporations have surpassed the government, and there’s a lot of violence, crime, and poor living conditions. The beginning has lots of cussing and is wordy with a lot of elaborate similes. There are so many slangs and new words and terms that it’s like the book is half in another language. That makes it difficult to read, difficult to stay focussed and engaged, and therefore boring.
A lot of things dont make sense. Hiro and YT meet by chance. They partner up. Why? YT’s age is stated, but not Hiro’s.
Hiro’s last name is seriously Protagonist? Was he born this way or did he choose his own name?
Who are Roadkill and Uncle Enzo? There’s never any explanation as far as I can remember. First I assumed Enzo was Hiro’s actual uncle and boss. Then I thought it was the new name for Uncle Sam. After that I didn’t know who he was. Why does Uncle Enzo care so much about YT’s mother when he has never met her, unless he has and the author didn’t say so (171)?
It’s confusing that in one chapter Hiro is swordfighting in the metaverse, and in the next chapter he’s breaking YT out of jail. Then the next chapter he’s swordfighting in the metaverse again. Is he doing both at once? Would be nice if the book were more clear about this.
Then why does a cop let Hiro tag along while chasing down Raven? Why does Hiro take time out of his life to investigate snow crash? He isnt a detective or cop. His friend was affected by snow crash, but Hiro hardly bats an eye. He doesn’t seem to care at all. So what is his motivation for taking on the investigation? The book never explains.
Hiro takes the trouble to bail YT out of jail early in the book, which maybe was to pay her back for helping him earlier, but he doesnt seem to ever panic about her being kidnapped (349). He just rescues her without thought or feeling. Actually maybe he doesnt try to rescue her. Maybe he is just using her for information. Would be nice if the book were more clear on character motivations.
Hiro gets very wealthy, but chooses to spend his money on a new motorcycle that soon gets destroyed (which he seems to not even care about); he doesn’t even think about spending his wealth on upgrading his housing, which is a storage box.
The whole book is like bouncing randomly from one adventure to the next with no thought or reflection by the characters.
YT’s mother gets in trouble and there’s no explanation for how she gets out of it.
Sushi K does a concert, and we’re never told whether the audience liked it or not (138). Why even include the concert in the book? Just for laughs?
The author might’ve said he didn’t include the audience reaction or character reflections or motivations because it’d make the book longer. Well, he could’ve cut out most of the first chapter which was just talking about Hiro delivering pizza which had no relevance to the rest of the story. And I suppose the concert had no relevance either.
Error by the author: there’s hyperinflation making people carry around trillions of dollars, but it still only takes a quarter to use a pay phone (440).
There were some accurate predictions made by the author, some of which might’ve already been known at the time the book was written (1992): “Smart” technology (4, 27), digital screens in vehicles including maps (4), Metaverse (18), flameproof clothing that causes cancer (18), fiber optic Internet (21), PVP fighting (25), avatars (35), NPCs (the book calls them daemons) (55), cell phones with voice command (77-78), Google earth & GPS (106), data and images through phones (115), reality TV (132), and harmful vaccines (404).
“The more you use it—the more viruses you get exposed to—the better your immune system becomes” (429). So stop vaccinating to protect yourself, and let your immune system fight off viruses the natural way. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And almost all the illnesses vaccines are supposed to protect you from have a very low morality rate.
Possibly the kind of woman that beta males find attractive: tomboys like YT, or sarcastic nerds like Juanita (56). Juanita “had long, glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing. She didn’t wear blue stuff on her eyelids. Her clothing was dark, tailored, restrained. And she didn’t take shit from anyone, not even her professors, which seemed shrewish and threatening to him at the time” (58). Or maybe it’s the kind they settle for since they can’t get the attractive bimbos who go for alpha males. Beta males are unhappy because they settle for the females they think are betas, but the “beta females” end up being strong independent types who the beta males can’t control or dominate, and therefore the beta males end up unhappy. Beta males are in a paradox of wanting to dominate but being too shy or unconfident to do it, so they end up with a dominant woman which makes them frustrated because she doesn’t satisfy his inner desire.
Juanita believes “that no matter how good it is, the Metaverse is distorting the way people talk to each other” (64). I would’ve liked the book to explore this concept more. Instead, the book is focussed on adventures which are brainless aside from their tie to ancient Sumeria. The villain in the book just wants shallow revenge. A better storyline would be either the hero or villain wanting to bring down the Metaverse for how it’s ruining society. But it seems that the main people who use the Metaverse are hackers, not the general public. And “hacker” in this book seems to mean a computer programmer, or maybe just a computer user.
The most interesting parts of this book for me were the parts that had to do with ancient history and religion, and I could have just read a nonfiction book for that.
Juanita says: “99% of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire 100% is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people’s minds” (69). “Anyone who takes the trouble to study the gospels can see that the bodily resurrection is a myth that was tacked onto the real story several years after the real histories were written” (201).
I learned some things about the Bible: I already knew Pharisees were the group of Jews who took the religious laws very seriously and expected everyone to follow those laws. But I learned more about the other two groups of Jews: the Sadducees believed that that there was no spiritual world, only the material world. And Essenes were like communist monks who tried to make their bodies and food as pure/clean as possible. “They even had their own version of the Gospels in which Jesus healed possessed people, not with miracles, but by driving parasites, such as tapeworm, out of their body. These parasites are considered to be synonymous with demons” (209). That’s in line with my theory that Jesus healed people like a doctor, not like a witch.
Asherah was a consort of El, AKA Yahweh. Asherah was AKA Elat, Dione/Rhea (Greek), Nintu/Ninhursag (Sumerian), Tannit/Hawwa (Canaanites), which is another name for Eve (227-228). Tannit means “the one of the serpent.” She was worshipped by “everyone who lived between India and Spain, from the second millennium B.C. Up into the Christian era. With the exception of the Hebrews, who only worshipped her until the religious reforms of Hezekiah and, later, Josiah” (228). Hawwa is an ophidian (serpent) mother goddess associated with trees (231).
The Hebrews were actually not monotheists, they were monolatrists; they didn’t deny the existence of other gods, but they were only supposed to worship Yahweh (228). That makes lines in the Bible make sense when God tells people to worship him, not because he’s the only god, but because he’s a jealous god. And when the Bible says “let us make man in our image.”
Asherah was purged from Judaism by deuteronomics who rewrote and reorganized the old tales (228). The deuteronomics were in favor of monarchy and centralizing the religion in the Temple in Jerusalem (229). They were responsible for the Bible being written and people going to church and reading it rather than making animal sacrifices and spreading the religion orally (229).
“All cultures seem to have a myth about Paradise, and the Fall from Paradise” (232).
“According to the interpretation of Hvidberg and, later, Wyatt, Adam in his garden is a parable for the king in his sanctuary, specifically King Hosea, who ruled the northern kingdom until it was conquered by Sargon II in 722 BC. . . . ‘Eden,’ which can be understood simply as the Hebrew word for ‘delight,’ stands for the happy state in which the king existed prior to the conquest. The expulsion from Eden to the bitter lands to the east is a parable for the massive deportation of Israelites to Assyria following Sargon II’s victory. According to this interpretation, the king was enticed away from the path of righteousness by the cult of El, with its associated worship of Asherah. . . . And his association with Asherah somehow caused him to be conquered—so when the deuteronomists reached Jerusalem, they recast the Adam and Eve story as a warning to the leaders of the southern kingdom” (233).
Babel literally means “gate of god” (398). When people all speak the same language and live in close proximity, things spread quickly (400). That’s good if the thing spreading is a good thing (revolting against corrupt leader), but bad if the thing spreading is a bad thing (virus).
“After the crucifixion, the apostles went to his tomb hoping to find his body and instead found nothing. The message was clear enough: we are not to idolize Jesus, because his ideas stand alone, his church is no longer centralized in one person but dispersed among all the people. People who were used to the rigid theocracy of the Pharisees couldn’t handle the idea of a popular, nonhierarchical church. They wanted popes and bishops and priests. And so the myth of the Resurrection was added onto the gospels. The message was changed to a form of idolatry” (401-402). I don’t think the Pharisees wanted popes and bishops; that was the Romans who wanted that. And the Pharisees were never in favor of Jesus, before or after he died. It was his followers who spread the lie about his resurrection, in order to form a new religion and to make people believe he was god’s son instead of the son of man.
Reminded me of Ready Player One and Jennifer Government, but I liked both of those better than this book.
Takes place in a futuristic world where corporations have surpassed the government, and there’s a lot of violence, crime, and poor living conditions. The beginning has lots of cussing and is wordy with a lot of elaborate similes. There are so many slangs and new words and terms that it’s like the book is half in another language. That makes it difficult to read, difficult to stay focussed and engaged, and therefore boring.
A lot of things dont make sense. Hiro and YT meet by chance. They partner up. Why? YT’s age is stated, but not Hiro’s.
Hiro’s last name is seriously Protagonist? Was he born this way or did he choose his own name?
Who are Roadkill and Uncle Enzo? There’s never any explanation as far as I can remember. First I assumed Enzo was Hiro’s actual uncle and boss. Then I thought it was the new name for Uncle Sam. After that I didn’t know who he was. Why does Uncle Enzo care so much about YT’s mother when he has never met her, unless he has and the author didn’t say so (171)?
The whole book is like bouncing randomly from one adventure to the next with no thought or reflection by the characters.
YT’s mother gets in trouble and there’s no explanation for how she gets out of it.
Sushi K does a concert, and we’re never told whether the audience liked it or not (138). Why even include the concert in the book? Just for laughs?
The author might’ve said he didn’t include the audience reaction or character reflections or motivations because it’d make the book longer. Well, he could’ve cut out most of the first chapter which was just talking about Hiro delivering pizza which had no relevance to the rest of the story. And I suppose the concert had no relevance either.
Error by the author: there’s hyperinflation making people carry around trillions of dollars, but it still only takes a quarter to use a pay phone (440).
There were some accurate predictions made by the author, some of which might’ve already been known at the time the book was written (1992): “Smart” technology (4, 27), digital screens in vehicles including maps (4), Metaverse (18), flameproof clothing that causes cancer (18), fiber optic Internet (21), PVP fighting (25), avatars (35), NPCs (the book calls them daemons) (55), cell phones with voice command (77-78), Google earth & GPS (106), data and images through phones (115), reality TV (132), and harmful vaccines (404).
“The more you use it—the more viruses you get exposed to—the better your immune system becomes” (429). So stop vaccinating to protect yourself, and let your immune system fight off viruses the natural way. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And almost all the illnesses vaccines are supposed to protect you from have a very low morality rate.
Possibly the kind of woman that beta males find attractive: tomboys like YT, or sarcastic nerds like Juanita (56). Juanita “had long, glossy black hair that had never been subjected to any chemical process other than regular shampooing. She didn’t wear blue stuff on her eyelids. Her clothing was dark, tailored, restrained. And she didn’t take shit from anyone, not even her professors, which seemed shrewish and threatening to him at the time” (58). Or maybe it’s the kind they settle for since they can’t get the attractive bimbos who go for alpha males. Beta males are unhappy because they settle for the females they think are betas, but the “beta females” end up being strong independent types who the beta males can’t control or dominate, and therefore the beta males end up unhappy. Beta males are in a paradox of wanting to dominate but being too shy or unconfident to do it, so they end up with a dominant woman which makes them frustrated because she doesn’t satisfy his inner desire.
Juanita believes “that no matter how good it is, the Metaverse is distorting the way people talk to each other” (64). I would’ve liked the book to explore this concept more. Instead, the book is focussed on adventures which are brainless aside from their tie to ancient Sumeria. The villain in the book just wants shallow revenge. A better storyline would be either the hero or villain wanting to bring down the Metaverse for how it’s ruining society. But it seems that the main people who use the Metaverse are hackers, not the general public. And “hacker” in this book seems to mean a computer programmer, or maybe just a computer user.
The most interesting parts of this book for me were the parts that had to do with ancient history and religion, and I could have just read a nonfiction book for that.
Juanita says: “99% of everything that goes on in most Christian churches has nothing whatsoever to do with the actual religion. Intelligent people all notice this sooner or later, and they conclude that the entire 100% is bullshit, which is why atheism is connected with being intelligent in people’s minds” (69). “Anyone who takes the trouble to study the gospels can see that the bodily resurrection is a myth that was tacked onto the real story several years after the real histories were written” (201).
I learned some things about the Bible: I already knew Pharisees were the group of Jews who took the religious laws very seriously and expected everyone to follow those laws. But I learned more about the other two groups of Jews: the Sadducees believed that that there was no spiritual world, only the material world. And Essenes were like communist monks who tried to make their bodies and food as pure/clean as possible. “They even had their own version of the Gospels in which Jesus healed possessed people, not with miracles, but by driving parasites, such as tapeworm, out of their body. These parasites are considered to be synonymous with demons” (209). That’s in line with my theory that Jesus healed people like a doctor, not like a witch.
Asherah was a consort of El, AKA Yahweh. Asherah was AKA Elat, Dione/Rhea (Greek), Nintu/Ninhursag (Sumerian), Tannit/Hawwa (Canaanites), which is another name for Eve (227-228). Tannit means “the one of the serpent.” She was worshipped by “everyone who lived between India and Spain, from the second millennium B.C. Up into the Christian era. With the exception of the Hebrews, who only worshipped her until the religious reforms of Hezekiah and, later, Josiah” (228). Hawwa is an ophidian (serpent) mother goddess associated with trees (231).
The Hebrews were actually not monotheists, they were monolatrists; they didn’t deny the existence of other gods, but they were only supposed to worship Yahweh (228). That makes lines in the Bible make sense when God tells people to worship him, not because he’s the only god, but because he’s a jealous god. And when the Bible says “let us make man in our image.”
Asherah was purged from Judaism by deuteronomics who rewrote and reorganized the old tales (228). The deuteronomics were in favor of monarchy and centralizing the religion in the Temple in Jerusalem (229). They were responsible for the Bible being written and people going to church and reading it rather than making animal sacrifices and spreading the religion orally (229).
“All cultures seem to have a myth about Paradise, and the Fall from Paradise” (232).
“According to the interpretation of Hvidberg and, later, Wyatt, Adam in his garden is a parable for the king in his sanctuary, specifically King Hosea, who ruled the northern kingdom until it was conquered by Sargon II in 722 BC. . . . ‘Eden,’ which can be understood simply as the Hebrew word for ‘delight,’ stands for the happy state in which the king existed prior to the conquest. The expulsion from Eden to the bitter lands to the east is a parable for the massive deportation of Israelites to Assyria following Sargon II’s victory. According to this interpretation, the king was enticed away from the path of righteousness by the cult of El, with its associated worship of Asherah. . . . And his association with Asherah somehow caused him to be conquered—so when the deuteronomists reached Jerusalem, they recast the Adam and Eve story as a warning to the leaders of the southern kingdom” (233).
Babel literally means “gate of god” (398). When people all speak the same language and live in close proximity, things spread quickly (400). That’s good if the thing spreading is a good thing (revolting against corrupt leader), but bad if the thing spreading is a bad thing (virus).
“After the crucifixion, the apostles went to his tomb hoping to find his body and instead found nothing. The message was clear enough: we are not to idolize Jesus, because his ideas stand alone, his church is no longer centralized in one person but dispersed among all the people. People who were used to the rigid theocracy of the Pharisees couldn’t handle the idea of a popular, nonhierarchical church. They wanted popes and bishops and priests. And so the myth of the Resurrection was added onto the gospels. The message was changed to a form of idolatry” (401-402). I don’t think the Pharisees wanted popes and bishops; that was the Romans who wanted that. And the Pharisees were never in favor of Jesus, before or after he died. It was his followers who spread the lie about his resurrection, in order to form a new religion and to make people believe he was god’s son instead of the son of man.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual content