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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
After a friend's recommendation a few years back, I finally picked up Snow Crash and was not dissappointed. As a computer programmer and former gamer, I was really impressed by the technological vision and forsight acheived way back in 1992. The first half of the book flew by at 10000 miles an hour, and I did enjoy the Summarian mythology. I do have to say that the end of the book became a bit predictable and could have used a few more twists and surprises. I found myself laboring a bit to get through it. But overall, I would rate this book very highly and recommend it for anyone that enjoys visionary science fiction.
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
A very boisterous novel in the vein of Neuromancer. The opening passages about pizza delivery in the distopian future are an absolute banger, but the middle gets bogged down in tedious exposition of a linguistic virus theory and the whole thing is overlong.
I picked up this book for free; someone here at the university was clearing out their shelves, and this was one of the books they were giving away. I've heard a lot about Stephenson over the years, but never read anything by him. I was actually thinking that I'd use my fiction-reading time this summer to tackle Patrick Rothfuss or China Mieville, but I ended taking Snow Crash on vacation. I am so happy I did--and now, my summer reading plans have definitely changed.
Summaries of Snow Crash can be found everywhere; suffice to say, it's a cyberpunk sci-fi novel, with an interesting tension at its core. On the one hand, it is grounded in a great deal of sharp observational humor about a possible future America that is obviously extrapolated from our own; on the other hand, it is fueled by a plot which supposes a profound connection between our most elementary cognitive functions and Sumerian mythology. Between those two poles, you have some fascinating characters running about, causing trouble, discovering deadly threats to life as they know it, cutting people apart with swords, and skateboarding. I recognized even as I worked through it that there wasn't enough connection between the two narrative lines to really make the whole thing hold together, but I enjoyed myself immensely all the same.
In the end, Stephenson basically throws up his hands, says "That's all I got folks," and then contrives a crisis moment with lots of explosions to make sure all his primary characters are either 1) safely returned to their significant others, or 2) dead. But even with that, it remained a lot of fun right to the very end. After getting this taste, I'll definitely be reading more Stephenson, and soon.
Summaries of Snow Crash can be found everywhere; suffice to say, it's a cyberpunk sci-fi novel, with an interesting tension at its core. On the one hand, it is grounded in a great deal of sharp observational humor about a possible future America that is obviously extrapolated from our own; on the other hand, it is fueled by a plot which supposes a profound connection between our most elementary cognitive functions and Sumerian mythology. Between those two poles, you have some fascinating characters running about, causing trouble, discovering deadly threats to life as they know it, cutting people apart with swords, and skateboarding. I recognized even as I worked through it that there wasn't enough connection between the two narrative lines to really make the whole thing hold together, but I enjoyed myself immensely all the same.
In the end, Stephenson basically throws up his hands, says "That's all I got folks," and then contrives a crisis moment with lots of explosions to make sure all his primary characters are either 1) safely returned to their significant others, or 2) dead. But even with that, it remained a lot of fun right to the very end. After getting this taste, I'll definitely be reading more Stephenson, and soon.
Pretty cool read, although all the ancient language stuff bogged me down a bit.
Did Zuck read this as a teen or something? Metaverse is a great name but intrinsically linked to this dystopian hell hole, so not #goals.
Did Zuck read this as a teen or something? Metaverse is a great name but intrinsically linked to this dystopian hell hole, so not #goals.
The concept is good interesting but where on earth was the editor? So much of it is redundant--the librarian says something and then Hiro or another character repeats. The level of detail is painful--and repetitive. Again, cool concept but it's lost in the rambling execution. Thought reading about the ancient metaverse would be interesting, but that interest got lost in the author's ego to put everything into the book.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-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
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
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
3.5⭐ really. I originally read this book shortly after it came out in 2000, when I started the reread at first I thought it had really aged well but as I went on the cracks started to show. The story suffers from the author's need to info-dump a great deal of Sumerian mythos on the reader at various in the book, and it's basically just a librarian stand in reading stuff to the reader. Also, a lot of the key points in the plot seem to hinge on coincidental meetings. Okay, one or two sure but when it stacks up to random characters just running into each in all sorts of unlikely places, it feels like the plot is just dragging the characters along.
Also, the timeline doesn't really work. The story reaches back to world war II where a couple of the characters fathers were Japanese POW's and also back to Vietnam where another character served. In order for these elements to coincide with the characters stated age, the time when the bulk of the story is happening is ~2005 and there is no way that the setting (governmental collapse, the rise of the burb-claves, the privatization of armed forces, et al) could exist in the manner described given that it's rising from the "real world" of the 80's & 90's.
Also, the timeline doesn't really work. The story reaches back to world war II where a couple of the characters fathers were Japanese POW's and also back to Vietnam where another character served. In order for these elements to coincide with the characters stated age, the time when the bulk of the story is happening is ~2005 and there is no way that the setting (governmental collapse, the rise of the burb-claves, the privatization of armed forces, et al) could exist in the manner described given that it's rising from the "real world" of the 80's & 90's.
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
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:
Yes