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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
fast-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
adventurous
funny
informative
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
tldr Stephenson is disconnected from the characters he writes and misses great opportunities for interesting commentary on race and gender. do not read if you will be triggered by graphic and unrealistic depiction of sex between a minor and someone twice her age.
the writing was good but the book had so many other problems. i liked YT's character but was really hated the sex scene. yes children experience sexuality, and yes children are sexualized, but that's a different conversation than most of what he was writing about for the rest of the book. Also, he didn't have to write YT as enjoying the rape. people have argued that 1. "oh it's just the time it was written" 2. "its satire" and (general problems with these arguments aside) maybe that's an accurate reason but not an excuse. He could be read as saying "oh she was into it so it's okay."
Also, reading discussion of this part of the book on Reddit just goes to show that so many people are actually not ready to look at this critically and often just excuse it or even say that a 15 year old being forced to barter sex with a man at least twice her age for her freedom from a forced labor camp was morally right, so the argument that Stephenson is obviously critiquing our pedophilic society by making a sex scene that "everyone will find disgusting" falls flat... because people enjoyed the scene for its own. finally, just thought it was ridiculous that YT was described as reading orgasm immediately upon penetration. This is more proof that this scene was not written as good satire/criticism/whatever because especially at the time of writing and up until now, the sexuality of people with vulvas is obscured, repressed, and commonly misunderstood. There is no way Stephenson has ever heard of the clitoris, so he definitely isn't writing a critique about people thinking women can orgasm just by having something shoved up there because he IS that perspective.
the dystopic critiques of late stage capitalism made sense- the book would have stood on its own perfectly well without describing a 15 year old girl's rape as a "relationship."
(i was also a 15 year old girl perhaps more recently than most other people reading this book and i can tell you the character was just extremely unrealistic for the amount of years of life she has... maybe was supposed to be a commentary on how kids are forced to grow up so much faster in a digital age? still pissed me off)
also the parts with the Librarian felt so boring- it could be interesting content but Stephenson essentially made those sections a narrative out of somebody Googling shit.
couldnt bring myself to care about Hiro's personality. his intersecting identities were really interesting conceptually and could have been explored so much more in the context of US capitalism and colonialism... instead Stephenson just chose to have people call him slurs a lot. was rly weird that Stephenson chose to have so many characters of color as just superficial labels instead of going into the way their experiences with racialized identities inform their characters. made it less interesting to read, again.
finally, the fact that so many silicon valley execs cite this book as their "inspiration" for products they create really says a lot about who we have in power creating the tools we use to engage with the world.
the writing was good but the book had so many other problems. i liked YT's character but was really hated the sex scene. yes children experience sexuality, and yes children are sexualized, but that's a different conversation than most of what he was writing about for the rest of the book. Also, he didn't have to write YT as enjoying the rape. people have argued that 1. "oh it's just the time it was written" 2. "its satire" and (general problems with these arguments aside) maybe that's an accurate reason but not an excuse. He could be read as saying "oh she was into it so it's okay."
Also, reading discussion of this part of the book on Reddit just goes to show that so many people are actually not ready to look at this critically and often just excuse it or even say that a 15 year old being forced to barter sex with a man at least twice her age for her freedom from a forced labor camp was morally right, so the argument that Stephenson is obviously critiquing our pedophilic society by making a sex scene that "everyone will find disgusting" falls flat... because people enjoyed the scene for its own. finally, just thought it was ridiculous that YT was described as reading orgasm immediately upon penetration. This is more proof that this scene was not written as good satire/criticism/whatever because especially at the time of writing and up until now, the sexuality of people with vulvas is obscured, repressed, and commonly misunderstood. There is no way Stephenson has ever heard of the clitoris, so he definitely isn't writing a critique about people thinking women can orgasm just by having something shoved up there because he IS that perspective.
the dystopic critiques of late stage capitalism made sense- the book would have stood on its own perfectly well without describing a 15 year old girl's rape as a "relationship."
(i was also a 15 year old girl perhaps more recently than most other people reading this book and i can tell you the character was just extremely unrealistic for the amount of years of life she has... maybe was supposed to be a commentary on how kids are forced to grow up so much faster in a digital age? still pissed me off)
also the parts with the Librarian felt so boring- it could be interesting content but Stephenson essentially made those sections a narrative out of somebody Googling shit.
couldnt bring myself to care about Hiro's personality. his intersecting identities were really interesting conceptually and could have been explored so much more in the context of US capitalism and colonialism... instead Stephenson just chose to have people call him slurs a lot. was rly weird that Stephenson chose to have so many characters of color as just superficial labels instead of going into the way their experiences with racialized identities inform their characters. made it less interesting to read, again.
finally, the fact that so many silicon valley execs cite this book as their "inspiration" for products they create really says a lot about who we have in power creating the tools we use to engage with the world.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is a tough one to sum up. I think this is partially because Neal Stephenson started to write one book and it transformed into something like a treatise on the history of neurolinguistics.
This definitely qualifies as cyberpunk. In this vision of the future the US government is weakened to the point where nobody even recognizes the President when he goes to Walmart. Neighborhoods have become city states. Law enforcement is privatized. And the mafia run the largest pizza franchise in the world.
Enter Hiro Protagonist. Pizza deliverator. Hacker extraordinaire. The world’s greatest sword fighter. And it’s not just a clever name, he does help save the world.
See a right wing media giant has teamed up with a religious franchise to attempt to use language to program the greater population to do their bidding. Who ever heard of something like that?
I am a little disappointed that there was no meatspace showdown between Hiro and Raven. Also, that YT doesn’t know that her puppy flew in to save her. Overall, it was a pretty fun read.
This definitely qualifies as cyberpunk. In this vision of the future the US government is weakened to the point where nobody even recognizes the President when he goes to Walmart. Neighborhoods have become city states. Law enforcement is privatized. And the mafia run the largest pizza franchise in the world.
Enter Hiro Protagonist. Pizza deliverator. Hacker extraordinaire. The world’s greatest sword fighter. And it’s not just a clever name, he does help save the world.
See a right wing media giant has teamed up with a religious franchise to attempt to use language to program the greater population to do their bidding. Who ever heard of something like that?
I am a little disappointed that there was no meatspace showdown between Hiro and Raven. Also, that YT doesn’t know that her puppy flew in to save her. Overall, it was a pretty fun read.
The creativity and research that went into the background of the metavirus earned this story a fourth star. If not for that, the characters and frankly goofy story would only merit three.
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
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
adventurous
funny
tense
fast-paced
For me, this is a more important book for the cyberpunk genre than 'Neuromancer'.
In fact, I can't actually think of a more important genre-defining classic.
It combines the zany, comic-book 90s 'cool' cyberpunk writing, with the sheer intellectual depth and exploration of historical research that is the trademark of Neal Stephensons work.
If you are in any way a fan of Cyberpunk, whether in its original 80s/90s incarnation, or the modern resurgance, you absolutely HAVE to read this book.
For years, in the 90s/00s, I went by the online psuedonym 'Da5id' and thought I was super clever! (Spoiler: I wasn't).
But after having written that, I might just go and grab my copy now..
In fact, I can't actually think of a more important genre-defining classic.
It combines the zany, comic-book 90s 'cool' cyberpunk writing, with the sheer intellectual depth and exploration of historical research that is the trademark of Neal Stephensons work.
If you are in any way a fan of Cyberpunk, whether in its original 80s/90s incarnation, or the modern resurgance, you absolutely HAVE to read this book.
For years, in the 90s/00s, I went by the online psuedonym 'Da5id' and thought I was super clever! (Spoiler: I wasn't).
But after having written that, I might just go and grab my copy now..
Lots of flaws, very jarring to read in many ways but ultimately enjoyable, mostly because of YTs character. Took until roughly 30% in to get invested. Needed more epilogue and suffered from exposition and plot dumping issues. Guilty pleasure read for different reasons than usual for me. Wished they did more wrap up at the end.