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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
More like 2.5. Did very little for me. I couldn't concentrate on it. I think cyber sci-fi is not my genre - I never could get into William Gibson, either. I think it started off on the wrong foot for me - explain to me how society got to the point where you could get killed for delivering a pizza late? - and never recovered. I found it tedious, dull, and the characters to be two dimensional.
Interesting story, I liked the fact that so much of it is built off of ancient history, religion and linguistics. I did think the several pages re-explaining everything Hiro had learned was overkill, and the idea Rife found the virus in space felt really silly.
It's most definitely a book that was obviously published in 2000. In one way because some of the technology and computer science information is dated: the examples given for programming languages were prolog, cobol, fortran and lisp. Plus it has some uncomfortable bits - as most 90s and early aughts media does. Why am I reading a graphic scene of a fifteen year old girl having sex? Oh, and don't forget the slurs!
It's most definitely a book that was obviously published in 2000. In one way because some of the technology and computer science information is dated: the examples given for programming languages were prolog, cobol, fortran and lisp. Plus it has some uncomfortable bits - as most 90s and early aughts media does. Why am I reading a graphic scene of a fifteen year old girl having sex? Oh, and don't forget the slurs!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racial slurs
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
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
Yes, it's a cyberpunk novel, but I guess you could call it almost the opposite of Neuromancer. If Neuromancer takes itself seriously and is stylistically dry, Snow Crash is more like an over-the-top Hollywood action movie.
The visual descriptions are abundant and detailed. Someone described it as “not a very serious” book, but it is actually just a caricature. Two examples: the protagonist is named Hiro Protagonist and his Russian roommate Vitaly Chernobyl; to describe the inefficiency of the government, a 5-page letter is quoted that a boss writes about how to manage the toilet paper in the building where the feds work. The novel just screams at your face what it is trying to tell you. It may annoy some people, not particularly me: every now and then I found myself grinning as I shook my head, because it's as if the author is repeatedly giving you the most obvious wink in the world, in a playful sort of way.
On the plot I have more complaints . It almost seems to me that the book is divided into three parts. In the first one we don't really understand what is happening, we are introduced to the characters and the (amazingly built) world but in a seemingly somewhat confusing way. In the second one we begin to understand what the stakes are, and there is an interesting but somewhat excessive infodump about sumerian culture (!). The last part, on the other hand, is just pure action and fun, and manages to make you understand why certain things were talked about in the first part. I appreciated how the novel manages to pull the threads together (or some of them) and bring back, in the finale, various seemingly marginal elements.
All in all, however, the style is a bit fragmented, there are parts of the novel that are super serious and others that are more satirical or naive. I understand why someone has referred to Snow Crash as not knowing what it wants to be: in that sense it is a justified criticism. To me it is simply a super fun, blustery caricature cyberpunk with several interesting ideas that make it well worth reading.
Oh, and yes: sexualizing a 15 year-old girl is not very cool and I can't fathom why she HAD to be 15 instead of, like, 16. But in the grand scheme of things this plays a very minor role in the novel, so it's more than bearable.
The visual descriptions are abundant and detailed. Someone described it as “not a very serious” book, but it is actually just a caricature. Two examples: the protagonist is named Hiro Protagonist and his Russian roommate Vitaly Chernobyl; to describe the inefficiency of the government, a 5-page letter is quoted that a boss writes about how to manage the toilet paper in the building where the feds work. The novel just screams at your face what it is trying to tell you. It may annoy some people, not particularly me: every now and then I found myself grinning as I shook my head, because it's as if the author is repeatedly giving you the most obvious wink in the world, in a playful sort of way.
On the plot I have more complaints . It almost seems to me that the book is divided into three parts. In the first one we don't really understand what is happening, we are introduced to the characters and the (amazingly built) world but in a seemingly somewhat confusing way. In the second one we begin to understand what the stakes are, and there is an interesting but somewhat excessive infodump about sumerian culture (!). The last part, on the other hand, is just pure action and fun, and manages to make you understand why certain things were talked about in the first part. I appreciated how the novel manages to pull the threads together (or some of them) and bring back, in the finale, various seemingly marginal elements.
All in all, however, the style is a bit fragmented, there are parts of the novel that are super serious and others that are more satirical or naive. I understand why someone has referred to Snow Crash as not knowing what it wants to be: in that sense it is a justified criticism. To me it is simply a super fun, blustery caricature cyberpunk with several interesting ideas that make it well worth reading.
Oh, and yes: sexualizing a 15 year-old girl is not very cool and I can't fathom why she HAD to be 15 instead of, like, 16. But in the grand scheme of things this plays a very minor role in the novel, so it's more than bearable.
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content
I really tried to like this book. I will give Stephenson credit, his imagination and creativity is unlike any author I've read; however, that creativity was to the story's detriment. I was constantly distracted and snapped into so many directions of what was reality and what was virtual reality. Additionally, for a publishing company who invested in audio as a layer of story context, how could they not fix the sound quality - it was terrible.
adventurous
funny
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:
Yes
man, i had really high hopes. i bought this book after reading neuromancer and count zero (two books i’m a fan of) because i wanted to read more cyberpunk. people were saying this was a popular one and really good, but i can’t say i have the same sentiment.
it kind of felt like a chore to read this. it was funny at times in its writing and narration, which kept me reading for the first bit. but i feel like it took too long for things to happen. and then when they did, it was short lived. i found myself more excited about Y.T.‘s shenanigans than Hiro’s shenanigans.
Hiro gives me the vibe of an author that writes a character that he either sees himself to be or wants himself to be, like a teenage boy’s idea of the coolest guy ever. reminded me of the main character of red rising. i just could not connect and be interested.
all of the linguistic stuff and religion stuff really bored me i have to say (mind you i am not a linguistics or religion/religious history girl, so if you are then hey maybe you’ll like it) and every time a Hiro chapter came up where he was talking to that librarian to learn about how gods spread religion i was just skimming pages and waiting for Y.T. stephenson really wants you to care about how this religious spreading works so that you “understand” how snow crash works, but then Ng says it works through getting into cells nuclei. which is it? i don’t know. i just did not understand the point of all that research Hiro does when Y.T. and Ng are able to get a sample of snow crash. i understood the metaphor the first time he said it, that computers get viruses like brains/bodies can, yada yada. but after what felt like the bajillionth time reading about Sumerian mythology for pages on pages that i felt really didn’t add anything to the story or to the understanding of snow crash, the metaphor gets beaten into the ground. like we get it. it honestly could have saved at least 150 pages without all the infodumping.
also, was the casual violent racism really necessary in the story? that just made me kind of yikes a bit. and on top of that, the perverted relationship between Y.T. and Raven? are we serious? why are we writing a sex scene about sex WITH A MINOR? HELLO? THATS A CHILD! could their relationship really not have been like a big brother little sister thing? father daughter thing? i know her whole “last line of defense” thing was pointed to, but does the author really think that when push comes to shove and a female character gets into a desperate situation, the last line of defense is really a needle up her you know? because when push comes to shove the female characters will be sexually assaulted?
overall there are too many bad things about this book to drag it back to a good review. if you want a faster paced cyberpunk story with more fleshed out characters, read neuromancer or count zero by William Gibson.
it kind of felt like a chore to read this. it was funny at times in its writing and narration, which kept me reading for the first bit. but i feel like it took too long for things to happen. and then when they did, it was short lived. i found myself more excited about Y.T.‘s shenanigans than Hiro’s shenanigans.
Hiro gives me the vibe of an author that writes a character that he either sees himself to be or wants himself to be, like a teenage boy’s idea of the coolest guy ever. reminded me of the main character of red rising. i just could not connect and be interested.
all of the linguistic stuff and religion stuff really bored me i have to say (mind you i am not a linguistics or religion/religious history girl, so if you are then hey maybe you’ll like it) and every time a Hiro chapter came up where he was talking to that librarian to learn about how gods spread religion i was just skimming pages and waiting for Y.T. stephenson really wants you to care about how this religious spreading works so that you “understand” how snow crash works, but then Ng says it works through getting into cells nuclei. which is it? i don’t know. i just did not understand the point of all that research Hiro does when Y.T. and Ng are able to get a sample of snow crash. i understood the metaphor the first time he said it, that computers get viruses like brains/bodies can, yada yada. but after what felt like the bajillionth time reading about Sumerian mythology for pages on pages that i felt really didn’t add anything to the story or to the understanding of snow crash, the metaphor gets beaten into the ground. like we get it. it honestly could have saved at least 150 pages without all the infodumping.
also, was the casual violent racism really necessary in the story? that just made me kind of yikes a bit. and on top of that, the perverted relationship between Y.T. and Raven? are we serious? why are we writing a sex scene about sex WITH A MINOR? HELLO? THATS A CHILD! could their relationship really not have been like a big brother little sister thing? father daughter thing? i know her whole “last line of defense” thing was pointed to, but does the author really think that when push comes to shove and a female character gets into a desperate situation, the last line of defense is really a needle up her you know? because when push comes to shove the female characters will be sexually assaulted?
overall there are too many bad things about this book to drag it back to a good review. if you want a faster paced cyberpunk story with more fleshed out characters, read neuromancer or count zero by William Gibson.
"Am I supposed to take the name Hiro Protagonist seriously?"
This is a question a lot of people have. I had it. And it's a question that embodies every aspect of Snow Crash from moment to moment. You'll read something and think, "is this a sincere telling of an idea, or is it satirical?" And depending on where you are in the book, the answer will change.
In the first chapters, there's no doubt: this book is a hyper parody, a comic satire! Easy. The name Hiro Protagonist is, then, a sort of joke at the expense of the genre and at the expense of authors who think they are clever but are actually just extreme nerds.
But then you're halfway through and you're being lectured endlessly about the history of Sumerian language and you think, "no, this is real research for a real idea we're supposed to take seriously, like in The DaVinci Code or an 80s action-thriller!" The name Hiro Protagonist is then a fun bit of indulgence the author really likes, in the same way that James Bond villains have names like Auric Goldfinger.
Figuring out what is satire and what is an honest-to-God cyberpunk story is futile. This is the type of writing that wants to have its cake and eat it too. It's like when a person shows you music they obviously love, and when you don't immediately smile they go, "I was just kidding, I don't LOVE this song, I just think it's funny!" It looks something like this:
Snow Crash wants to tell you its story, but it's also afraid that if it plays itself too sincerely you might make fun of it. As you read, you have to ask yourself how much you're willing to let it get away with.
If you think a 15-year-old girl getting abducted, brainwashed, and then forced into a sexual relationship with a powerful middle-aged homicidal biker maniac is gross and unnecessary and careless managment of the sexual awakening of a young woman, then... it's satire! About something! That's genre satire! Or America satire! Or... satire of worse authors!
But if you think the potential relationship between the ancient missing language of Sumerians, the fall of the Tower of Babel, pseudo-mystical neuroscience, and modern-day computer hacking is super interesting and a clever application of viral thought and memetic idea-sharing that's worth thinking about in real-world terms, then... it's not satire! It's a great idea that had lots of research! More people should be talking about this!
Setting the concepts aside, the book isn't super well told, either. It felt like it was a draft or two away. There are moments where you can tell an idea changed for the author, but he forgot to go back to previous chapters and update stuff to reflect that.
Like, early in the book, a chapter ends with a cliffhanger about how this girl is owed a favor from the mafia. Except, she doesn't meet the mafia until weeks (and chapters) later. And even then, she is never owed a favor: the leader of the mafia is a creep who is clearly trying to groom this little girl. So you can see where the relationship between the girl and the mafia took shape for the author, but he never went back to correct the original teaser to match. This happens more than a few times!
As for the zeitgeist, it's odd to me how much this book is talked about in terms of its prophetic technology when the vast majority of the story is split between the aforementioned sexual awakening and abuse of a 15-year-old girl and chapter after chapter of encyclopedic pseudo-mysticism. Most of the book doesn't even take place in the Metaverse!
There's definitely a way a person can 100% agree with my experience of Snow Crash but also find it worth 5/5 stars. The cautious silliness of the narrative allows you to choose when to laugh with it and when to laugh at it, and if you play that game you can end up laughing the whole way through! I'm giving it a 2/5.
This is a question a lot of people have. I had it. And it's a question that embodies every aspect of Snow Crash from moment to moment. You'll read something and think, "is this a sincere telling of an idea, or is it satirical?" And depending on where you are in the book, the answer will change.
In the first chapters, there's no doubt: this book is a hyper parody, a comic satire! Easy. The name Hiro Protagonist is, then, a sort of joke at the expense of the genre and at the expense of authors who think they are clever but are actually just extreme nerds.
But then you're halfway through and you're being lectured endlessly about the history of Sumerian language and you think, "no, this is real research for a real idea we're supposed to take seriously, like in The DaVinci Code or an 80s action-thriller!" The name Hiro Protagonist is then a fun bit of indulgence the author really likes, in the same way that James Bond villains have names like Auric Goldfinger.
Figuring out what is satire and what is an honest-to-God cyberpunk story is futile. This is the type of writing that wants to have its cake and eat it too. It's like when a person shows you music they obviously love, and when you don't immediately smile they go, "I was just kidding, I don't LOVE this song, I just think it's funny!" It looks something like this:
yeah man the guys in VR headsets all the time are totally lame... unless you think they're cool? No? No you think they're not cool yeah right me too I don't like them either... y'know unless...
Snow Crash wants to tell you its story, but it's also afraid that if it plays itself too sincerely you might make fun of it. As you read, you have to ask yourself how much you're willing to let it get away with.
If you think a 15-year-old girl getting abducted, brainwashed, and then forced into a sexual relationship with a powerful middle-aged homicidal biker maniac is gross and unnecessary and careless managment of the sexual awakening of a young woman, then... it's satire! About something! That's genre satire! Or America satire! Or... satire of worse authors!
But if you think the potential relationship between the ancient missing language of Sumerians, the fall of the Tower of Babel, pseudo-mystical neuroscience, and modern-day computer hacking is super interesting and a clever application of viral thought and memetic idea-sharing that's worth thinking about in real-world terms, then... it's not satire! It's a great idea that had lots of research! More people should be talking about this!
Setting the concepts aside, the book isn't super well told, either. It felt like it was a draft or two away. There are moments where you can tell an idea changed for the author, but he forgot to go back to previous chapters and update stuff to reflect that.
Like, early in the book, a chapter ends with a cliffhanger about how this girl is owed a favor from the mafia. Except, she doesn't meet the mafia until weeks (and chapters) later. And even then, she is never owed a favor: the leader of the mafia is a creep who is clearly trying to groom this little girl. So you can see where the relationship between the girl and the mafia took shape for the author, but he never went back to correct the original teaser to match. This happens more than a few times!
As for the zeitgeist, it's odd to me how much this book is talked about in terms of its prophetic technology when the vast majority of the story is split between the aforementioned sexual awakening and abuse of a 15-year-old girl and chapter after chapter of encyclopedic pseudo-mysticism. Most of the book doesn't even take place in the Metaverse!
There's definitely a way a person can 100% agree with my experience of Snow Crash but also find it worth 5/5 stars. The cautious silliness of the narrative allows you to choose when to laugh with it and when to laugh at it, and if you play that game you can end up laughing the whole way through! I'm giving it a 2/5.
Couldn't get through it. It just felt like masturbatory white pasty nerd fantasy.
There are a lot of cool ideas in this book and I love a lot of Stephenson's other stuff, but this was painful to read at times. It really felt like a chore to read and I decided that life is too damn short to keep reading something I wasn't enjoying.
There are a lot of cool ideas in this book and I love a lot of Stephenson's other stuff, but this was painful to read at times. It really felt like a chore to read and I decided that life is too damn short to keep reading something I wasn't enjoying.
Revisiting Snow Crash was quite the experience. I was not quite as enamored with it as my first time reading it when I was a starry-eyed child unexposed to many of the satirical or philosophical elements that are portrayed in the book. I think much of the point of the book flew over my head. Coming back there are definitely flaws in the structure and story-telling from Neal Stephenson with his tangents of thought and rambling psychobabble that he can devolve down into. The flaws feel endearing though and the actual setting and nature of the book feel more relevant than ever. Any good science fiction book should reveal something about the essence of society and attack it. Snow Crash becomes a prescient parable against televangelism and the overall decay of the US and the world at large stemming from rampant capitalism.
The more books I read that aren't as fascinating at this one, the more I realize how much I enjoyed it and how highly I think of it. Written in 1992, a few years before the Internet began encroaching into the realm of the midstream, it still manages to convey a futuristic version of the Web with impressive plausibility. And the Metaverse is just one of many key elements to the setting and story. Stephenson manages to cram the Mafia, commentary on the rise of the franchise in American culture, samurai sword-fighting, linguistics, and plenty of intrigue all into one novel.
It's impossible to describe "Snow Crash" either extemporaneously or succinctly. Just read it.
It's impossible to describe "Snow Crash" either extemporaneously or succinctly. Just read it.