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3.89 AVERAGE
3.89 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
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
Conceptually pretty cool, but the latter half of the book is kind of painful to read. Tries to do too much, gets a little hard to follow, and the writing suffers because of how many things are going on.
Enjoyed reading about this dystopian world, didn’t love the plot (mostly the end).
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I think I must not like steampunk, because this didn’t do it for me. I couldn’t even finish Neuromancer, so this was at least an improvement on that.
Things I liked:
I liked the idea that Y.T. showing compassion for an ‘animal’ would prove to be a powerful and consequential force in a technologically-dominated world.
I liked the DFW-esque toilet paper bureaucracy section, and the interrogation scene with Y.T.‘s mum (although the consequence of that questioning seems to not be addressed?).
I liked the perfectionism of the Mafia’s pizza delivery regime (although this seemed to be a short world-building exercise with no significance).
The action scenes were really well written and exciting.
Things I didn’t like:
Despite my first point above about the rat-thing, the ending felt incredibly abrupt and underwhelming.
All of the characters felt one-dimensional and functional in advancing the plot, rather than fully-fleshed out people.
The sex scene. Just… why?
While the book is exploring some potentially interesting concepts, I felt their integration into a plot didn’t really work. There was way too much exposition required to contextualise how the ideas were informing the story; the narrative itself had to take a ‘detective’ approach that destroyed any mystery that the initial introduction of the snow crash virus brought to the story.
The multi-chapter exposition towards the end felt ridiculous. How was Hiro, who had no knowledge of Sumerian and all of the linguistic and religious concepts at the start of the book, able to rattle off an (apparently) coherent explanation of the conspiracy and its historical precedents so effectively at the end? And Mr Lee and Uncle Enzo apparently followed, understood as accepted what is really a totally insane plot by Rife?
The way it’s revealed that Hiro and Raven’s fathers were POW together. They seem to both be aware of it and tell each other they know at the same time… when did they both find out?? And why is this not more significant??
Why do we hear nothing of the fates of Reverend Wayne or D4v1d in the final chapters? Many other seemingly important characters have their stories end seemingly without any resolving of earlier plot points too.
Why didn’t Rife just destroy the nam-shub?
Things I liked:
I liked the idea that Y.T. showing compassion for an ‘animal’ would prove to be a powerful and consequential force in a technologically-dominated world.
I liked the DFW-esque toilet paper bureaucracy section, and the interrogation scene with Y.T.‘s mum (although the consequence of that questioning seems to not be addressed?).
I liked the perfectionism of the Mafia’s pizza delivery regime (although this seemed to be a short world-building exercise with no significance).
The action scenes were really well written and exciting.
Things I didn’t like:
Despite my first point above about the rat-thing, the ending felt incredibly abrupt and underwhelming.
All of the characters felt one-dimensional and functional in advancing the plot, rather than fully-fleshed out people.
The sex scene. Just… why?
While the book is exploring some potentially interesting concepts, I felt their integration into a plot didn’t really work. There was way too much exposition required to contextualise how the ideas were informing the story; the narrative itself had to take a ‘detective’ approach that destroyed any mystery that the initial introduction of the snow crash virus brought to the story.
The multi-chapter exposition towards the end felt ridiculous. How was Hiro, who had no knowledge of Sumerian and all of the linguistic and religious concepts at the start of the book, able to rattle off an (apparently) coherent explanation of the conspiracy and its historical precedents so effectively at the end? And Mr Lee and Uncle Enzo apparently followed, understood as accepted what is really a totally insane plot by Rife?
The way it’s revealed that Hiro and Raven’s fathers were POW together. They seem to both be aware of it and tell each other they know at the same time… when did they both find out?? And why is this not more significant??
Why do we hear nothing of the fates of Reverend Wayne or D4v1d in the final chapters? Many other seemingly important characters have their stories end seemingly without any resolving of earlier plot points too.
Why didn’t Rife just destroy the nam-shub?
I like Neal Stephenson for his quality prose and interesting premises, and I love cyberpunk for its flexibility and badass techno-wizardry.
Among Neal Stephenson books, this was not as good as Anathem or Cryptonomicon but still well written science fiction. Among cyberpunk settings, this was a faithful iteration with an exceptionally strong satirical streak, which does make it a good deal less immersive but turns the tone into something much less pessimistic. As a whole this book was engaging and a lot of fun, but did not distinguish itself: the attempt to root the eponymous virus in Mesopotamian history was corny, and the ending was lame.
As a Neal Stephenson book or cyberpunk book this deserves a 4. I’m giving it 5 stars only because the shortcomings of each category were less than the enjoyment derived from the crossover.
Highly recommend.
Among Neal Stephenson books, this was not as good as Anathem or Cryptonomicon but still well written science fiction. Among cyberpunk settings, this was a faithful iteration with an exceptionally strong satirical streak, which does make it a good deal less immersive but turns the tone into something much less pessimistic. As a whole this book was engaging and a lot of fun, but did not distinguish itself: the attempt to root the eponymous virus in Mesopotamian history was corny, and the ending was lame.
As a Neal Stephenson book or cyberpunk book this deserves a 4. I’m giving it 5 stars only because the shortcomings of each category were less than the enjoyment derived from the crossover.
Highly recommend.
Excellent book !
Good plot.
Decent characters.
Very funny at times.
Writing style is amazing, as amazingueur as the Wolrd building.
However, I still don't quite understand the ending.
I recommend this book to pretty much anyone with à scifi interest ,
Good plot.
Decent characters.
Very funny at times.
Writing style is amazing, as amazingueur as the Wolrd building.
However, I still don't quite understand the ending.
I recommend this book to pretty much anyone with à scifi interest ,
I initially discovered Snow Crash through TIME's "All-TIME 100 Novels". I normally like these lists as it's a great resource for discovering new books. Here is what they had to say about Snow Crash:
This hooked me immediately. And within a few days, I had a copy of the book. The book starts very strong. I have not read much science fiction, but the cyberpunk world was one of the highlights for sure. The story is set in the very far future. The land is filled with everything, from lawless areas run by savages to gated communities set up by business franchises. There is also a lot of cool technology. My favorite part of the world-building was the metaverse. This book came out in 1992, and it is a little frightening to see Stephenson predict the future with virtual reality. As a programmer myself, I enjoyed the extra effort Stephenson put in to actually explain the technology behind the metaverse. Speaking of technology, the gadgets the characters use are sick. One character is a courier who skates around on a skateboard that can adapt its wheels to any terrain, and one of the villains uses a knife that is so sharp it is 1 atom wide. I also found the plot to be fast-paced which was a plus. My favorite chapter involved a detailed description of a character who works for "The Feds". She is watched every second during her job. She receives a memo, and she times herself so that her boss can see she spent the perfect amount of time reading it:
Not only is this section hilarious, but there is a sad underlying truth that I felt Stephenson was trying to convey to us. There are many sections like this, poking fun at what happens when corporations take over.
While all of this sounds awesome, my enjoyable reading experience ended about halfway into the book. I was in love with everything I had just described, and around the middle mark, I encountered a complete snooze-fest of a section that felt like it had lasted 100 pages. Our main character ends up wanting to learn more about this Snow Crash virus/disease/religion, so he asks his librarian robot for a history lesson on language, and the Tower of Babel. This was a complete 180 and it felt like one big history dump. I checked out in the middle of the section, praying that not all of this was going to be relevant to the story. It's not exactly fair as the reader, but at a certain point, I stopped caring about the rest of the story since the magic had disappeared. I was at my limit with 150 pages left, so I decided against DNFing. I also was not personally a fan of the writing. This might just be my preference as a reader, but it felt very vulgar and elementary at times. Here is one example:
This just felt so cheesy to me, and there were a few other moments like this too. In one scene, a character throws a "rock" at her mom's work computer. Her mom obviously becomes livid, but "Finally Mom winds down, defeated by Y.T.'s strategy of silence". Maybe I am biased but that did not feel realistic at all. This is the same mom who works for "The Feds", and I'd imagine she wouldn't calm down until she found a way to explain herself. The ending is also very abrupt and almost didn't feel like it was a real ending. Lastly, the pacing towards the end felt too fast. While action sequences can be thrilling, having too many back-to-back takes away from other parts of the story like character development and world-building.
I think there's a lot to like in this book, but a majority of the book was not enjoyable for me.
Hiro Protagonist — yeah, that’s his name — is a freelance hacker and unemployed pizza deliveryman lost in a post-lapsarian, hyper-capitalist future America in which the central government has withered away, leaving behind a landscape of gated communities and endless strip malls lined with cookie-cutter retail franchises. When a virulent computer virus (or is it a drug? or a religion?) called Snow Crash gets loose and somehow starts infecting humans, Hiro teams up with a sassy skateboard messenger to save both the real world and cyberspace. Stephenson is that rare—no, unique—thing, both a virtuosic literary stylist and a consummate observer of a brave new world where information flows freely between humans and computers, to the point where the two are no longer easily distinguishable.
This hooked me immediately. And within a few days, I had a copy of the book. The book starts very strong. I have not read much science fiction, but the cyberpunk world was one of the highlights for sure. The story is set in the very far future. The land is filled with everything, from lawless areas run by savages to gated communities set up by business franchises. There is also a lot of cool technology. My favorite part of the world-building was the metaverse. This book came out in 1992, and it is a little frightening to see Stephenson predict the future with virtual reality. As a programmer myself, I enjoyed the extra effort Stephenson put in to actually explain the technology behind the metaverse. Speaking of technology, the gadgets the characters use are sick. One character is a courier who skates around on a skateboard that can adapt its wheels to any terrain, and one of the villains uses a knife that is so sharp it is 1 atom wide. I also found the plot to be fast-paced which was a plus. My favorite chapter involved a detailed description of a character who works for "The Feds". She is watched every second during her job. She receives a memo, and she times herself so that her boss can see she spent the perfect amount of time reading it:
Y.T.'s mom pulls up the new memo, checks the time, and starts reading it. The estimated reading time is 15.62 minutes. Later, when Marietta does her end-of-day statistical roundup, sitting in her private office at 9:00 P.M., she will see the name of each employee and next to it, the amount of time spent reading this memo, and her reaction, based on the time spent, will go something like this:
Less than 10 mm. Time for an employee conference and possible attitude counseling.
10-14 min. Keep an eye on this employee; may be developing slipshod attitude.
14-15.61 mm. Employee is an efficient worker, may sometimes miss important details.
Exactly 15.62 mm. Smartass. Needs attitude counseling.
15.63-16 mm. Asswipe. Not to be trusted.
16-18 mm. Employee is a methodical worker, may sometimes get hung up on minor details.
More than 18 mm. Check the security videotape, see just what this employee was up to (e.g., possible unauthorized restroom break).
Y.T.'s mom decides to spend between fourteen and fifteen minutes reading the memo. It's better for younger workers to spend too long, to show that they're careful, not cocky. It's better for older workers to go a little fast, to show good management potential. She's pushing forty. She scans through the memo, hitting the Page Down button at reasonably regular intervals, occasionally paging back up to pretend to reread some earlier section. The computer is going to notice all this. It approves of rereading. It's a small thing, but over a decade or so this stuff really shows up on your work-habits summary.
Not only is this section hilarious, but there is a sad underlying truth that I felt Stephenson was trying to convey to us. There are many sections like this, poking fun at what happens when corporations take over.
While all of this sounds awesome, my enjoyable reading experience ended about halfway into the book. I was in love with everything I had just described, and around the middle mark, I encountered a complete snooze-fest of a section that felt like it had lasted 100 pages. Our main character ends up wanting to learn more about this Snow Crash virus/disease/religion, so he asks his librarian robot for a history lesson on language, and the Tower of Babel. This was a complete 180 and it felt like one big history dump. I checked out in the middle of the section, praying that not all of this was going to be relevant to the story. It's not exactly fair as the reader, but at a certain point, I stopped caring about the rest of the story since the magic had disappeared. I was at my limit with 150 pages left, so I decided against DNFing. I also was not personally a fan of the writing. This might just be my preference as a reader, but it felt very vulgar and elementary at times. Here is one example:
Until a man is twenty-five, he still thinks, every so often, that under the right circumstances he could be the baddest motherfucker in the world. If I moved to a martial-arts monastery in China and studied real hard for ten years, If my family was wiped out by Colombian drug dealers and I swore myself to revenge, If I got a fatal disease, had one year to live, devoted it to wiping out street crime. If I just dropped out and devoted my life to being bad.
Hiro used to feel that way, too, but then he ran into Raven. In a way, this is liberating. He no longer has to worry about trying to be the baddest motherfucker in the world. The position is taken.
This just felt so cheesy to me, and there were a few other moments like this too. In one scene, a character throws a "rock" at her mom's work computer. Her mom obviously becomes livid, but "Finally Mom winds down, defeated by Y.T.'s strategy of silence". Maybe I am biased but that did not feel realistic at all. This is the same mom who works for "The Feds", and I'd imagine she wouldn't calm down until she found a way to explain herself. The ending is also very abrupt and almost didn't feel like it was a real ending. Lastly, the pacing towards the end felt too fast. While action sequences can be thrilling, having too many back-to-back takes away from other parts of the story like character development and world-building.
I think there's a lot to like in this book, but a majority of the book was not enjoyable for me.
The story was great, but the setting and jokes just wasn't for me. Would recommend to others for the humor.
Read this a while ago while on floors lol. it was a lot of fun
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes