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carlitos95 's review for:
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
What a strange beast this one is. My first experience with Stephenson is slightly mixed, certainly flawed, but so outrageously inventive and entertaining that I can't help but say I kinda loved it.
Cyberpunk is a genre I enjoy casually but wouldn't necessarily be well versed in - apart from the pre-genre influence of PKD and related cinema I suppose.
But I loved seeing Stephenson take the absolute piss out of certain genre conventions, especially with our hero protagonist - ahem, Hiro Protagonist.
While it is an outlandish satire, and full of bitingly dry humour, and maybe some self deprecation, there is still a lot to ponder and be taken seriously. Even if the story built around his ideas is frustratingly uneven.
Characters often very explicitly ask each other to explain big concepts and plot details mid conversation. And they do.
And I didn't mind.
Because I honestly needed it, and it was so fascinating that I felt like I was constantly learning.
He dumbs things down to the point that it's very easy to separate the wild satire and the real meat and potatoes of his ideas. For the most part.
I found the blatant pokes at Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard more chuckle-inducing than genuinely profound and thought provoking, but his focus on how technology, virtual reality spaces and information dissemination online can affect how we see or experience "reality" very prescient. And how susceptible to manipulation we are.
The stuff about linguistics was so cool (something I have very casual interest in) and I learned a good bit, even if the plot elements around it were kind of goofy.
Overall, a slightly incoherent mess that is riotously fun to read. And it's just mad to think that he coined the term 'metaverse', and almost willed this shit into existence by extrapolating his ideas around code and computer science.
Naturally, every corporation has since ignored all the warning signs and just ran with the cOoL IdEaZ bRo.
Cyberpunk is a genre I enjoy casually but wouldn't necessarily be well versed in - apart from the pre-genre influence of PKD and related cinema I suppose.
But I loved seeing Stephenson take the absolute piss out of certain genre conventions, especially with our hero protagonist - ahem, Hiro Protagonist.
While it is an outlandish satire, and full of bitingly dry humour, and maybe some self deprecation, there is still a lot to ponder and be taken seriously. Even if the story built around his ideas is frustratingly uneven.
Characters often very explicitly ask each other to explain big concepts and plot details mid conversation. And they do.
And I didn't mind.
Because I honestly needed it, and it was so fascinating that I felt like I was constantly learning.
He dumbs things down to the point that it's very easy to separate the wild satire and the real meat and potatoes of his ideas. For the most part.
I found the blatant pokes at Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard more chuckle-inducing than genuinely profound and thought provoking, but his focus on how technology, virtual reality spaces and information dissemination online can affect how we see or experience "reality" very prescient. And how susceptible to manipulation we are.
The stuff about linguistics was so cool (something I have very casual interest in) and I learned a good bit, even if the plot elements around it were kind of goofy.
Overall, a slightly incoherent mess that is riotously fun to read. And it's just mad to think that he coined the term 'metaverse', and almost willed this shit into existence by extrapolating his ideas around code and computer science.
Naturally, every corporation has since ignored all the warning signs and just ran with the cOoL IdEaZ bRo.