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aw21594377 's review for:
Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
2.5⭐️ I don't think Stephenson is really for me, but I'm still glad I read something by him. I am still sort of curious about 2 other novels he's written: Diamond Age and Anathem.
YT bugged the shit out of me in the first half of the book. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but when I confirmed with someone who actually likes this book that YT is annoying to her too, I knew it wasn't just me. I found her attitude to be a little grating. I think Stephenson is known for not doing great female characters, and I wouldn't say YT was awful or offensive, just not a lot going on there. I liked the 2 chapters her mother gets where we see how awful her job is working for the government. When Uncle Enzo learns that YT's mother is picking her up at the end and he's like "oh good I was worried about them" I was like uh...I don't think all their issues are suddenly resolved...I couldn't tell if that was supposed to be taken seriously, or if it was supposed to be flippant. That said, YT was certainly a force to be reckoned with. I can see how she might be perceived as badd-ass, but I just didn't find her that interesting or complex of a character. Her "relationship" with the Raven was also baffling to me...they had sex once...and suddenly they were dating? And she "dumped" him?
I can see what Stephenson was trying to do with this book, and I think he actually did it fairly well. I've heard him be described as creating environments and moods through his ideas/world building and I just don't think I like hanging out in the environments he creates? They're just not that interesting to me. I found it kind of hard to care about what he was trying to explore.
I think this book could've been 200-300 pages shorter and still communicated the same ideas. The plot meandered and dragged a lot, especially at the beginning. I guess it's to allow the reader to feel more immersed in this Metaverse world, but idk.
Spoiler
It took nearly half the book for me to become remotely interested in the plot/ideas. Once the Librarian started talking to Hiro about linguistics, religion, and tying that all into how viruses spread, I became more intrigued. I'm not sure if I entirely buy Stephenson's argument, but at least I didn't feel like I was a robot on autopilot.YT bugged the shit out of me in the first half of the book. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but when I confirmed with someone who actually likes this book that YT is annoying to her too, I knew it wasn't just me. I found her attitude to be a little grating. I think Stephenson is known for not doing great female characters, and I wouldn't say YT was awful or offensive, just not a lot going on there. I liked the 2 chapters her mother gets where we see how awful her job is working for the government. When Uncle Enzo learns that YT's mother is picking her up at the end and he's like "oh good I was worried about them" I was like uh...I don't think all their issues are suddenly resolved...I couldn't tell if that was supposed to be taken seriously, or if it was supposed to be flippant. That said, YT was certainly a force to be reckoned with. I can see how she might be perceived as badd-ass, but I just didn't find her that interesting or complex of a character. Her "relationship" with the Raven was also baffling to me...they had sex once...and suddenly they were dating? And she "dumped" him?
I can see what Stephenson was trying to do with this book, and I think he actually did it fairly well. I've heard him be described as creating environments and moods through his ideas/world building and I just don't think I like hanging out in the environments he creates? They're just not that interesting to me. I found it kind of hard to care about what he was trying to explore.
I think this book could've been 200-300 pages shorter and still communicated the same ideas. The plot meandered and dragged a lot, especially at the beginning. I guess it's to allow the reader to feel more immersed in this Metaverse world, but idk.