Snow Crash

like a more intellectual dan brown - not for everyone. his political satire is cutting, modern and absolutely BASED.

like brave new world and 1984, it presents a disturbing sci fi dystopian feels surreal and realistic at the same time; but unlike these classics, it's vision has yet to become outdated or deteriorate into cliche. it's an intriguing vision of a true anarcho-capitalist technocratic non-state and how its inner workings might look like. then again, someone probably sees it as a utopia to aspire towards, just like some inevitably argue brave new world is a utopia.

I found this book to be very stupid and annoying.
So many detailed description of every possible thing in every scene and yet still most of it is nonsensical.
The only good thing about this book is it predicting the concept of MMORPG.

Dumb as hell

Hard to collect my thoughts on this one. Took a really long time to get going. The 2nd half was better and more connected. The world was cool, a high tech low life corporate America ad absurdum. The central idea of a latent root language in the brain, that if mastered can be used to program people, is interesting but its expression in this novel is layered in a tonne of religious-historical discourse which at times both hampers the action and labours the point. The full extent of the philosophy of language behind the idea wasn't really brought out. Then again, it's not a philosophy essay.

The book could be cut down a lot and not lose anything. A tonne of the novel is just building up the mafia, building up YT, building up Raven. Does the final confrontation pay off? Not..really. The ending is fine enough, a little rushed, the baddies get their comeuppance, the heroes poon off into the sunset (... I never did get over that word). If you're already sold on how cool the world is by the first few chapters, which I was, you'll slog through a lot of the book like “yeah I get it, get on with it now”.

But there's a world changing, understanding-of-humanity changing idea at the core here. A reimagining of the reasons behind the evolution of all language, culture, and religion. So despite it being a bit bloated, it's still a 4 star book in my mind. Slimmed down and streamlined it could have been a 5, there's plenty to think about here.

The 17 year old me who downloaded hack/phreak text files over dialup really wanted to read it, and I know he wouldn't have been ready for it back then. The 38 year old me who just finished it for the first time... he got it, but maybe he's too old to get excited about it any more.

Maybe it's the right book at the wrong time. But I'm glad I read it.

Second time reading it, after 5 years, enjoyed it again!

Witty and exciting cyber-punk. I can't believe I missed this guy back in the 1990s. This was reminiscent of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy with its hipster-youth outsider characters, division of haves and have-nots, corporate-controlled dystopia, and the combining of the spiritual with technology.

There are tons of funny one-liners; Snow Crash was worth it just for this alone. I also fell for the colorful characters I could root for even if at times they were impossibly attractive, savvy, and quick.

A few things in the plot and some motivations were slightly unresolved and fuzzy but overall I loved reading this.

The main character Hiro really did feel like Mary Sue (the constant saying that he's the greatest swordsman in the world, which is totally irrelevant, etc) but despite that, I LOVED this book. The idea of an ancient Sumerian proto-language that allows for linguistic bio-hacking of brains? Sign me up.

Sooooo good. The first chapter is probably my favourite in any book. Super quirky and really picks up a quarter of the way through.

Cool world building, but if you're going to sexualize the main female character so much I don't understand why the author didn't make her older than 15.

This is a snow crash of a book to be honest. A bunch of cool ideas, characters that appear bad-ass but then turn out to exist only in order to progress the plot, pages and pages and pages of info-dumping. At one point the Librarian is info-dumping to Hiro, and at another point Hiro is info-dumping to Uncle Enzo and others ... and the two characters sound identical.

I would love to see someone take this world and write a smaller, more human, story set in it.

(warning: not really a review, more of a thing to remind me of the book)

Overall, a fairly cinematic story akin to the genre I'd expect The Matrix to fall into. If I'm completely honest, I did occasionally lose track of what was going on through the story (it took me a good few weeks to read it), but the story and two main characters managed to carry me along.

I also have to admit that it took me a little while to get past the corny named main character “Hiro Protagonist” and the overly macho techno all black, motorcycles and swords. Of course, Hiro is the world's best swordsman...obviously. Though when I just went with it, it was pretty good fun.

Neal Stephenson writing was extremely good at visualising a scene and the objects in the world the characters live in (in reading the acknowledgement I learnt that the book was intended as a graphic novel and I wonder if there was graphic work he was describing). All the same, it was very easy to read and see the world as we moved from reality, to the metaverse (virtual world), to vehicles and different landscapes.

There's a tonne of historical and religious background to the story too, most of which I understand to be based on real research (from our universe) and the depth of which was incredible.

The Snow Crash is (supposed to be) a virus that exists in both the digital world and the real world. The story creates (perhaps tenuous?) links between computer/digital ideas and pre-biblical times explaining that the story of Babel was the first instance of the virus, transmitted through verbal programming, affecting humankind.

The two other main-ish characters were Y.T (a young women/teenager who we follow in parallel with Hiro) and Raven. Y.T. is really fun, and perhaps more relatable since she's a little more “regular” (compared with Hiro) - just kitted out with lots of tricks in her suit.

Raven is the uber baddie, throwing glass spears, cutting through bulletproof suits and generally being invisible. He definitely plays the “main henchman” really well, and we even get to understand his motives which I love for a “proper” baddie.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, left a little confused about the motivation about some of the connections in the book (like what really motivates Y.T. to join forces with Hiro, or how Hiro was one of the first creators of the metaverse, yet he's somehow a promotor for his roommate's band...).

Sorry, not much of a review, more a prompt for my own memory in years to come!

Hard going in parts but interesting and readable mostly

If you're expecting me to write a review for this book, you're out of your mind.

Holy **. Mind blown. If you program, read this.

I found this a real slog. Easier to put down, than pick up. I've read quite a few books in-between starting and finishing this.

70+ sections/chapters - lots of ideas, references, certainly plenty of thoughts sparked. Technology, societal futurology, politics, pharma, etc. language as an idea virus (biblical/historical precedents)

However, it felt like a relatively thin plot.
It has the obligatory; a hero, a heroine - an anti-hero, who is possibly a hero - depending upon which side you stand on. An obligatory sex scene, etc.

recenzie pe bloguldesefe.ro
personaje 5/5. bine construite, originale, ajungi să te atașezi de ele, chiar și de antagonist.
fundal 5/5 cyberpunk perfect, la fel de bun ca și Gibson.
stil 5/5 curat, adrenalinizat, fluent, tehnic fără să fie tehnicist, bine tradus.
poveste 4/5 excelentă ca acțiune, răsturnări de situații și toate cele, dar nițel cam lungită cu partea religioasă.
total: una dintre cele mai mișto cărți citite de mine; cea mai pasionantă (pt mine) de la Zei Americani încoace (deci de vreo 10 ani). Total recomandată cititorilor de cyberpunk, unde aș pune-o pe podium; evident, nerecomandată celorlalți, ca orice cyberpunk.

FALSE

Amazingly inventing, unflinchingly weird, this look at information culture and the future of technology builds an engaging universe in which to explore its myths and legends and beliefs. Very good read for any sci-fi fan.

I missed out on Snow Crash when it first came out. It was one of those books I kept hearing referenced, but just hadn't gotten around to listening to. And so, with my trial of Audible, I figured I would take advantage of the credit offered to me and snagged it. First off, let's get to the point of the Audible version. The performer did an excellent job of giving the different characters their own voice. It didn't always work perfectly, but I was still very impressed at how well he managed to create a character for each person in the book.

Regarding the story, while I doubt the future depicted will ever come to be in the exact details of the book, the trends described aren't actually that far off. The mixing of ancient religion and future technology was fascinating. Honestly, this is a book that could very easily feel extremely dated, but manages to actually feel quite relevant.

This was hard to rate because I really liked the story in itself, but on the other hand it read a little bit strange. Like whole language used was just an edge too much hip or comic book style.

Still it makes me want to read more from Stephenson.

Would recommend that book

Not a huge fan of the style. It's just a bit too cartoon for my taste - would make a great anime. It's action-packed and rather techie, but I would have preferred if it was a bit heavier on the tech and a lot less heavy on action. Stephenson delivers this rather well with some of his other work, such as the Cryptonomicon.

Absolutely delightful. Loved that it didn't take itself too seriously, but nonetheless had a fantastic amount of depth.

And naming the book's protagonist “Hiro” is just absolutely brilliant.

Awesome book, trying it in Japanese now for a challenge.

Pizza delivery by the mob, a character named Hiro Protagonist, Motorcycle riding, samurai sword wielding characters - I'm not sure this story ages that well. Reading it as a teenager would've been better, but for now it was tough to make it through without rolling my eyes repeatedly.

Pizza delivery by the mob, a character named Hiro Protagonist, Motorcycle riding, samurai sword wielding characters - I'm not sure this story ages that well. Reading it as a teenager would've been better, but for now it was tough to make it through without rolling my eyes repeatedly.