Snow Crash

I came to _Snow Crash_ on the recommendation of a few people who had read it (they called it "great!" and "hilarious!," and knowing that Neal Stephenson is sometimes listed as a "cyberpunk" writer along with William Gibson et al.
I had liked William Gibson's books, so I gave _Snow Crash_ a try.
_Snow Crash_ is primarily about Hiro, a young man who delivers pizzas and collects information for the Central Intelligence Corporation (freelance), for a living. He lives in a storage unit with a cult-hero rockstar named Vitaly Chernobyl. He owns a futon, two awesome Japanese swords, and a laptop computer, where he stays "jacked in" to the "Metaverse" a lot of the time, where he is the world's greatest swordfighter.
Hiro witnesses a crime while interacting with others in the Metaverse. One of his friends is deliberately exposed to a dangerous block of text, which fries his brain (in the real world), and renders him a vegetable. Hiro and his friend Y.T. (15-year old skateboarding female, and knee-slappingly funny smartaleck) set off to find out why, and save the world in the process.
From the getgo this is a funny book. Sure, the vision of the near-future is dark, a little alarming, and at times depressing (there are NO general laws in _Snow Crash_, for example, and private corporations run everything, even the police, just as an example). That's what cyberpunk is like. But the HUMOR is one thing that sets Neal Stephenson aside. Hiro Protagonist? Come on, that's FUNNY, PEOPLE! One reviewer called it an 'odd' name. Yes, it's odd, and it's absurd, and it's funny! Did this author mean it is an unusual choice for a character name? I don't know. I hope not. It would be an odd choice for a character's name in a Jane Austen novel, sure. But this is cyberpunk, or something like it. Among this genre's leading inspirations are the works of Thomas Pynchon, and "Hiro Protagonist," as a character name, would fit in perfectly among his merry bands of misfits, especially in _V._ or _Gravity's Rainbow_.
Repeatedly reviewers are slamming Stephenson for his use of Sumerian myth, exploration of Sumerian culture, etc. in the book... calling it inaccurate, poorly connected to the rest of the story, and, (my personal least favorite), BORING. I tell you, besides the great sense of humor, the Sumerian-myth link is what sets this novel heads above so much other cyberpunk. I don't care if it's inaccurate (this is FICTION, see?). Stephenson "traces" computer/textual viruses and biological viruses quite nicely back to Sumerian times, and he links them to one another, biological virus to digital/informational virus (a debt to another pre-cyberpunk luminary, William Burroughs, who said "Word is Virus?")-- it's all very well connected to the metaverse/here-and-now portion of _Snow Crash_'s plot.
This is a funny, riproaring tale. I raced through this nearly 500-page paperback in half the time I read most books of this length. I enjoyed it beginning-to-end. My only complaint with the book was that, at times, it too much resembled a Hollywood action movie, what with all sorts of incredible stunts being performed, by boat drivers, skateboarders, swordsmen, etc.
I say, if you like William Gibson or Thomas Pynchon, or if any of this review makes _Snow Crash_ seem a bit appealing to you, give it a chance. I enjoyed it 10 times as much as I thought I would.
ken32

To the extent that a book can be described as original, "Snow Crash", by Neal Stephenson is deserving of the moniker. About the only common ground that his work shares with others is that ink is applied to paper using the same letters, and then pages are bound to create a book. Much beyond that and you are in the midst of this Author's view of a given world he has modified and created. He is not only incredibly unique; his wit passes the cutting edge to the bleeding edge of razor sharp sarcasm, and irony. And when he uses words he assembles them in arrangements you have never listened to before. An important aspect that sets his work apart in this genre is that while delivering enormous amounts of information, he keeps the reader informed, he does not lose you, he ensures you stay with his wickedly fast pace by keeping you educated. Other Authors of Science Fiction are weak on this point, and it weakens their books.
One date to remember when reading this work is that it was first released in June of 1992 after three years in the making. This is critical, as so much of what was absolute fiction then, may now be found within the pages of Wired Magazine. There are even words he originated that are common to most people who use a computer, especially if you have ever tried what he calls the Metaverse, touring it as an Avatar.
One of the reasons his work is so authentic and exceptionally good is that he knows his material. If he talks about code he's qualified, as he has written it. When he is speaking of Sumerian Mythology an Author who spent years researching his material is again relating it. And when he just lets go with dialogue or descriptive prose it is mind binding for being clever, unique, and hilarious. He also has raised sardonic prose to an art form. If he were any less a craftsman, a main character named Hiro Protagonist that at one point delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's Cosa Nostra Pizzeria, would be moronic.
Technology, a version of what today's society might look like one day, viruses that share traits whether attacking a human or a silicon life form, the origins of language based on Biblical text, it just never stops. He is an extraordinary artist who chooses to express his art through words. It is a unique ride if you have yet to take it, and one that you will never forget.

...of someone who took a previous reviewer's advice to have another buy the book, then lend it and be forced to buy another copy when it doesn't return!
From the opening description of Hiro Protagonist (the main character--couldn't you tell?), I was caught by the irony, sarcasm, wit, and sheer fun with the English language that Neal Stephenson has in his repertoire. Snow Crash is gutsy, innovative, witty, and fun. It rewards anyone who churn out code for a living. Anyone who wonders what happens to our brains with all the advertising thrown at us. Anyone who is tired of the same old science fiction. Anyone who has wondered if the Tower of Babel story, combined with Sumerian mythos, would make a good computer-age read... the answer is yes.
It's almost impossible to review a cyberpunk book without comparing it to uberauthor William Gibson's works. I find Gibson to be cooly intellectual, reserved, methodical--a great read for a day when I'm ready to think hard. Stephenson is white-hot, down and dirty, in the trenches, while not losing touch with the thoughtfulness and underlying structure that makes Gibson satisfying.

While the story is excellent, this edition of the book has serious problems with its pages: there are multiple places where the book was assembled incorrectly and the pages are out of order.

UPDATE: Amazon set me a replacement for the copy we received with the pages out of order. The replacement has the same print errors. AVOID THE 2017 DEL RAY TRADE PAPERBACK EDITION

In keeping with my personal philosophy of exposing myself to different literary genres, I picked up a copy of Snow Crash -- a cyber punk novel. It's a different experience when you start out. You're not sure whether you're missing some background information or a special dictionary to go through the book. It starts off at a fast pace and uses words like Burbclaves, Franchulates, Kouriers, pooning, loglo, etc. Our protagonist is called Hiro Protagonist, a pizza deliverer for the Mafia-controlled pizza chain Cosa Nostra, who also happens to be a hacker supreme in the Metaverse and greatest sword fighter in the world.
Did you do a double take on what I just said? If you did, welcome to the world of cyber punk. If you didn't, welcome to the world of cyber punk. The author has to lay down the groundrules of his "future world" while at the same time using that as a foundation to tell a story. (Everyone's vision of the future is different.)
This novel will be very different from the others you've read. It is erratically paced. The action scenes from riding a skateboard to sword fighting are exciting and fast. The scenes in Hiro's office figuring out the mystery of Snow Crash with the Librarian is slow and sometime downright boring, preachy and dull. The plot is really simple. Once the dynamic duo of Y.T. and Hiro determine what Snow Crash is, the rest of the plot is predictable.
The seemingly self-contradicting characters in this novel alone make it worth reading. Y.T. has real spunk. Her attitude is that of a typical carefree 15 year old rebel. She delivers packages on her hi-tech skateboard while keeping it a secret from her mom (a government programmer). Her dialogue is true to her character. Hiro is at times a curt, savage and indifferent person, yet at other times a loquacious, compassionate and loyal friend. His dialogue and actions display both extremes. Raven is described as Asian, but in reality he's a giant thug. There are many other characters that complete the book.
Two weeks ago, if you asked me whether I'd pick up another cyber punk novel again I would have answered no. But lo and behold, I'm finishing up The Diamond Age by the same author, and I thoroughly enjoy it so far. Look for my review to come.
All in all, I did enjoy this novel. It was a great intro to the world of cyber punk.
LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 3.5 (Hiro wavers, Y.T.'s a blast)
E (Erotica) - 2 (one scene sticks out)
A (Action) - 4 (pooning, katana-wielding, Reason)
P (Plot) - 3 (simple, just complicated by cyber punk lingo and the "future")

How many books have you read where the Hero/Protagonist's name is Hiro Protagonist? If you think that means the book is just a satire and the characters are one-dimensional, you couldn't be more wrong. Set in a not-too-unrecognizable dystopian future where conglomerates run entire neighborhoods like mini fifedoms, Hiro is a super hacker in the Matrix like world much of the population inhabits, as well as the real one. One of the best books I've read on a recommendation, and glad I did. Still holds up after multiple readings. Neal Stephenson at his absolute finest, you'll be hooked on his style as soon as you're finished with this one. Waiting for the movie adaptation still, seems like it's in development hell for a while. Until then, read the book - it's got humor, history, religion, anthropology, futurism, and a lot more for any reader willing to peek into Stephenson's world.

I finally managed to finish Snow Crash. I have so many friends who love it that I forced myself to get through to the end. Normally I'd read a book this length over the weekend, but Snow Crash took me over a month. Every time I set it down, days and weeks would pass as I felt no particular urge to see what happens next.

There were a lot of reasons I didn't like this book. Hopefully, other reluctant readers with similar taste can see this and save some time. This is in order of how much it bothered me, but any of these would be enough alone to make me dislike the book:
1) The writing style was really distracting and irritating to me. It had that clunky, sloppy, slapstick style that I know other people find funny or creative. But I prefer writing that allows me to be fully engaged to the point I don't notice the words. If I do notice the words, I prefer a more graceful or intricate style. In truth, I think he's not a very good writer, but I recognize the strong possibility that I am wrong and this writing is just not at all my cup of tea.
2) There were really really long chunks throughout the book where one character would muse about and slowly develop some random theory (thinly disguised as dialogue). The topics ranged from religion to ancient history and more. I would love to read an essay about them in a reputable journal with sources and citations. In a novel, I found it half-baked, irrelevant, and incredibly boring.
3) For the most part I found the characters likable and interesting. But I wasn't really moved by them. I didn't particularly care what happened to them. Also, I was a little disturbed that the main 15-year-old girl character had so many odd relationships with men twice her age.

There were some cool concepts too. I love the skateboard, and it's definitely interesting to see how the internet has developed compared to his descriptions. But without better writing and character development, cool concepts are not enough for a novel. (I often feel this way about scifi and think it's better suited to short stories.)

My first impression of Snow Crash came from my younger son who was looking at it as it laid on the table waiting for me to get to it. He said something like, "The main character's name is Hiro Protagonist?!" and burst out laughing. Being incredulous, I grabbed the book and looked and, sure enough, that is the main character's name. The thoughts in my head ran something like this:

"That is so dumb!"
"That sounds like something that would come from a bunch of guys sitting around drinking." You know, because they're drinking, they think it's funny.
"Stephenson must not have realized the next day that it wasn't as funny as it seemed when he was drinking."
"It sounds like the kind of thing my oldest would have suggested when he was 5 and wanted to name his not-yet-born younger brother Hot-Speeder." You know, if he had known the word "protagonist" at 5.
"That is so dumb!"
The thing is, though, Stephenson evidently did realize it was stupid, because he acknowledges within the book that it's stupid by having another character tell Hiro he has a stupid name. It didn't dissuade him from using it, though. His secondary character has a similar name in that she's called "Y.T." which seems to have been used just so there can be confusion and have people call her "Whitey."

The second impression followed closely on the heels of the first. Hiro delivers pizzas (for the Mafia, but that's another story). Hiro is also an elite hacker and the best samurai swordsman in the world. He delivers pizzas. As I digested this information, I flashed back to an idea my oldest told me about when he was about 12: a ninja on a motorcycle, swords crossed on his back, delivering pizzas. He, at 12, thought this was a wonderful idea. At 12, it probably is. At this point in the book, I began entertaining the idea that this was just some kind of delusion from the hero, Hiro; that might have made the book interesting. But it turned out not to be; everything is supposed to be as it's presented.

As you can see, my view of the book wasn't shaping into anything positive. But it gets worse... oh, it gets so much worse.

See, the back of the book says the book is "...a mind-altering romp through a future America..." A future America. And that's the hinge that broke the whole story for me, because it's not set in the future at all. Whoever wrote the back cover blurb must not have actually read the book, and that's without excuse. It is even more without excuse that that's been allowed to stand through 19 printings of the book. It makes me wonder if anyone in the publishing industry ever actually read the book.

Let me break this down for you.

Hiro's father fought in World War II. Not his grandfather, his father. To be at all plausible, the story can't really be taking place any later than the mid-90s. The book was published in 1992, so, really, the story was happening "now" as it was published (because 3 years into the future is not a "future America," at least not as it's presented in the book). So, basically, what we're dealing with is an alternate timeline world, which would be okay if
1. it was presented that way
2. there was some reason for the HUGE differences between the world of the book and our world

what caused the divergence (which happened sometime after WWII and, probably, after Vietnam)
how in the heck did the technology get so advanced (because it's decades (at least) more advanced than what we have now (two decades after the book was written)
Which is to say that I just couldn't buy the book from that perspective, because the world as it's presented in the book could never have gotten to the state that it was in in just a couple of decades from the divergence point. It's utterly ridiculous.

So... I'm reading, I'm not very far in, and I'm having huge issues with the book. And it gets worse.

The "partnership" between Y.T. and Hiro is only there because the author decided it would be. The characters have no motivation toward it. They meet and Y.T. says "hey, you wanna be partners?" and Hiro says "yeah, sure." The problem is that Y.T. is a 15-year-old girl and Hiro is a 30-something guy with no job. The relationship is never mutual, either. Y.T. just feeds information to Hiro while occasionally being bossed around. She gets nothing in return other than getting to say he's her "partner." It was dumb.

But it gets worse.

Early in the book, after Hiro has lost his pizza delivery job because he crashed the pizza car (see, so now he's a completely unemployed samurai hacker (pun intended)), he's in the metaverse, the virtual reality world of the book, trying to get intel he can sell. Some stuff happens including Hiro getting into a fight that just happens so that we can see Hiro's virtual sword skills. But! In the middle of all of this stuff in the metaverse, we cut to Y.T. who has gotten herself thrown into "the Clink." She needs to be rescued, so she calls Hiro to get her out of her jam. This is pre-partnership and, I suppose, the impetus of the partnership. Anyway, Hiro shows up and rescues her, and they part ways. THEN, we go back to Hiro right where we left him in the metaverse about to have this fight. Basically, Hiro was in two places at once, because there is no explanation ever given about how these two events happened at the same time. Basically, Stephenson needed to break to the other character and never took into account the conflicting time frame.

This is not the only time we see Stephenson have issues with keeping things like this straight, and this next bit has spoilers, so skip ahead if you have the misguided notion of wanting to read this book. Otherwise, read on!
1. Near the end of the book, Hiro is explaining everything to some dudes (you know, your basic telling instead of showing, but it's worse than that (but I'll get to that in a moment)), and one of the guys asks Hiro why he needs to get the clay tablet. The problem? Hiro hadn't gotten to that part yet. Basically, Stephenson just has the guy ask a question that he, supposedly, knows nothing about so that he can dump the info to the readers. It made me want to gouge the pages. First, I don't need to have stuff explained to me (especially more than once!), but, if you're going to explain to me, don't do it in a stupid way like having a bunch of guys who don't have a clue about what's going on start asking questions based on info they don't have.
2. During the climax of the book, the main tough dude bad guy is on a helicopter. He's been on the helicopter for a while. Except when he's suddenly needed to kill a bunch of people, he's somewhere else killing them before the helicopter arrives at the location. No explanation. Nothing. He's just already there. After Raven has killed all the dudes he needs to kill, then the helicopter with the head bad dude shows up. The helicopter that Raven had been on for chapters and chapters. I wanted to rip the pages out of the book (but I'm going to trade it in at the used book store for something that's actually good, so I refrained).

So...
There are all of these specific issues of stupidity in the book, way more than I've mentioned here, but the worst thing about the book had nothing to do with those things. And those were bad enough. I mean, if I hadn't been trying to find out why the book is such an "important" sci-fi book, I wouldn't have read it. I would have stopped at the point where I realized it was set "now," because, really, that was a deal breaker for me, except I wasn't to anything, yet, that was giving me a reason why it made such an impact, so I had to keep going to find out.

The beginning of the book has a bunch of inane action that has nothing to do with anything before we actually get to the inciting incident. After that, someone shows up and gives Hiro a special computer thing, and, basically, the computer tells Hiro everything he needs to know for the rest of the book. He never does anything to discover anything. The computer just tells him the story. And, you know, it's this long philosophical discussion with the computer (that goes on for, like, 1/3 of the book) that, again, reminded me of a bunch of guys staying up late drinking and someone says "what if language was a virus?" and they just went on and on about it thinking themselves all deep and crap and everyone wakes up the next day and realizes what a stupid idea it was. Except, well, everyone but Neal Stephenson. He wakes up the next morning and decides to write a book about it with his other stupid, drunken idea, the name of the protagonist, oh, yeah! Protagonist! And then threw in the stuff he fantasized about when he was 12, namely being a ninja hacker pizza delivery guy with a hot 15-year-old girl.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that Y.T. is 15? Because she is. And she spends a goodly portion of the book being concerned with what a hot 15-y-o piece she is. (Yes, I know I mentioned it, but OH MY GOSH it's so constant in the book.)

Oh! Oh, wait! So, yeah, there's this huge discussion with the computer, right, where the computer tells him everything. Blah blah blah. The whole plot is just explained to us without any action to go with it. So that's bad enough (actually, it's horrible, because, like, that's the HUGEST no no of writing: Show, don't tell, but Stephenson apparently thinks we wouldn't be able to figure it out if he showed us, or, maybe, he just couldn't figure out how to show us his deep, philosophical conversation with himself), but, at the end, he has to re-tell it all from Hiro's perspective to make sure we understood what he already told us, so we get to spend another couple of chapters with Hiro explaining the plot to people that aren't really important. Except that they are, but we never knew that until just at that moment when Hiro needs to explain everything to them so that they can take care of the bad guy. Basically, the book spends a lot of time telling us the story with action mixed in that's only loosely related to the plot.

The only interesting thing in the book is Stephenson's vision of virtual reality and virtual worlds. Way back in '92, I guess I can see people getting excited about what he did with that stuff, since the whole virtual world thing didn't really exist, yet. Of course, it still doesn't exist via virtual reality, but virtual worlds are virtually a dime a dozen these days (sorry for the pun but not sorry enough to take it out (see what I did there? acknowledging it but leaving it in)), and some of them are even modeled on the idea of Snow Crash. It doesn't make up for how poorly written the book was, though. It's not the worst written book I've ever read, but I think it may have been the stupidest. I mean that. It has so many plot issues and plot holes and, well... maybe I shouldn't expect more, but, yeah, I expect more from big time books from big time publishers (and, remember, this was before the breakthrough of independent and self publishing). Someone, at some point, should have said... something.

Entertaining? Yes. Wildly creative and imaginative? No question. Flawed? Sadly yes, and fatally.
Read this as a carnival ride and you won't be disappointed, but think about it very much, or slow down long enough to consider what's being flipped at you, and you'll find it terribly dissatisfying in several ways.

Firstly, I am intolerant of authors that end the story at the very climax, as if saying, 'well, you can figure out from here the rest of what happens.' Sure I probably can, but if I gotta write my own epilog, why did I bother letting you tell the rest of it?

Nextly, I am offended at gratuitous eroticism. Sure, sexuality is a part of human existence, but so are many other human functions that don't contribute to a story. And am I really supposed to enjoy the romanticized telling of the rape of a 15 year old skateboarder by a mutant muscleman? Why is there no outcry against this?

Also, can't our character development be a little less contrived, a little deeper? How many times must I be reminded that our Hiro is the best swordsman in both worlds? Must all the cardboard supporting characters continually gush about how 'bad' or 'cool' he is?

Sure it's a hard-boiled 'gumshoe' novel, but that doesn't excuse it from being a novel, with satisfying endings, tied off loose ends, free of adolescent titillations, and real characters.

And all the Sumerian myth stuff, though interesting in itself, was kind of just chopped up and dumped into a pot and mixed up with all kinds of other unrelated things (neurolingual programming, machine code, speaking in toungues, even herpes virus). That works to make a green salad, but not a credible theory of the development of human communication.

So promising in the beginning. I can't believe I read the whole thing.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. After having finished Ready Player One somewhat recently before reading this, I marveled at the similarities considering the books were written something like 25 years apart. And the fact that this one was written in the early 90s is not lost on me, as there were many futuristic components that are eerily similar to what we have in our world today.

The biggest downfall of me was that this book was so incredibly dense. On the one hand, Stephenson created a fictional world based on the real world where I live (Los Angeles) and described it with immense detail. (And I can totally see the city/country heading this way, btw.) But on the other hand, there was so much description to slog through that I found myself re-reading some things over and over trying to absorb it and not always quite getting it. Definitely a gripping story overall, but was left many times confused as to what was going on.

Plus In the end, there were many questions left unanswered, but it is what it is. Would still recommend it for anyone who likes Futuristic Sci Fi.