Snow Crash
A Novel
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4.3 • 1.2K Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
Now featuring never-before-seen material, the “brilliantly realized” (The New York Times Book Review) breakthrough novel from visionary author Neal Stephenson, a modern classic that predicted the metaverse and inspired generations of Silicon Valley innovators
Hiro lives in a Los Angeles where franchises line the freeway as far as the eye can see. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the autonomous city-states, where law-abiding citizens don’t dare leave their mansions.
Hiro delivers pizza to the mansions for a living, defending his pies from marauders when necessary with a matched set of samurai swords. His home is a shared 20 X 30 U-Stor-It. He spends most of his time goggled in to the Metaverse, where his avatar is legendary.
But in the club known as The Black Sun, his fellow hackers are being felled by a weird new drug called Snow Crash that reduces them to nothing more than a jittering cloud of bad digital karma (and IRL, a vegetative state).
Investigating the Infocalypse leads Hiro all the way back to the beginning of language itself, with roots in an ancient Sumerian priesthood. He’ll be joined by Y.T., a fearless teenaged skateboard courier. Together, they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In California of the near future, when the U.S. is only a ``Burbclave'' (city-state), the Mafia is just another franchise chain (CosaNostrastet Pizza, Incorporated) and there are no laws to speak of, Hiro Protagonist follows clues from the Bible, ancient Sumer and high technology to help thwart an attempt to take control of civilization--such as it is. When he logs on to Metaverse, an imaginary place entered via computer, Hiro encounters Juanita Marquez, a ``radical'' Catholic and computer whiz. She warns him off Snow Crash (a street drug named for computer failure) and gives him a file labeled Babel (as in Tower of Babel). Another friend, sp ok/pk Da5id, who ignores Juanita's warning, computer crashes out of Metaverse into the real world, where he physically collapses. Hiro, Juanita, Y.T. (a freewheeling, skateboard-riding courier) and sundry other Burbclave and franchise power figures see some action on the way to finding out who is behind this bizarre ``drug'' with ancient roots. Although Stephenson ( Zodiac ) provides more Sumerian culture than the story strictly needs (alternating intense activity with scholarship breaks), his imaginative juxtaposition of ancient and futuristic detail could make this a cult favorite.
Customer Reviews
You have to read it
The first third is full of quick paced action in an absurdist take on the direction America was headed in the late 80s/early 90s. The book stars a pizza delivery guy who works for the mafia/a computer hacker/world’s best swordsman named Hiro Protagonist. The first 80 or so pages leaves you on the edge of your seat over the possibility of “the Deliverator” delivering a pizza late, and you are invested in every word on the page. It later takes an interesting turn trying to tie together linguistics with computer hacking, but it starts to go on for a bit too long. There was a point where I even wanted to give up on the book, despite how much I loved the beginning. The ending picks up again, so it’s worth it to just stick with it and force yourself across the finish line, but the pacing could have definitely been handled better. Definitely worth a look for anyone who likes cyberpunk or science fiction, or anyone whose guilty pleasure is an over-the-top narration and dialogue.
Review from an ancient perspective
Few of the concepts that are the foundation of our real and current use of tech existed when this book was printed and released. In 1992, the only people using the internet at all were building it. I have a print copy of the first email I received in 1992…from researchers in Antarctica. Mosaic was just a thought, and Netscape and Google were inventing spiders. I can’t emphasize how much this book influenced all that followed. Especially the relationship to hardwired language. It’s interesting to read comments from people who are likely approaching their 40’s, who can’t see why nerds like me recognized the info on language as the key to many puzzles unsolved at the time. I bless Stephenson’s ability to create an entire cosmos that became real because he shared it, and it was good.
classic
While some of the ideas in this book will seem dated, many have actually been invented! Great action packed novel that feels like a sci-fi movie. I'm keeping my paper back copy for my kids to read one day. This book got me reading again in highschool after a long time. I would recommend this to anyone who hates reading or has a subborn youth who doesn't enjoy reading.