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Snow Crash
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Rating: 4.24/5 from 547 reviews A glimpse into the future ... oh yeah, and some other stuff.A glimpse into the future ... oh yeah, and some other stuff.Not being into cyberpunk (as a genre), I took a friend's advice and read Snow Crash. I wasn't disappointed. Neal Stephenson's "in your face" writing, grabs you by the shoulders and rockets you through the not-so-far-away future, ruled by franchises such as Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong and The Mafia -- You've Got a Friend in the Family!, and policed by franchises like The MetaCops. A future with public street computer terminals on every corner, so you can log onto the MetaVerse, because virtual reality beats staring at the walls of your U-Stor-It 20x30 space. Published at a time when CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL were just taking off, Snow Crash gives you a glimpse of how things might (and probably will) be, and as an added plus, gives you a lesson in ancient history. The main characters have just enough attitude to make you care about their mis/adventures through the prefab, neon landscape, and even though the history lesson slows you down, it's not as if you aren't learning anything in the process. I recommend this book to everyone whose social life consists of booting up and logging on, and to whomever appreciates the type of fast-paced, creative, and humorous writing that Neal Stephenson seems to excel at. Maybe I just don't care much for the cyberpunk genre......but this has got to be the most disappointing novel I've ever wasted my time on! Okay, so I listened to the audiobook version while I was driving to and from work, and so I was kind of a captive audience anyway. But I would have been much better off spending that time listening to something like, "The Blue Nowhere: A Novel," by Jeffery Deaver (which I'm currently listening to), or maybe "Digital Fortress," by Dan Brown (which I've already read in book format). Although these novels may not have as much appeal to the true techno-geek/hacker types, they are much better suited to those of us who want to be engrossed in a truly riveting story while stuck in traffic. Most of the time I was confused about whether the characters were in reality or virtual reality at any given moment, and the rest of the time I was confused as to what the story was supposed to be about. Don't get me wrong - there was some great material in there, and the story might have bloomed in the hands of a truly gifted writer, but judging by this novel, Neal Stephenson is apparently not that writer. All in all, this novel was entirely forgettable. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Not being into cyberpunk (as a genre), I took a friend's advice and read Snow Crash. I wasn't disappointed.
Neal Stephenson's "in your face" writing, grabs you by the shoulders and rockets you through the not-so-far-away future, ruled by franchises such as Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong and The Mafia -- You've Got a Friend in the Family!, and policed by franchises like The MetaCops. A future with public street computer terminals on every corner, so you can log onto the MetaVerse, because virtual reality beats staring at the walls of your U-Stor-It 20x30 space.
Published at a time when CompuServe, Prodigy, and AOL were just taking off, Snow Crash gives you a glimpse of how things might (and probably will) be, and as an added plus, gives you a lesson in ancient history. The main characters have just enough attitude to make you care about their mis/adventures through the prefab, neon landscape, and even though the history lesson slows you down, it's not as if you aren't learning anything in the process.
I recommend this book to everyone whose social life consists of booting up and logging on, and to whomever appreciates the type of fast-paced, creative, and humorous writing that Neal Stephenson excels at.