I’ve previously reviewed Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash (previous review) and decided to re-review it now that I’ve re-read it. It’s still one of my favorite books of all time. It’s dated and timeless at the same time and a fun coda to the entire cyberpunk movement. The book kicked Neal Stephenson’s career into the science fiction stratosphere and has continued selling 20+ years later. It’s a classic science fiction novel, so let’s talk about it.
The question, as with all books, starts out with: What is the book about? For Snow Crash, the problem is that it’s about so much and so little. It’s a simple story with a lot of digressions and a history lesson thrown in for fun. But what is it about? It could be so many things:
- A retelling of the Bible from a neuro-linguistic point of view. The Internet (Metaverse) substitutes for the Tower of Babel.
- A male centered romantic comedy with Hiro trying to save the world with his wacky sidekick Y.T. to win the love of Juanita, the one who got away
- A summer action movie, complete with catch phrases (including naming a gun Reason for the sole purpose of have a character brandish it while saying “Maybe he’ll listen to Reason”), motorcycle chases and sword fights.
- An earlier version of The Matrix with a guy trying to get the girl while existing in two realms (real world and Metaverse) where he’s a superhero in one and a schlub in the other.
- An earlier take on current technologies with CIC similar to Wikipedia and Earth similar to Google Earth. And don’t forget Google Glasses.
Snow Crash has a bit of everything and is the best type of mess. It has several chapters that could function as the end of the book. It has multiple characters that pop up, are important and then just disappear, never seen again. The plot requires that you read and understand a huge number of digressions where the author discusses computer science, neuro-linguistics and Sumerian history. Stephenson has created a story that starts with two men surviving an atomic blast and ends with their sons sword fighting in cyberspace. While you can see the rough edges of the story (especially in the ending), it’s still masterful science fiction novel that everyone should read. Highly recommended.
This post is part of the thread: SnowCrash – an ongoing story on this site. View the thread timeline for more context on this post.
I usually like Neal Stephenson, but I’ve tried to read Snow Crash twice, and couldn’t get into it. I’ll give it another try, I promise. but it might wait until after my reread of Baroque Cycle.
Snow Crash is an insane joy ride. It’s a huge mess in plot and structure. So, you have to just grab on and enjoy the ride without thinking too much about where it’s going.