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Snow Crash

By Neal Stephenson

(182)

| Hardcover | 9780141886275

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Critics

Snow Crash

Snow Crash is a fast-paced, near-future, cyberpunk thriller. Neither its technology (with cybernetic dogs, portable nuclear-powered gatling guns, and ancient Sumerian neuro-linguistic programming), its politics (a libertarian world where the Mafia de ... (read full critics)

dannyreviews published on Fri, 27 Aug 2010

13 Reviews

1 person find this helpful

'Snow Crash' is a thrill of a read. Exciting, suspenseful and with lots of geeky tech-speak combined with an interesting account of the history of religion and language.
It reminds me of Dan Brown, but better, 'cooler'.
The story of the development of the computer and the internet in histo ... (continue)

'Snow Crash' is a thrill of a read. Exciting, suspenseful and with lots of geeky tech-speak combined with an interesting account of the history of religion and language.
It reminds me of Dan Brown, but better, 'cooler'.
The story of the development of the computer and the internet in history, that Stephenson tells in Cryptonomicon and the Baroque Cycle trilogy, starts here, in 'Snow Crash', at the Sumerian roots of civilization.
Compared to those books, 'Snow Crash' is a bit more rudely written and sometimes less believable, but this is made good because its pace is faster.
Read it!!

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Corstin said on Nov 9, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

1 person find this helpful

The first time I ever read this book, I borrowed it from my high school Latin teacher. I was blown away by the accuracy of his statement that I would love it, and even more so by the book itself. Stephenson writes brilliantly and intelligently and appeals to the reader's sense of humor, wonder, and ... (continue)

The first time I ever read this book, I borrowed it from my high school Latin teacher. I was blown away by the accuracy of his statement that I would love it, and even more so by the book itself. Stephenson writes brilliantly and intelligently and appeals to the reader's sense of humor, wonder, and curiosity while captivating him with a suspenseful and smartly historical and technological plot. Techie sci-fi geeks, brutal cyberpunk fantasizers and casual reading audiences alike and and will be riveted by this book.
What amazes me personally about it is Stephenson's ability to constantly maintain his present-tense narrative. I think so one-dimensionally about the present tense, and was quite impressed by his power to both maintain it without struggle and use it to his advantage in keeping the storyline moving rapidly and continuously. This book from the beginning took a place as one of my absolute favorites, and its author as well.

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Chezmerelda said on Jun 28, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

A wonderful tale of future and past

The storyline is sometimes too unnecessarily complicate, nevertheless the rhythm is not the aim nor the focal point of this book. Its extraordinary earth is the round-built world that the author describes or, better, that he depicts with sudden images and characters' impressions.
What makes of this ... (continue)

The storyline is sometimes too unnecessarily complicate, nevertheless the rhythm is not the aim nor the focal point of this book. Its extraordinary earth is the round-built world that the author describes or, better, that he depicts with sudden images and characters' impressions.
What makes of this quite good scientific future-fiction an extraordinary book is the metadiscourse, the language about the language, the reflections upon the meaning of communication and human society, that stretch back to Sumers in order to inquire the very essence of our relationship with the other and the risk included in civilization and technology

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Geki said on Dec 1, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Snow Crash: When Corporations Rule the World

Snow Crash was required reading for a science fiction course while I was at the University of California, Irvine. Although I have never considered myself to be a fan of science fiction, or even fantasy, this book really spoke to me. Instead of imagining a world that I felt was out of reach ( ... (continue)

Snow Crash was required reading for a science fiction course while I was at the University of California, Irvine. Although I have never considered myself to be a fan of science fiction, or even fantasy, this book really spoke to me. Instead of imagining a world that I felt was out of reach (such as Asimov's Foundation series), the world of Snow Crash was strikingly real to me.
Perhaps it is the pop culture, and perhaps it is because I am a Southern California native, but YT and Hiro seem real enough to touch, real enough to be my closest friends. Somewhat of a punk-rock take on virtual reality and social networking systems like SecondLife, this book is a good read for anyone who wants to laugh a little, while thinking deeply about the ability of humans to co-exist with technology.

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echanning said on Apr 8, 2010 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

The first time I ever read this book, I borrowed it from my high school Latin teacher. I was blown away by the accuracy of his statement that I would love it, and even more so by the book itself. Stephenson writes brilliantly and intelligently and appeals to the reader's sense of humor, wonder, and ... (continue)

The first time I ever read this book, I borrowed it from my high school Latin teacher. I was blown away by the accuracy of his statement that I would love it, and even more so by the book itself. Stephenson writes brilliantly and intelligently and appeals to the reader's sense of humor, wonder, and curiosity while captivating him with a suspenseful and smartly historical and technological plot. Techie sci-fi geeks, brutal cyberpunk fantasizers and casual reading audiences alike will be riveted by this book.
What amazes me personally about it is Stephenson's ability to constantly maintain his present-tense narrative. I think so one-dimensionally about the present tense, and was quite impressed by his power to both maintain it without struggle and use it to his advantage in keeping the storyline moving rapidly and continuously. This book from the beginning took a place as one of my absolute favorites, and its author as well.

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Chezmerelda said on Oct 10, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

Dazzling Cool

This is one of the coolest, slickest cyberpunk novels written in the 1990s. Just imagine how good it has to be to make the list of Time magazine's Top 100 Novels Of All-Time. That is an incredible achievement for a work of science fiction adventure.
The first page hooks you with its ultra-hip ... (continue)

This is one of the coolest, slickest cyberpunk novels written in the 1990s. Just imagine how good it has to be to make the list of Time magazine's Top 100 Novels Of All-Time. That is an incredible achievement for a work of science fiction adventure.
The first page hooks you with its ultra-hip description of the Deliverator, a pizza delivery guy you do not want to f&#% with. Delivering pizza in this future could be fatal so the Deliverator wields a pair of samurai swords to keep things in line.
The story is set in the near future, and features the insane tech, implants, weaponry, hacking, virtual realities, etc., that are the staple of any cyberpunk novel. The pace is furious and the ultimate plot gobsmacking - you can't put this one down. It has since its publication become an icon of 1990s science fiction like William Gibson's Neuromancer did in the 1980s.
If you want an idea of the look and feel of it then imagine something like a cross between the movies The Matrix and Johnny Mnemonic, and a twenties-something drop-out James Bond with a hard-on for samurai swords and computing wizardry who has to face the ultimate mo-fo in the universe. Now imagine that on fast-forward, chased with a slug of Habanero sauce.
A sample from the first paragraph describing the Deliverator's armour:
"His uniform is black as activated charcoal, filtering the very light out of the air. A bullet will bounce of its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts in through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest."
Expect tons of action and high-tech gadgetry, and it helps if you are turned on just a little bit by computers, networks, mathematics, software, AI, nuclear weaponry, virtual reality, mono-filaments, nanotech, UNIX, ultra-cool vehicles, mirror-shades, etc., etc., etc.
OK, so it's a bit of a guys-book, but nerds of either sex may apply!

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Ramnagel said on Jun 14, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback