Neal Stephenson e la sua hard sci-fi, un classico del cyberpunk dove i creatori del mondo virtuale si trasformano in difensori delle sue regole e delle sue intrinseche libertà.
Figure sgargiante, mondo parcellizzato estremo, ma con pesanti inflessioni di preveggenza futuristica.
Figure caratterizzate da una potente dinamicità e da un forte carattere personale, come sempre ruolo della donna simil eliocentrico, con figure dominanti e trascinanti.
L’idea alla base è quella di un uomo borderline nella società di tutti i giorni, ma cofondatore nella programmazione della matrice cyberspaziale, nel suo incedere nella vita di tutti i giorni all'interno di un mondo governato da Plutocrazie societarie, tra le quali primeggia la potentissima Mafia che fa della sua sfida alla puntualità della consegna della sua mercanzia (in primis la pizza) il fulcro del suo potere, si trova di fronte ad un virus virtuale capace non solo di distruggere i programmi, ma anche le sinapsi delle persone che in quella matrice ci vivono.
Trascinato dalle circostanze, e dalle vicinanze di una vivace quindicenne che fa dell’arte dello skateboard il suo forte, viene a conoscenza dell’intento di una setta simil religiosa di arruolare forzosamente tutti i programmatori e le menti informatiche per trasformarli in automi capaci di condizionare tutte le psiche connesse alla matrice, alla base di tutto c’è qualcosa che fonda le sue radici sulle fondamenta della razza umana.
Scrittura eccelsa, dal forte ritmo e trascinante.
...ContinuaThe 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
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.
...Continua'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!!
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!
...Continua
