Paperback, 470 pages
English language
Published Sept. 1, 2008 by Bantam Spectra.
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you’ll recognize it immediately.
My girlfriend lent me this to read on the plane when I had a long flight. Overall entertaining, I didn't feel like I was slogging through (mostly), but it takes itself Way too seriously for a book whose main character is named Hiro Protagonist.
Wrote a whole long review about why I didn't like it, but got bored of my own opinion.
In short:
While clever, the linguistic virus, Sumerian, and religion lessons were long and dull
Characters unbelievable, and didn't really invest in them.
Sex with a minor scene - didn't want that
Did like:
the world
the technology
the prologue bit about pizza delivery. Loved that world building, really great opening! Then the main story wrecked it (for me).
Amazingly ahead of its time. Fun and entertaining writing. Combined due justice to the hacker culture with an interesting storyline around the genesis and evolution of society.
One of the most creative cyber-punk books I know of.
Great long bursts of creative language, humor, tech inventions that parse, and a really cool development of a theory of mystical linguistic powers in Sumerian and Hebrew.
Sadly counterbalanced by long stretches of random, meaningless and frankly tedious violence, and predictable dystopian "America as evil corporation" spewage.
The grand fiinale was long, frenetic, and unsatisfying.
