Paperback, 534 pages

German language

Published June 1, 2002 by Goldmann.

ISBN:
978-3-442-45302-3
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
76335636

View on OpenLibrary

4 stars (19 reviews)

Within the Metaverse, Hiro is offered a datafile named Snow Crash by a man named Raven who hints that it is a form of narcotic. Hiro's friend and fellow hacker Da5id views a bitmap image contained in the file which causes his computer to crash and Da5id to suffer brain damage in the real world.

This is the future we now live where all can be brought to life in the metaverse and now all can be taken away. Follow on an adventure with Hiro and YT as they work with the mob to uncover a plot of biblical proportions.

23 editions

Fun Introduction To Stephenson

4 stars

The dates are a total guess; (side note: an annoyance I have on BookWyrm right now is that in order to list a book as read, you have to give exact read dates, which I don't track, especially for a book I read roughly 25 years ago). I enjoyed this a great deal; back at that time the techno-libertarian themes of the book appealed to me, 'Hiro Protagonist' was a cute joke, and there was useful social commentary. It was a fun way to explore things that have now come to be.

My Review Of "Snow Crash"

4 stars

Read it ages ago, I think in 1995. The best thing is that the hero is named "Hiro Protagonist" and is a katana-wielding pizza delivery driver. This wasn't as cringe in the 90ies as it is now. Like most CyberPunk classics it has become too uncomfortably real. This book also coined the term "Metaverse" for an escapistic virtual reality. Apparently it is now required reading at Meta. The sumerian Spiel with Enki is quite boring TBH.

Review of 'Snow Crash' on 'Storygraph'

2 stars

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).

Review of 'Snow Crash' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is an excellent story but the worldbuilding is what floored me most. The Street of the Metaverse, Asherah/Enki Sumerian religion, glossolalia, and computer viruses all unite to create a world where a pizza delivery man/hacker and a resourceful delivery kourier can figure in an apocalyptic game for the future of the world. It's, in a word, brilliant. I loved the characters, but even they pale against the canvas Stephenson created.

Review of 'Snow Crash' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

4.5 stars!

In the early 90s, I was a huge fan of the FASA game Shadowrun. I never managed to actually find a group to play it with, but I consumed sourcebooks and novels greedily. I loved the setting very much. Now that I have read Snow Crash, I am vividly reminded of it, and my love for cyberpunk. I think I will need to read Neuromancer next.

I was slightly taken aback in the beginning, because it's a very different style. Fast-paced, with its own lingo, dropping you right into this world where franchises rule the world, where the Mafia controls pizza deliveries, and where couriers work between the lines on their skateboards. Woven inbetween is the metaverse, the virtual reality that must have been the inspiration for Tad Williams' Otherlands VR.

I loved the characters, above all Y.T. They were all very interesting. It would be a full …

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