Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparisona writer so original, he redefines the way we look at the world. The first half of the book is an introduction of the characters and the discovery of a technological and biological virus named snow crash, which a person can get through blood, exposure, or by looking at diseased data in the metaverse, a kind of populated, mall like cyberspace. Snow crash has one of the most effective opening hooks in science fiction, a loving description of a hightech armored driver and car. How neal stephenson is helping to make snow crashs metaverse a reality. Understandably, although it is an ambitious, intelligent, and entertaining novel. Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow. In snow crash, users link into a global network of computers via vr. The diamond age can be seen as set in the same universe as snow crash, many years later.
I finally got around to buying a copy a couple of months back. If you enjoy rollercoaster rides, snow crash is definitely for you. While the number of copies sold still isnt as large as people tend to assume, it made far more of an impact than my earlier works, and launched my career in a number of ways. Neal stephenson is such a writer and snow crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigantic thriller of the information age. Like many of stephensons other novels, it covers history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics, cryptography, memetics and philosophy. In a fiction imitates fiction, the metaverse comes to life in second life. Its not like snow crash in that it doesnt take place in the future, but it is like snow crash in that it has fabulous twists and turns and delightful building of tension. What really sets snow crash apart from other books in the genre is its humorous slant on the future of america and virtual reality. Snow crash by stephenson, neal and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at.
Dystopic in nature, the novel features many areas of study including language, history, religion, computer science, and mythology. Written in an attempt to salvage a few elements from an earlier graphic novel project, this book became important, and changed my life. Praise for snow crashsnow crash is a cross between neuromancer and thomas pynchons vineland. After having finished ready player one somewhat recently before reading this, i marveled at the similarities considering the books were written something like 25. In this dark and sinister age, america only has four things going for it. Like many of stephensons other novels, it contains references to history, linguistics, anthropology, archaeology, religion, computer science, politics. Read it snow crash by neal stephenson research it with articles try these articles to get started. Snow crash is a mindaltering romp through a future america so bizarre, so. Please, if you have books youd like to donate, consider your local jail. The concept of information being able to exhibit viruslike behavior. As i found out while reading, snow crash is well celebrated as one of the pioneering cyberpunk stories. Couldnt have asked for a better way to discover a love i never knew.
In my opinion, stephensons snow crash is the scificyberpunk book that most closely resembles the world of ready player one, so if the cyber universe of rp1 is what most attracted you to that book, you really should check out snow crash s metaverse. While i read a good portion of snow crash in bed before going to sleep at night, it is definitely not your typical nightly reading. It reached the point where snow crash had to be one of the very best books i had ever read, if not the very best, if it had any chance of meeting those lofty expectations. If you have background knowledge of computing, enjoy the author or like science fiction or have immunity to infodumps, this book will be perfect. Jan 17, 2017 snow crash is not the kind of book written for people looking for a quick escape into an alternate world. At least not if youre me and prefer to read lighter books that may or may not influence part of your. The ideas in that book, and in most good science fiction, are what set it apart. Snow crash is a mindaltering romp through a future america so bizarre, so outrageousyoull recognize it immediately. Snow crash is a smart, cool, funny, witty, and actionpacked adventure featuring a pair of unlikely heroes who must save the world from infocalypse. Enter the metaverse cyberspace home to avatars and software daemons, where anything and just about everything goes. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading snow crash. Neal stephenson is such a writer and snow crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.
As boing boing puts it, penguin books has launched an ingame publishing venture in the online world. May 02, 2000 it reached the point where snow crash had to be one of the very best books i had ever read, if not the very best, if it had any chance of meeting those lofty expectations. Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal stephenson is such a writer and snow crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality. From wikipedia the diamond age can be seen as set in the same universe as snow crash, many years later. As one of the premier rare book sites on the internet, alibris has thousands of rare books, first editions, and signed books available. Download for offline reading, highlight, bookmark or take notes while you read snow crash. If anything hit two of those three categories i included it as long as it is an awesome book of course. The first, and quite powerful, evidence provided in acts and in church history to indicate that jesus was raised is the fact that the disciples rebounded from the scattered and depressed state they were. But like most of the business books ive read i wound up questioning the. It is a world where the mafia controls pizza delivery, the united states exists as a patchwork of corporatefranchise city states, and the internetincarnate as the metaverselooks something like last years hype would lead you to believe it should.
Neuromancer, count zero, mona lisa overdrive, the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy, brave new world. The last half is a mad, actionfilled rush to the conclusion. In twentyfirstcentury america, a teenaged computer hacker finds himself fighting a computer virus that battles virtual reality technology and a deadly drug that turns humans into zombies. Snow crash 1992, by neal stephenson alltime 100 novels. Snow crash gives us a glimpse into an alternate america where the right to personal freedom overrides law. The 38 books that i devoured and destroyed this year medium. Brilliantly realizedstephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow. This study guide consists of approximately 81 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of snow crash. Snow crash by neal stephenson was selected as our latest scifi cyberpunk read. Being that it was released in 1992, it introduced many cyber based tropes that have become the norm even in reality.
Snow crash never quite feels like its written by three different people, but the. If i were forced to make a decision as to which book is better ready player one or snow crash, i would pick snow crash with little to no hesitation. You may be saving a life, and i guarantee that if you donate even just one. As business leaders, we do not want to repeat history and be like some of the late adopters of the web who were so.
Jul 17, 2014 that depends on what you think snow crash is like. I read the first chapter after a very long, hard day and it totally fried my brain. On a personal level, we see characters that do not play by the rules, do not play well with others, and generally avoid anything resembling order. Hiro protagonist, freelance hacker and the greatest sword fighter in the metaverse, teams up with y. Newly available on the street the metaverses main drag is snow crash, a cyberdrug. From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel snow crash, neal stephenson plunges the reader into a nottoodistant future. Like many of stephensons other novels, it covers history, linguistics. If snow crash is a virus, what hiros writing up is kind of like medicine. He also mucks around with making himself an invisible avatar hard to do unless youre a pro and updating his motorcycle software. Aug 26, 2003 plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus thats striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neonlit streets on a searchanddestroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.
Snow crash neal stephenson haftad 9780553380958 adlibris. Stephenson now resides in a comfortable home in the western hemisphere and spends all of his time trying to retrofit an office into its generally dark, unlevel, and asbestosladen basement so that he can. A new statistic reveals why americas covid19 numbers are flat. Stephenson gives the reader as much to think about as do the authors of recent nonfiction books like blink, the wisdom of crowds, etc. As boing boing puts it, penguin books has launched an ingame publishing venture in the online world second life, leading with neal stephensons seminal snow crash naturally, since snow crash s metaverse inspired second life. Snow crash is not the kind of book written for people looking for a quick escape into an alternate world. Buy snow crash by neal stephenson online at alibris. Despite being written in 1992, there is still a lot in that book that resonates with today and makes it feel like. It follows in the footsteps of cyberpunk novels by such authors as william gibson and rudy rucker, but differs from its predecessors in that it includes much satire and black humor. Aside from the entertaining writing, snow crash is packed full of ideas.
What are the things about snow crash that interest you. Understandably, although it is an ambitious, intelligent, and entertaining novel, snow crash couldnt possibly live up to my expectations. But theres a generation gap between the two, and thats why i love snow crash and am lukewarm to anything gibson wrote beyond neuromancer. I scammed a book club for a handful of books and graphic novels. Find books like snow crash from the worlds largest community of readers.
Snow crash by neal stephenson abebooks passion for books. The deliverator never deals in cash, but someone might come after him anywaymight want his. Snow crash by neal stephenson, first edition abebooks. Who else thought of hiro and his bad ass delivery car when dominos busted out their own. Jun 02, 2011 snow crash is a smart, cool, funny, witty, and actionpacked adventure featuring a pair of unlikely heroes who must save the world from infocalypse. This book was recommended to me several years ago by a coworker who also happened to be a fellow fan of science fiction. Neal stephenson is the author of the threevolume historical epic the baroque cycle quicksilver, the confusion and the system of the world as well as the novels cryptonomicon, the diamond age winner of a hugo award, snow crash, zodiac, anathem and reamde. Funny then to later discover that the novel was written after a comic book attempt at the same story fell apart. Snow crash is a 1992 science fiction novel by neal stephenson. Asia who cross the pacific in rickety ships hoping to arrive in north america. Snow crash is a mindaltering romp through a future america so bizarre, so outrageous.
Snow crash, neal stephenson distraction, bruce sterling its often said that science. The plot revolves around the american developer and owner of the mmorpg, some chinese hackers exploiting the game. Get a copy of snow crash and your dreams will soon be realized. Its fine to not enjoy reading a book, but maybe you need a little perspective here. Grabs you quickly, thrusts you head long into world thats so preposterous that he cant possibly. But no, he does a stuka into the far wall of the pool, it sounds more like an explosion than a crash. Snow crash is a fairly impressive display of the possibilities of science fiction as fiction. Snow crash was written in the years 1988 through 1991 as the author listened to a great deal of loud, relentless, depressing music. Whereas gibson writes for a general public fascinated by technology, stephenson is a secondgeneration cyberpunk writer insofar as his effort on snow crash goes.
I actually liked snow crash as a novel, despite the 100 or so. The people in those walls are suffering, they are marginalized people, the very people who can be most profoundly impacted by good literature. Snow crash was the breakthrough book for neal stephenson. Snow crash book the seattle public library bibliocommons. It was so small and laughable but definitely a step towards the future. A man with wonderful hightech toys and samurai swords, who works for the mafia doing one of the few things that the united states still does better than any other country in the world. And whereas steven johnson gets a bunch of shit for winkingly calling his book everything bad is good for you and suggesting that. Englishlanguage novels a mindaltering romp through a future america so bizarre, so outrageous, youll recognize it immediately. Hiro protagonist, much like wade, is a nobody in the real world, just a pizza delivery boy, but in the.
Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. He calls it snow scan, and its a program that will protect hiros computer and hiro himself from exposure to snow crash. The evidence of this provided in snow crash was the statement that the story sounds like something printed in the national enquirer. Fifteen years since its initial release, snow crash remains one of the most popular and important novels in recent memory. Read the book, stream the movie, and get articles and books about snow crash. Snow crash is a science fiction novel by american writer neal stephenson, published in 1992. The first half of the book is an introduction of the characters and the discovery of a technological and biological virus named snow crash, which a person can get through blood, exposure, or by looking at diseased data in the metaverse, a kind of populated, malllike cyberspace. The san francisco bay guardian fastforward freestyle mall mythology for the twentyfirst century. Raven, who has a politically correct reason for wanting to destroy america.
Trouble is snow crash is also a computer virus and something more. In the process of this, it is mused over how people rarely think of libraries as places for books. Id like to make the world safe for books, in a way that the people who work in that industry writers, booksellers. Praise for snow crash snow crash is a cross between neuromancer and thomas pynchons vineland. Stephensons literary ambitions or abilities are not exactly overwhelming, but there is a considerable amount of attention to literary craft.
You will never again look at toilet paper quite the same way afterwards. How neal stephenson is helping to make snow crashs. One of times 100 best englishlanguage novels a mindaltering romp through a future america so bizarre, so outrageous, youll recognize it immediately only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparisona writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Snow crash npr coverage of snow crash by neal stephenson.
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