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Title: Snow Crash by NEAL STEPHENSON ISBN: 0-553-38095-8 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (540 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Very strange, but very very good.
Comment: Neal Stephenson has one of the most interesting imaginations I've come across; half the book sounds like what comes out of your head, very very late at night, when someone turns the creativity switch "on" and then forgets to turn it off. His style of writing, if the present tense doesn't put you off, is very original and VERY amusing. The middle section of the book, I will admit, fails utterly as a novel, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it. Stephenson relates religion and language to viruses by way of Sumerian mythology-- calling the god Enki the "first neurolinguistic hacker" was an interesting touch. This bizarre theory is presented in a series of very long discussions, however, which sort of stop the plot dead while you try to figure out what is happening. If you enjoy language, mythology, modern religion, and/or blends of all of the above raised on a diet of hallucinogenic chemicals and then filtered through Stephenson's completely whacked style, it is fascinating. If such ideas put you to sleep, you'll probably hate it. I belong to the former group, and have read this book three times, and STILL don't quite understand all of it; that is what makes it so much fun.
Rating: 5
Summary: Brilliant, inventive, addicting.
Comment: Take William Gibson's flair for neo-futuristic cyberpunk. Introduce a bizarrely colorful cast of characters: a dreadlocked hacker who prefers samurai swords to guns, a young but volatile messenger-cum-heroine, an unstable homicidal deviant who lugs around a hydrogen bomb just for kicks, and various and sundry extras both real and artificially programmed. Toss in a smidge of Douglas Adams's subtle wackiness, a garnish of JRR Tolkien's fascination with languages and a generous helping of Jonathan Lethem's taste for the flat-out absurd. Such a mix would be like Snow Crash in the same way that a printed recipe on a page is like an actual Death By Chocolate cake. Neal Stephenson has woven a kaleidoscopic hodgepodge of elements - humor, rapid-fire prose, witty cynicism, farce, biblical mythology and much more - into a book that stands out from all the other fiction I've read by dint of sheer audaciousness alone.
Naming his main character Hiro Protagonist (harharhar) is just the tip of Stephenson's iceberg. We're treated to a detailed glimpse of a future America where pizza delivery is run by the Mafia, speaking in tongues is one's ticket to religious pseudo-enlightenment on a boat city on the Pacific, and the virtual-reality Metaverse (the future's hyperdeveloped version of the internet) accomodates motorcycle chases at Mach 2. Like the best science fiction it's wonderful escapism because it's so farfetched; like the best satire, there are numerous elements just weird enough to be completely believable. The plot's many details can get as confusing as the basic story itself is simple, but the disparity between all the parts still makes for an addictingly fun whole.
The main lapse/s into lengthy dialogue-bordering-on-lecture occasionally interrupts the whole flow, but that's probably inevitable when one tries mixing this book's degree of the intellectual in among all the action/adventure stuff. That's really the only stumbling block I found here. Even the present-tense narration I normally hate was just a small speed bump. If you're fascinated with languages and mythology, the degree of inventiveness behind the Snow Crash virus itself will be the book's most brilliant touch (and maybe a laugh riot at the same time). If action's what you're looking for, be assured there are fights aplenty and no shortage of things blowing up. There's a strong vein of black humor running throughout the story that'll have your inner cynic cackling like a hyena, albeit a relatively calm one.
With all that said.. this probably isn't a book for everyone. But if these descriptions sound like anyone's cup of tea, then I doubt they'll regret giving Snow Crash a whirl. A book that manages to be simultaneously this gripping, vivid, creative, cerebral and laugh-out-loud funny is a rare thing indeed.
Rating: 5
Summary: Best of the "Cyberpunk"
Comment: Cyberpunk is a term that defies strong definition. Most people agree it is a subgenre of science fiction, that it has something to do with the relationship to man and his machines, and that it tends towards an idea-rich, "crammed" prose style. Bruce Sterling and William Gibson are the two other others most often associated with this field. Neal Stephenson, in Snow Crash, does the best of all. He proposes many futurist ideas without sacrificing the storytelling, and his characters are amongst the most memorable. If you were turned off to this genre due to the weak plotting and dense prose of Gibson, it's time to give it a second chance with this novel.
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Title: Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0060512806 Publisher: Avon Pub. Date: 05 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Diamond Age : Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0553380966 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 02 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Quicksilver (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 1) by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0380977427 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 23 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Neuromancer by William Gibson ISBN: 0441569595 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Zodiac by Neal Stephenson ISBN: 0553573861 Publisher: Bantam Pub. Date: 01 June, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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