Snow Crash

Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson takes place in a future California where the government and all organizations for the general good have fallen, giving way to super-franchises and a somewhat “every man for himself” environment. That’s not to say it’s some kind of on-the-streets-survival story. It is a complex mix of techie futurama, ancient Sumerian myth, deep religious controversies and conspiracies, and a human side, from intense life-or-death fights to love. In the center of it is computer hacker/samurai swordfighter extraordinaire Hiro Protagonist. In the Metaverse (a computer generated very realistic world), he is a legend, but in Reality, he lives in a 20-by-30 U-Stor-It unit. It is a strange world, to say the least, made stranger still when a physical/mental/digital virus is set loose.

Many of the themes are in fact from Stephenson’s own childhood. He was born Fort Meade, Maryland, the home of the NSA and the National Cryptology Museum, to an electrical engineering professor and a biochemist. His grandfathers are a physics professor and a biochemistry professor. This background is apparent in the 10 novels he has gone on to write, all of which are along the same vein as Snow Crash, a mix of “science fiction, historical fiction, maximalism, cyberpunk, and post-cyberpunk”. Snow Crash was his breakthrough book, first published in 1992.

The story is very complex one, as most of his seem to be. It addresses not only what is listed above but also a great deal of major social issues and who knows what else. Yet his style keeps it from ever being boring, indeed, Snow Crash is a definite page-turner. It is written in semi-omniscient third person, with the focus switching from Hiro to Y.T. (though it’s mostly on Hiro). Despite its complex content, Stephenson makes the novel easy to read, which makes it even more enjoyable. The writing is done so that it does not distract the reader from the plot, by being either noticeably well done or not so well done. Though I have no doubt Stephenson could craft beautiful and elaborate sentences if he wanted to, the book has enough going on without that. Snow Crash is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read, and I’ve never heard of anyone not liking it (though that’s not saying all that much).