One of Time’s 100 best English-language novels • A mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous, you’ll recognize it immediately 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, Sumerian myth, … virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosoNostra 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.
Praise for Snow Crash
“[Snow Crash is] a cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole.”—The San Francisco Bay Guardian
“Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the twenty-first century.”—William Gibson
“Brilliantly realized . . . Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow.”—The New York Times Book Review
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Wow, really enjoyed this! An extremely interesting mix of science fiction, religion, action and both an almost dystopian (and quite believable) vision of the future earth and a 3D virtual reality world in which a lot of the action takes place.
Vibrant characters, immersive story and some very interesting ideas!
Such a classic! This one holds up great. It should have been a movie but I guess we got The Matrix instead
This is one of my favorite novels. The way Neal S. weaves the virtual and real worlds together is very satisfying. I laughed out loud in many parts and felt the deep tug of universal truths in others. Long live Hiro Protagonist.
Is it classic cyberpunk, post-cyberpunk, or a parody of them both? Who cares! It’s a lot of fun with some great ideas to add texture to the story-world. With the invention of the metaverse, Snow Crash has the precursor to both the Matrix and the RPO Oasis. It’s a fully-realized virtual cyberspace that is well described and easily envisioned while …
A cool action science fiction story. Genius and two decades ahead of its time.
A truly original piece of writing. Snow Crash is a medley of true cyber-punk fiction mixed with an interesting take on historical dogma. This book became an instant favorite for me for a number of reasons, not least of which because it has avoided being consumed, ground-up, and regurgitated by Hollywood as another failed movie adaptation.
Classic cyberpunk! This alongside Neuromancer are my 2 goto books to reread every few years and in my opinion the standard by which all cyberpunk should be compared.
A mix between dystopian future and absurdist comedy, Snow Crash is a thought provoking social commentary and cyberpunk scifi… One of my all time favorites.
How can you go wrong with a science fiction novel about a pizza delivery guy named Hiro Protagonist?
All of it felt so real. I believed the world. I believed the characters. The situation was clever. Edgy characters against some huge corruption. Awesome cyberpunk!
I was given Snow Crash at a party by someone I had never met before. It was a bit of a strange event, he was there selling chocolates with mushrooms baked into them and all around him were people listening to him speak. Again a strange situation.
Later we were speaking of Gibson and the cyberpunk genre in general and he told me that he just …
He did so much first, brilliant plot and character development.
A water slide of a book.
I loved a few parts, but found myself annoyed through most of it. While certain scenes were great and really dragged me in, the main characters were lacking and the overall writing made my teeth grind in frustration as I say there trying to get through to the next page.
Snow Crash made me see the world we actually do live in through new eyes. That is the highest praise I can think of for any story in the science fiction genre, that it paints a startling and detailed picture of different world, one which reflects our own, and does so in a wholly new way. There’s no way I can do this book justice in just a short …
An amazing novel from beginning to end. Over the top cyberpunk, archaic mythology, and the feeling that you are on a non stop roller coaster that’s been so well planned out, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. I didn’t think anyone would surpass the genre founding work of William Gibson’s Neuromancer. I was wrong.
My favorite book.
First book I read by Neal Stephenson, and definitely the one that got me hooked. The first scene in the book really needs to be made into a movie.
This is what launched him. All of his works (except the Baroque Trilogy) are wonderful head-scratchers.
Holds up well in 2018