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Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson Paperback – 2 Jun. 2011

by Neal Stephenson (Author)

6,432 ratings

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"This Snow Crash thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?"
Juanita shrugs. "What's the difference?"

The only relief from the sea of logos is within the well-guarded borders of the Burbclaves. Is it any wonder that most sane folks have forsaken the real world and chosen to live in the computer-generated universe of virtual reality?

In a major city, the size of a dozen Manhattans, is a domain of pleasures limited only by the imagination. But now a strange new computer virus called Snow Crash is striking down hackers everywhere, leaving an unlikely young pizza delivery man as humankind's last best hope.

The perfect cyberpunk sci-fi read, Snow Crash is an equally worthy successor to William Gibson's Neuromancer and predecessor to Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.

***

What readers are saying about Snow Crash:

'It's hard to believe Neal wrote his books when the published date claims. He's always so right about the future, and I keep on hoping he's so wrong' Goodreads Reader Review

'Snow Crash is to Books as The Matrix is to movies (with only the absolute BEST parts of Tron and Da Vinci Code thrown in)' Goodreads Reader Review

'Loved it! Can't recommend it highly enough. Everyone should read this book. Go do it. Do it now. It's just awesome. You won't regret it' Goodreads Reader Review

'It's hilarious and mind-blowing. From the first page to the last, I was amazed at just how much influence this book has had on TV, movies, etc.' Goodreads Reader Review

Print length

448 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin
Publication date

2 Jun. 2011
Dimensions

13 x 2.7 x 19.7 cm
ISBN-10

0241953189
ISBN-13

978-0241953181
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Product description

Review

Stephenson excels in marrying geekspeak with riotous action ― Guardian

A cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole ― San Francisco Bay Guardian

Brilliantly realized. Stephenson [is] an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow ― The New York Times

A fantastic, slam-bang-overdrive, supersurrealistic, comic-spooky whirl through a tomorrow that is already happening. Stephenson is intelligent, perceptive, hip ― Timothy Leary

Like a Pynchon novel with the brakes removed ― Washington Post

About the Author

Neal Stephenson is the author of the three-volume 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. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin; Re-issue edition (2 Jun. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241953189
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241953181
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13 x 2.7 x 19.7 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 4,001 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 32 in Drama (Books)
- 48 in High Tech Science Fiction
- 144 in Myths & Legends

Customer reviews:
6,432 ratings

About the author

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Neal Stephenson

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Neal Town Stephenson (born October 31, 1959) is an American writer, known for his speculative fiction works, which have been variously categorized science fiction, historical fiction, maximalism, cyberpunk, and postcyberpunk. Stephenson explores areas such as mathematics, cryptography, philosophy, currency, and the history of science. He also writes non-fiction articles about technology in publications such as Wired Magazine, and has worked part-time as an advisor for Blue Origin, a company (funded by Jeff Bezos) developing a manned sub-orbital launch system.

Born in Fort Meade, Maryland (home of the NSA and the National Cryptologic Museum) Stephenson came from a family comprising engineers and hard scientists he dubs "propeller heads". His father is a professor of electrical engineering whose father was a physics professor; his mother worked in a biochemistry laboratory, while her father was a biochemistry professor. Stephenson's family moved to Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1960 and then to Ames, Iowa in 1966 where he graduated from Ames High School in 1977. Stephenson furthered his studies at Boston University. He first specialized in physics, then switched to geography after he found that it would allow him to spend more time on the university mainframe. He graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Geography and a minor in physics. Since 1984, Stephenson has lived mostly in the Pacific Northwest and currently resides in Seattle with his family.

Neal Stephenson is the author of the three-volume historical epic "The Baroque Cycle" (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) and the novels Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

Customer reviews

5 star		52%
4 star		26%
3 star		13%
2 star		5%
1 star		3%

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David Brookes

Snow Crash

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2019

Verified Purchase

I didn't love it. The high octane opening seems to have fooled everybody. The opening feels like a short story that was later built on to make a novel, so irrelevant is it to most of the plot, and even to the protagonist.

It's very long and draws a lot of spurious analogies between biological and computer viruses that don't really fly, mixed in with clumsy pages of information about Sumeria or somewhere which turns out later to be relevant, but only as flimsy justification for a fairly boring plot device.

There's some good action, but it sure does go on a bit. The whole novel does. It should have been 100 pages shorter at least, and not as accomplished as people seem to make out - I'm really not sure why this didn't sink into the slush of post-Neuromancer 90s sci-fi and disappear forever. Its vision of virtual reality isn't just poor in retrospect, it's poor even for its time, unimaginative and filled with convenient rules that serve the plot but not the world-building.

Bizarrely, regular coders employed by corporations to do their jobs are referred to as 'hackers'. That's not what a hacker is, Neal.

Points for: Strong female lead, even if there's constant partial-nudity and sex references; fantastic opening chapter or two; consistent writing and plenty of action, if that's what floats your boat; diversity.

I can't say I recommend it, unless you mainly read sci-fi, in which case it's definitely not the worst of 90s sci-fi.

6.5/10
David Brookes
Author of 'The Gun of Our Maker'

33 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bobby1

Don’t read this book based on its cover

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 16 December 2019

Verified Purchase

The book arrive within 5 days of ordering it, which was good. As for this book, and its genre of Science Fiction, based loosely on Computer hacking, viruses, Mafia, Religion, Morality, sex, it fails utterly to have even a half believable story. YT and Hiro are the heroes, they are the original pizza delivery guys, and then YT gets involved with Uncle Enzo, the Mafia chief. I tried to visualise it as a bit like the graphic image film Sin City, but this was poorly researched and very dragged out. I only purchased it as I’m in a Book Club, and am ashamed to admit I voted for this book based on its title. Avoid this nonsensical story, and give to charity instead.

8 people found this helpful

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tallmanbaby

impressive

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 7 January 2017

Verified Purchase

This is a sprawling tale of a decidedly dystopian technofuture.

It is probably responsible for putting the term avatar into common usage.

As with Neuromancer there are only a couple of elements (references to cathode ray tubes) to signal that it was written some time ago, otherwise it still seems as prescient now as when it was written.

This is epic story telling in the old fashioned style, in the manner of Dickens and Trollope it has big story and it is in no hurry about telling it. Although the story certainly does not drag, it may require some determination to stick with it till conclusion, but it is worth the effort.

[There is quite a lot of stuff in the middle of the book about language and programming, those with an interest might want to read some Wittgenstein and research the Sapir Worf hypothesis, neither of which were mentioned, as I recall, but are potentially of interest.]

15 people found this helpful

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Mallard

Skeptical at first, but very happy I read it!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2019

Verified Purchase

I was skeptical when I started reading the story. I didn't quite think I would like the main character or follow all the terms used to describe the new corporate America. All I can say is that I am very happy I kept reading because the story was amazing. I loved the YT character - reminds me of old punk days. I was also blown away when I realized how old the book is - based on the tech-talk, I could have sworn it was written in the last decade! It's a must read for sci-fi fans.

7 people found this helpful

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Jane Aland

Cartoonish cyberpunk adventure

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 July 2016

Verified Purchase

Hailed as one of the defining classics of the 'cyberpunk' subgenre of SF, I'm probably reading 'Snow Crash' a good 20 years after the concepts it portrayed were groundbreaking, but it still holds up pretty well as a novel. Bouncing between the exploits of a sword-wielding pizza delivery driver/hacker, and a courier who hitches lifts by harpooning passing vehicles, the early chapters in particular are breathtaking. There is an assured swagger to Stephenson's prose, with wild action and a vivid setting in a future USA that has been transformed into a series of semi-autonomous corporate-owned suburbs, whilst the idea of a language that can rewrite human brains is a suitably heavyweight SF concept.It's not flawless however, as the longer the book goes on, the more the tongue in cheek humour develops into an over-the-top comicbook-style sensibility. Ultimately, it becomes impossible to take any of it seriously, and it doesn't so much draw to a satisfying close as suddenly stop.

There are is still plenty here to enjoy, and many of Stephenson's obsessions are readily apparent - but ultimately, though this may have been groundbreaking at the time, I feel that some of Stephenson's later books ('Cryptonomicon' and 'The Baroque Trilogy') are simply better written.

7 people found this helpful

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