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Snow Crash

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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, 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 CosaNostra 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. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous...you'll recognize it immediately.

©1992 Neal Stephenson (P)2001 Audible, Inc. Adventure Fantasy Hard Science Fiction Science Fiction Fiction Dystopian Cyberpunk Linguistics Computer Science Espionage Technology Imperial Japan

Critic reviews

Brilliantly realized...Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow. ( The New York Times Book Review)
"Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the 21st century." (William Gibson)
All stars
Most relevant
I enjoyed listening to snowcrash its` pace variation fitted in well with my other activities. The two 'universes' worked well although I became confused with the different city-states in the real one (but my american geography never was that good!) As usual with this narrator the pictures are so vivid it beats HD TV.

Vivid pictures

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Brilliantly presented. The retro style audio effects really add to the aesthetic. The world is a hilarious satire that has aged like a good scotch.

Hilarious, well performed.

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The story started well and the concept for its time of writing is original. The narration is well performed and easy to listen to.
However, I have made a mental note to check publication dates in future. I can cope with the use of terms relating to recording media at the time it was written (I have been alive through all the manifestations of such). Changes in perspective about the use of specific words highlight terms that are no longer acceptable, and the age of the primary female character raised hackles in some of the scenes. The rights or wrongs of moral judgement is debatable as this is a fictional future where the mores of our current society do not exist.
However the main premise for the plot line strayed into the world of biological viruses and the inaccuracies about how they work eventually killed the story for me. Probably because this is my area of knowledge, but in the end I could not finish it.

Okay…ish

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Pretty good performance from narrator
The book covers some unique and interesting concepts
But ends very abruptly without much reflection on what has happened
The "extreme attitude" of the 90s also hasn't dated well, so some action scenes and some dialogue feels incredibly awkward

Main issue with this copy is the chapter markers
Sometimes they end 20 seconds late, or 20 seconds early, which makes it hard to listen to with a timer on the chapters

Good book, and chapter markers

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A really good reading, with good voicings for the characters, I nonetheless felt that the story ended a little abruptly, and whilst there were certain set pieces that stood out, other sections of the book seemed a little disjointed, with characters appearing in consecutive sections with little indication of how they arrived there.

Excellent reading

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