Snow Crash

By: Neal Stephenson

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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)

Is it live, or is it memorex

I've read this book several times, thought I'd give the audiobook a try. That was my first mistake.

I wonder if Johnathan Davis actually recorded this, or if he just enjoys reading to himself aloud and someone sat outside his apartment with a tape recorder and hawked it to Amazon. The audio quality is seriously bad, I've heard high school bootleg radio mix tapes with more fidelity.

My only regret is I didn't begin listening in time to return this waste of money.

I enjoyed it

Interesting story with a lean towards the Internet, or how the Internet could look. The story jumps around at times, and is a bit hard to follow. Other then that it's a good listen

Nearly derailed by the beginning...

It starts (and continues throughout) a bit like a teenage boy fantasy, but the plot overcomes that aspect. Very good!

Absolutely amazing book with good voice acting!

I absolutely loved this story as it unfolds. There is just the right amount of foreshadowing. I really enjoyed the way the reader did all the accents of the characters.

Was expecting more from the hype [spoiler alert]

Good story that was well narrated. . .but I feel like Neal couldn't make up his mind about how over the top he wanted to be. I am glad he dialed back down (mostly) after the Deliverator loses his job and kept most of that noise in the metaverse because it's hard to take seriously in meatspace. At least self-lampooning the over the top opening would have made Hiro more relatable despite his silly surname name. Or do the whole book in honest Marvel style. I didn't expect to like YT, but I did. Fido deserved better and I felt cheated by the vague resolution between Enzo and Raven. A decent take with weak bookends, I guess. Not "teh awsum" cyberpunk I was led to expect.

absolutely astounding experience!

I couldn't have loved or enjoyed it more I wish this book would never end it's social critique is so fun and funny and the visuals and Concepts so inviting great storytelling great writing couldn't recommend this audiobook enough the performance is on point really delivering the fun humor and excitement please enjoy this experience for you will not regret it the concept alone or something you can talk about endlessly

Excellent Book it's the best cyberpunk book ever

the narrator was good. this has been my favorite book since I was 15. I have always identified with YT more than Hiro, although I am more into programming than skateboarding nowadays, I still wish for kouriers, smart wheels, and poons.

Too weird and convoluted for my taste

I couldn’t keep track of real vs cyber world events and supernatural vs science fiction mechanisms. This book was like The DaVinci Code, Mad Max, The Matrix and The Godfather put in a blender with future gizmos.

Really good story

the story was so fantastic the characters were lovable but god like a lot of Amazon audio books the chapters aren't broken up into book chapters for no apparent reason and the intermission has a bunch of people babbling in conflicting languages and I wish it just wasn't there. also the audio quality is noticably bad.

Chaos!!

The Chaotic beginning takes a really long time to calm down into the story. When we finally do get to the story it goes really deep into a very odd, Davinci Code, type conspiracy that seems out of place with the 1st 1/2.
The world created is entertaining but incomplete. The Characters just seem so isolated from the world they live in, as if the world adapts to the needs of the story rather than the story taking place in a complete world. Honestly, it is hard to explain what I liked and disliked about this book because I'm still not sure I've recovered from reading it!