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)

a good listen but a bit convoluted

I though it was a good listen. good Characters but it is a not convoluted and ends a bit abruptly. it doesn't explain itself very well.

Great story. I did not like the chapter dividers.

Overall the book was entertaining and fun. their are chapter dividers that are super annoying after the first 2 or 3.

Perfect narration, fantastic prose, original ideas

It's hard to find great, original Sci fi, but this is it - narrated in an extremely engaging fashion which fits perfectly with the phenomenal writing. You'll be gripped, immediately.

Very good story with mostly good presentation

I liked the key premise of viral information modeling. On the whole, the reader did a great job, with some noticeably uneven editing at spots and a confusing choice to include several book chapters in single audiobook chapters that I didn't like. My complaints are merely technical.

Enjoyable techno

What made the experience of listening to Snow Crash the most enjoyable?

Took a while to catch on that we were in a post apocalyptic technoverse - good story. I found the readings and exchanges between the character and the librarian a bit boring, overly long and they didn't further the story. Still - a good listen. No comparison to Daniel Suarez's novels though.

This book is so fun

The narrator was great and the story a superb epic adventure beyond it's time, similar to ready player one. There's something so great about augmented reality and cyberpunk themes in a story and this one is so much fun to listen to, with a unique writing style I really loved.

Amazing performance, great story, terrible audio

This book is absolutely as good as everybody says it is. The problem is that this was recorded a long time ago, and the audio quality is lacking. still recommended.

Computer background?

Terrific for anyone who has a computer background. My husband thought it was great. I enjoyed it although I probably missed some of the computer techo stuff!

good story, old crappy audio. needs remastered

good story, poor audio, needs to be remastered. sounds like it was recorded in the '70s.

A lot of babble from Babel

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I didn't "spend" time listening to this book, as always I am a captive of traffic. It was an okay listen.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Abrupt!

Any additional comments?

I listened to this because I really enjoyed Diamond Age by the same author. The Story was good but the lessons from the “librarian” were too long and repetitive. Worse, the premise is flawed, hackers do not read binary in the manner the story indicates… I wrote my first program back in 1969 and still code today. I used to write in mainframe assembler (assembly) and I was an ace at debugging memory dumps. These are not spewed out in binary, they are in hexadecimal. Unlike decimal which is based on 10, hex is based on 16 with “numbers” ranging from 0 to F with F having a value of 15. A hex value of “10” is sixteen a hex value of “1F” is 31, hex “20” is 32. See, just like decimal but you carry 1 to the left on 16 instead of 10 and this is how machine code is presented. Yes, we also know the binary representation e.g that same “1F” (31) above would be 0001 1111 in binary but I have NEVER seen any type of computer present code or data in that manner, only on TV. Clearly it would be counterproductive to present binary when hex serves the purpose.

Anyway, enough of the tech lesson, I hope somebody finds it a little interesting. Getting back to the book, the characters were interesting and the story would have been great if it had moved along a little quicker… get rid of the librarian!