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 Fun, Entertaining Book

This was a fun read (or rather, a fun listen.) The writing style is refreshing, the dialogue is great and the characters are interesting. There are plenty of funny moments in the book and except for a single, somewhat slow scene, the story is well-paced and exciting. Also, if you're an avid online-video game player (or MMORPG player, to those in the know,) you'll appreciate Snow Crash's Metaverse, which is very simmilar to an existing online game called Second Life which shares the same basic building and land ownership features, as well as complete avatar customization. There wasn't a lot in the way of character development or relationships but overall, Snow crash was an entertaining book worth the purchase.

Enthralling, thrilling and almost clairvoyant.

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

Given that this book was written almost 25 years ago, it surprisingly still feels reverent. Corporations have taken over the world, governments have collapsed and hyper-inflation is so bad that transactions are in the order of trillions of dollars.

I loved that given the state of our economy and society, this book is quite possible. And if things keep going the way they are, in another 25-50 years this book my be classified as historical fiction.

Who was your favorite character and why?

YT. She's a smart assed, brilliant hipster. She's only 15 but she has guts. She puts on a tough persona but every once and awhile, she shows her girly side. She just seemed real. Far too many books have characters that are not.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Jonathan Davis?

Yes

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not moved, but enlightened (for lack of a better word) The heroic protagonist (ironically named Hero Protagonist) lives in a storage unit and has to pay to use the bathroom. And the world government fell apart. Private companies provide services for every thing. And the suburbs that people live in are their own sovereign nations. This may be a glimpse into our future.

Any additional comments?

Overall, pretty good auidobook. However, there are a few parts that a different narrator takes over. It's like one of those strange TV edits on a movie that has some inappropriate language for a major network. It only happens a few times thought but it does take you out of they experience. The first time it happened I thought I had an issue with my tablet.

And at the beginning of almost every chapter, there is what I think is Indian language chanting its fairly annoying.

Decent, but not great

The story was a little too unbelievable. The audio quality was low. Still, not bad.

Lost in the Metaverse!

This is excellent scifi if you are interested in the origin of the phrase "metaverse." There is some really good scifi in this book and it's a computer science and social networking good story; however there are some chapters in "Snow Crash" which are a bit too drawn out and distracting from the main theme of the book. The narration of "Snow Crash" is excellent and overall this is an important work of cyber science fiction. I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in VR, computer gaming, social networking dystopia, and contemporary computer science in general.

Needs a remastering of the audio

While the book and performance were as fun as all the hype, the actual recording is old(er) and tinny, and could use a revamp/remaster to get it booming.

great book

loved it, I will definitely recommend this book to others. I love the alternate history and the high tech dystopian setting

Excellent story done masterfully.

Jonathan Davis does a fantastic job narrating this novel. His voice is great, steady and emotive when necessary. He plays and voices several roles masterfully.

The one quibble I have with this audiobook is the chanting at the opening of each chapter. After reading the book, I got the reference right away the first time they did it in the audiobook, but was annoyed at it well before the last chapter.

Overall, this is an excellent story, performed wonderfully.

Riotous, Good Fun

Disclaimer: I've plowed through several of Stepheson's epics (Cryptonomicon and Seveneves among them) and have developed a taste for his maximalist style. With him, more is more. If you enjoy Steinbeckian sparseness, this book is not for you. That being said:

I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Stephenson does speculative fiction right. The aptly-named Hiro Protagonist might be somewhat lacking in the personality department, but Y.T. and a host of other interesting secondary characters more than make up for it. I am a staunch lover of sword-and-sorcery, yet somehow felt right at home in this near-future-post-cyberpunk brand of sci-fi. I totally recommend it. It's a blast.

The Nature of Consciousness

Every science fiction story is a reflection of the time it was written, and if it is good, it is a commentary on that time. Snow Crash definitely belongs to the 1990s, even if it is set in the future, and as is usual with Neal Stephenson novels, goes into as much detail as the listener/reader would care to know about how things work. Some of his futuristic technology is already dated, which is not surprising, seeing how quickly the digital world has evolved and mutated since the book was written, but his humorous style still makes it all somehow fresh and new. The social commentary is still relevant, if not more so, as he brings to life an America in which everything has been carved up by special interests into a libertarian fantasy world, where taxes can't be collected and the US government only exercises power over those federal employees who still choose to work for it; former American citizens must choose which special interest group they would like to belong to, and if they want something like protection or a defense system, must hire the Mafia or some sort of corporate police force. Terrorists can bring nuclear weapons and other devices in and out of the former States at will, and it is up to individual groups to try to stop them, if they would care to do so. Stephenson leaves it to the individual reader to decide if this is a dream or nightmare, so the story can be enjoyed by people of all political persuasions.

Into this setting, Stephenson brings an adventure store that lets him analyze such things as the nature of consciousness and the role language and social connections play in its existence. The nature of consciousness is one of those topics he comes back to time and again, and he developed some of these ideas more fully in Anathem, which is also here on Audible (and which I highly recommend). Snow Crash is definitely one for his fans who are interested in seeing how he developed his ideas over the years.

Jonathon Davis never disappoints, and he was an excellent choice as narrator of this book. He is able to deliver that slightly ironic edge that the work demands, and is skilled enough to give every character a distinct voice. No matter how many times our hero, Hiro, was described as being a half-African American, half Asian man in his 20s, Davis recognized that in the '90s only one actor would have been chosen to play this part had a Hollywood movie version been made - even if he doesn't match the racial description of the character in the book - and Davis is able to pull off an absolutely flawless Keanu Reeves as the voice of Hiro. A little social commentary of his own, no doubt.

Not bad, but wasn't what I was expecting

Stephenson's Snow Crash was recommended to me from several folks, but it really wasn't my cup of tea. It was far from a bad novel, in fact, some of the dystopian elements of this future world are downright brilliant, if not entirely plausible. The issue of what year the story takes place bothers me, and isn't helped by seemingly contradictory events in the story. Jonathan Davis's performance was admirable, despite lame sound effects and chanting between chapters.