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)

Uniquely interesting

This book meandered about but not in a boring way. Despite its length the ending comes on quick. Very enjoyable. A lot to think about.

Pretty consistently witty and funny

Pretty consistently witty and funny. Although some of the audio performances are dubbed in? Excited to read more of his work.

Fun and interesting take on cyberpunk.

YT and Hiro Protagonist don't have a lot in common. But a chance meeting at a failed pizza delivery operation leads to a partnership that starts to uncover something really strange. The story has a lot of fun coincidences and layers, samurai hacker was fun. Lots of crazy charactitures of mob bosses, business men and all the rest.

Just amazing

I read this book every few years and it still is great. Great book, great writer, great reader, and great production.

Great Story, Terrible Audio Quality

Any additional comments?

The story is engaging and fast paced and it leaves you with a lot to think about. Not to mention it's a great ride.

But the audio quality absolutely sucks. The narrator is fine, it just sounds like he was trapped in a tin box for the entire story. And chapters are buffeted by horrible sound effects and someone sing-speaking in gibberish. I get that it's trying to set a mood, but it's awful. And the worst part is that there are frequent brief episodes of completely different sound quality, that sound like they were added later.

If you can deal with the bad sound quality, this is definitely worth a listen. I really did love the story.

An eclectic tale set in a dysfunctional future

Neal Stephenson takes a variety of different ideas and seemingly random subjects and does his best to weave them together into a coherent tale. These subjects include ancient Sumer, religious history, linguistics, virtual reality, viruses, sword fighting, and hacking, amongst others. They are all rolled into a story set in a bizarre future where the United States as we know it is no more and our current culture has been taken to absurd, and often entertaining, extremes. The US has become best known for its ability to deliver pizzas efficiently, the federal government has ceded much of the land to corporations/franchises, and couriers ride futuristic skateboards using magnetic harpoons to attach to vehicles on the freeway for a free lift.

Unfortunately, the dysfunctional future is the best part of the story and the convoluted mixture of all those other subjects is at times a bit of a let down. Stephenson weaves together his diverse subject matter tying the ancient Sumerians to a modern day virus that is being used to destroy the hacker community but it is a long and sometimes boring road. He almost pulls it off but in the end there is a little too much focus on researching events throughout religious history that just left me uninterested. Combine that with characters that are far less engaging than the world they live in and it is hard for me to blindly recommend this one. If you are interested in the historical subject matter then you should give this one a try, but if you aren't, then it might be best to just poon a bimbo box on the freeway and ride right on by.

Jonathan Davis does a good job on the narration and he does a solid array of voices to represent the various characters.

Stylized, and Great Narration

I found this book enjoyable and finished it quite quickly. I particularly enjoyed the cyber-punk, techno, post-modernist world. The narrator and the author's stylish use of language were excellent and key to pulling the book together.

There are several negatives that keep me from giving a higher score. I think the characters are too flat, improbably connected and coincidental. Much better books have characters that are essential to their stories and inseparable from them. Also, I found the post-modernism a little tedious, and although clever, it kept me from engaging in the story at times.

I guess I'm just weird...

'cause I couldn't get into this one.

I feel like I've read and enjoyed other books that are somewhat similar (Neuromancer and Ready Player One). I guess I felt the VR via glasses and tactile gloves (or whatever it was) was a little old and not very interesting. Also, the name of the main character and the whole VR world was a little much. The nail in the coffin though was the story; I just didn't get hooked. And I tried, listening to this book for maybe 5 or 6 hours.

Jonathan Davis was solid as always.

Give it a try, and I hope you enjoy it more than I (I know that 'me' would be correct grammar in this case but I like the rhyme).

Complex and engaging

My second Neil Stevenson book that leaves me wishing there were more to hear. Excellent use of multiple story lines that merge into a final climax. Though the ending is slightly weaker than that of Snow Crash it is a good thrilling ending. Lot of subtile and not so subtile action and great technology thread through the story. A excellent book.

ROCKS

If you like computers, fantasy and action, this is the book for you. It's kinda crazy but thats just another reason I like it. I mean how can you go wrong when you main character is Hiro Protagonist. And he has swords. Anyway, I really enjoyed it. Other books I liked on Audible: The Lions Game, The Last Man in Rome, Wheel of Time series, Giesha, Pompei, The Dark Tower series and on and on.