Nataliya's Reviews > Snow Crash
Snow Crash
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![3672777](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p2/3672777.jpg)
Disliking this book seemed quite impossible. After all, it had all the necessary ingredients: the pervasive air of nerdy geekiness (or, perhaps, geeky nerdiness), an unexpected take on linguistics, a kick-ass female character, a parallel (virtual) reality, a hefty helping of (admittedly, overexaggerated) satire, and just enough wacky improbable worldbuilding to satisfy my book loving soul. Or so it seemed.
But awesome ingredients do not always add up to a satisfying dish¹ (as my horrible cook self knows much too well).
I did NOT come to this book with an open mind. I came to it infinitely biased in its favor, ready to love it to pieces, prepared to find in it the same irresistible allure that so many of my Goodreads friends appreciated. Alas, after the first few pages my good-natured amusement gave way to irritated frustration, then to impatience, and eventually, as the book was nearing its final pages, my feelings changed to dreaded passionless indifference - akin to the emotions stirred by a disclaimer on the back of a pill packet.
It is very disappointing when a book leaves you indifferent after hundreds of pages spent with the characters and the plotlines - especially when it is a book with such immense potential as 'Snow Crash' had based on all the reviews and snippets I have seen, with all the ingredients for an amazing sci-fi adventure I listed above.
As for the antagonists, we haveL. Ron Hubbard L. Bob Rife, a computer magnate and a leader of a questionable religion; the Feds that have lost their power but retained their bureaucracy; and enigmatic Raven, equipped with a motorcycle, a few deadly spears and another weapon that earns him more respect from the authorities that that a few small nations get.
And then there's the titular Snow Crash:
Sounds awesome, doesn't it? To me, the concept of Snow Crash initially evoked the memories of Delany's Babel-17, a book that I loved for all it's strangeness and far-fetchedness and irresistible pull into the blend of linguistics and sci-fi.
But then 'Snow Crash', having barely taken off, disappointingly crashed. Pun very much intended.
Maybe this had something to do with the clumsily thrown in heaps of infodump, painfully interrupting already shaky and unsteady narrative, adding tons of poorly placed and far-fetched exposition which it mistakes for layers of complexity, basking in self-importance while being needlessly silly (and, frankly, needless).
Maybe it was the sheer number of complex plot threads that weaves complexity but ended up going nowhere, with few (admittedly, memorable) exceptions.
Maybe it was what I can only perceive as casual racism so pervasive in descriptions of most 'ethnic' characters and entire groups featured in this novel, so present in every casually thrown stereotype. Intentional or not, it was unpleasantly grating.
Maybe it was the lack of dimension in Stephenson's characters. Hiro appears to be created as an embodiment of a teenage computer whiz's dreams, not developing in the slightest throughout the novel, only acquiring more and more badassery in the throwaway 'why not?' sloppy manner. Y.T., despite her awesomeness², behaving in a strangely robotic fashion. Raven and Uncle Enzo, frustratingly underdeveloped. Juanita, whose character could have been interesting, appears to exist solely as potential mate for Hiro. The only times I felt any connection to the characters were the appearances of the robotic dog, and I am not even a dog person.
Honestly, I can't help but see how this book would have worked so much better in a graphic format, being it a comic book (like, apparently, it was initially envisioned) or a film; the action scenes would have looked splendid while the awkwardness of language with overused frequently clumsy metaphors and the jarring present tense (which really doesn't work for this story) would have been cast aside.
-----------
Yes, I am very disappointed at my disappointment with this book. I wish I had the ability to overlook its flaws, but the indifference I felt when reading it precluded me from caring enough to let its good moments overshadow the bad. 2 stars, one for the robot-doggy and another for Y.T. who occasionally made me almost care.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
But awesome ingredients do not always add up to a satisfying dish¹ (as my horrible cook self knows much too well).
¹Remember 'Friends' episode where Rachel tries to make English trifle for Thanksgiving desert, but because of a couple pages unfortunately sticking together ends up making half English trifle and half the shepherd's pie? Joey was baffled that the rest of the gang found the dish unpalatable:
'I mean, what's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!'![]()
I did NOT come to this book with an open mind. I came to it infinitely biased in its favor, ready to love it to pieces, prepared to find in it the same irresistible allure that so many of my Goodreads friends appreciated. Alas, after the first few pages my good-natured amusement gave way to irritated frustration, then to impatience, and eventually, as the book was nearing its final pages, my feelings changed to dreaded passionless indifference - akin to the emotions stirred by a disclaimer on the back of a pill packet.
It is very disappointing when a book leaves you indifferent after hundreds of pages spent with the characters and the plotlines - especially when it is a book with such immense potential as 'Snow Crash' had based on all the reviews and snippets I have seen, with all the ingredients for an amazing sci-fi adventure I listed above.
“We are all susceptible to the pull of viral ideas. Like mass hysteria. Or a tune that gets into your head that you keep humming all day until you spread it to someone else. Jokes. Urban legends. Crackpot religions. Marxism. No matter how smart we get, there is always this deep irrational part that makes us potential hosts for self-replicating information.”Here's a glimpse of the plot, as much as I can listlessly muster. Hiro Protagonist, our hero and protagonist (cleverly annoying or annoyingly clever, I'm not quite sure) is a hacker in a future completely corporatized and fractured by consumerism America. He delivers pizza for the Mafia franchise by day and in his spare time hangs around Metaverse, a computer-based simulated reality where he is a sword-fighting badass with a juicy piece of expensive (virtual) real estate and important friends. To those having trouble picturing this, think of ‘The Matrix’ as compared to the gloomy existence outside of it. Y. T. is his sidekick, a Kourier with a healthy dose of vital spunk and kindness to animals that just may result in the most spectacular payback at the most crucial moment. Uncle Enzo is the head of the Mafia franchise, and does not like late pizza deliveries - he has his reasons.
As for the antagonists, we have
And then there's the titular Snow Crash:
“This Snow Crash thing--is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?”
Juanita shrugs. “What's the difference?”
Sounds awesome, doesn't it? To me, the concept of Snow Crash initially evoked the memories of Delany's Babel-17, a book that I loved for all it's strangeness and far-fetchedness and irresistible pull into the blend of linguistics and sci-fi.
But then 'Snow Crash', having barely taken off, disappointingly crashed. Pun very much intended.
Maybe this had something to do with the clumsily thrown in heaps of infodump, painfully interrupting already shaky and unsteady narrative, adding tons of poorly placed and far-fetched exposition which it mistakes for layers of complexity, basking in self-importance while being needlessly silly (and, frankly, needless).
Maybe it was the sheer number of complex plot threads that weaves complexity but ended up going nowhere, with few (admittedly, memorable) exceptions.
Maybe it was what I can only perceive as casual racism so pervasive in descriptions of most 'ethnic' characters and entire groups featured in this novel, so present in every casually thrown stereotype. Intentional or not, it was unpleasantly grating.
Maybe it was the lack of dimension in Stephenson's characters. Hiro appears to be created as an embodiment of a teenage computer whiz's dreams, not developing in the slightest throughout the novel, only acquiring more and more badassery in the throwaway 'why not?' sloppy manner. Y.T., despite her awesomeness², behaving in a strangely robotic fashion. Raven and Uncle Enzo, frustratingly underdeveloped. Juanita, whose character could have been interesting, appears to exist solely as potential mate for Hiro. The only times I felt any connection to the characters were the appearances of the robotic dog, and I am not even a dog person.
² Y.T., while being far from an excellent character, was at least a ray of (grumpy) sunshine in the otherwise grey landscape of this novel. She has spunk and heart and confidence that is engaging and does not strike fakes notes that often. She made me almost care, and for this I appreciate her character. If only the rest if the book had the same spirit...Maybe it was the inability to interweave the plot threads into a coherent storyline, to create a bigger whole out of separate parts. The ideas are there, the concepts are there; what's missing is cohesiveness able to pull them together, untangle them and weave a net captivating the readers' brains and imagination. Without this cohesiveness, even the wildest and most daring ideas - like Stephenson's unconventional approach to viruses, for instance - remain disjointed, underdeveloped, unfinished, unpolished, like the refugee Raft in his novel, made of heaps of refuse clumped together trying to make a whole but failing at it.
Honestly, I can't help but see how this book would have worked so much better in a graphic format, being it a comic book (like, apparently, it was initially envisioned) or a film; the action scenes would have looked splendid while the awkwardness of language with overused frequently clumsy metaphors and the jarring present tense (which really doesn't work for this story) would have been cast aside.
-----------
Yes, I am very disappointed at my disappointment with this book. I wish I had the ability to overlook its flaws, but the indifference I felt when reading it precluded me from caring enough to let its good moments overshadow the bad. 2 stars, one for the robot-doggy and another for Y.T. who occasionally made me almost care.
——————
Also posted on my blog.
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Reading Progress
February 16, 2012
– Shelved
November 10, 2013
–
Started Reading
November 17, 2013
–
34.0%
December 11, 2013
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-50 of 207 (207 new)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
Thanks, Trav! It seems that our impressions of this book were really quite similar. It was such a messy and disjointed story, quite disappointing.
![[Name Redacted]](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1347082397p1/287915.jpg)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
Great minds think alike ;)
![Cecily](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1480285828p1/1199525.jpg)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
You are welcome, Cecily. You know, given how many of my Goodreads friends absolutely adored this book, I wonder if it was just that it wasn't for me and not necessarily that it's a bad book. I think that despite what it seemed I just was not the intended audience.
![Jokoloyo](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423473158p1/1902630.jpg)
Nataliya, you are using "not the intended audience" term. It is similar when I don't get the hype of my friends about a product, maybe I was not the target-market.
In my opinion, it is completely normal and sane not to like something that other people loves, a.k.a. not have the same taste.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
But its especially Gibson's style and atmosphere and world-building abilities that worked a ton better for me.
![Cecily](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1480285828p1/1199525.jpg)
I wonder who is?
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
In Deconstructing the Starships: Science, Fiction and Reality, Gwyneth A. Jones has written a wonderful critique of Snow Crash. A must-read for SC finishers.
It's called: The boys want to be with the boys: Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash
One can read the article online here:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v5...
![Veeral](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1344326461p1/6969151.jpg)
That said, this was a ground-breaking book 22 years ago when it was first published. But as with many cyberpunk novels, it also does not hold-up well after a certain passage of time.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
Actually, no. There's not a single thing in the book that's new and not 'done already' either in reality or in fiction.
With maybe the exception of a guy riding around with a nukebomb on his motorcycle and a real live dog being cybernetically enhanced to enable them to use nuclear waste material as fuel? (Which I'm not sure will ever be possible...)
I can't understand why people would think this book is groundbreaking in any sense. Cyberpunk had been around since before Gibson already, (who published Neuromancer in 1984 and Burning Chrome even before that) and Gibson at least got his tech ideas across a lot more lucidly.
![Veeral](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1344326461p1/6969151.jpg)
Actually, it was. Google Metaverse and its influence on World Wide Web. Even Google Earth was inspired by Snow Crash. Many Virtual Environment Concepts were inspired by Metaverse.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
And in any case, as a gamer, I can tell you that videogames were heading in that direction already, whether Snow Crash had been written or not. GPS was already being used at the time, and was most definitely not "inspired" by Stephenson. In fact, Google Earth and GPS are actually a very logical extension of having sattelites with cameras fitted to them orbiting the earth.
Also, this kind of thing was already being done in surveillance work in the 1960's. For instance, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_%...
So, once again, nope. And if you read Snowcrash again, you will see how jumbled his idea of the metaverse is. He is not quite sure what it is and how it works. Why would any such virtual world be a 'black ball'? It's as if he cannot quite get his mind around the concept that we are creating a 3D universe in what is essentially flat spaces. The 3-D aspects have to be actually programmed in, it's not like there's an already existing entity called "cyberspace" or "the metaverse" out there. Cyberspace is a human creation.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
Dr. Ivan Getting - GPS - Global Positioning System
Dr. Ivan Getting was born in 1912 in New York City. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as an Edison Scholar, receiving his Bachelor of Science in 1933. Following his undergraduate study at MIT, Dr. Getting was a Graduate Rhodes scholar at Oxford University. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Astrophysics in 1935.
In 1951, Ivan Getting became the vice president for engineering and research at the Raytheon Corporation. The first three-dimensional, time-difference-of-arrival position-finding system was suggested by Raytheon Corporation in response to an Air Force requirement for a guidance system to be used with a proposed ICBM that would achieve mobility by traveling on a railroad system.
When Ivan Getting left Raytheon in 1960, this proposed technique was among the most advanced forms of navigational technology in the world, and its concepts were crucial stepping stones in the development of the Global Positioning System or GPS.
Under Dr. Getting’s direction Aerospace engineers and scientists studied the use of satellites as the basis for a navigation system for vehicles moving rapidly in three dimensions, ultimately developing the concept essential to GPS.
What Stephenson does at best, is to cotton on to existing ideas and ride piggyback on them.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
Note that: With these parallel developments in the 1960s, it was realized that a superior system could be developed by synthesizing the best technologies from 621B, Transit, Timation, and SECOR in a multi-service program.
During Labor Day weekend in 1973, a meeting of about twelve military officers at the Pentagon discussed the creation of a Defense Navigation Satellite System (DNSS).
It was at this meeting that "the real synthesis that became GPS was created." Later that year, the DNSS program was named Navstar, or Navigation System Using Timing and Ranging.[19] With the individual satellites being associated with the name Navstar (as with the predecessors Transit and Timation), a more fully encompassing name was used to identify the constellation of Navstar satellites, Navstar-GPS, which was later shortened simply to GPS.[20] Ten "Block I" prototype satellites were launched between 1978 and 1985 (with one prototype being destroyed in a launch failure).
Snow Crash was only published mid-1992.
![Veeral](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1344326461p1/6969151.jpg)
And in any cas..."
I read your review, and yes, it does look like his idea of Metaverse was "inspired". But as one of its co-founder admitted, Google Earth was inspired by Metaverse. And one is always going to find other peripheral ideas and technologies unless you go back to Babbage or Thomson.
And I have never been a fan of Stephenson. Cryptonomicon was good, but too needlessly long. Only other Stephenson book I want to read in future is Anathem.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
And even though Gibson coined the term cyberspace, he still didn't 'invent' the idea, it had already been written about in fiction before him.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberspace
And also, please read this history of the Metaverse, which barely even mentions Stephenson: http://www.metaverseroadmap.org/input...
![Veeral](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1344326461p1/6969151.jpg)
As I said earlier, many virtual environments were inspired by it. See here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaverse
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
..."
I'm prepared to try more recent Stephenson, but I suppose it's obvious that I hated Snow Crash, and not just because Stephenson is being lauded as this big "inventor" of stuff, but I really disliked the ethnic stereotypes and his generally sarky tone. ..and then there's... no wait. Let me rather stop going off on poor Nataliya's thread. :P
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
Are you referring to this, Veeral? (From the Wikipedia article)
Several other visualization products using imagery existed at the time, including Performer-based ones, but Michael T. Jones stated emphatically that he had "never thought of the complexities of rendering an entire globe ..." The catch phrase "from outer space to in your face" was coined by Autometric President Dan Gordon, and used to explain his concept for personal/local/global range. Edge blazed a trail as well in broadcasting, being used in 1997 on CBS News with Dan Rather, in print for rendering large images draped over terrain for National Geographic, and used for special effects in the feature film Shadow Conspiracy in 1997.
Gordon was a huge fan of the 'Earth' program described in Neal Stephenson's sci-fi classic Snow Crash. Indeed, a Google Earth co-founder claimed that Google Earth was modeled after Snow Crash,[48] while another co-founder said it was inspired by the short science education film Powers of Ten.[49] In fact Google Earth was at least partly inspired by a Silicon Graphics demo called "From Outer Space to in Your Face" which zoomed from space into the Swiss Alps then into the Matterhorn.[50] This launch demo was hosted by an Onyx 3000 with InfiniteReality4[51] graphics, which supported Clip Mapping and was inspired by the hardware texture paging capability (although it did not use the Clip Mapping) and "Powers of Ten". The first Google Earth implementation called Earth Viewer emerged from Intrinsic Graphics as a demonstration of Chris Tanner's software based implementation of a Clip Mapping texture paging system and was spun off as Keyhole Inc.
Yes, a nod is given to Stpehenson there, but as you can see, the concept had already been around for ages, and let's face it, Stephenson hardly goes into the concept in the book in that much detail.
As for the Wikipedia metaverse article, yes, that is one of the articles I referred to in my posts above. As you can see in that article, (and some of the links I mention in my own review) metaverses already existed at the time, and had been extensively written about in fiction. Stephenson merely coined the word, the term, not the concept.
Even the term 'avatar' was already being used for a human's personal representative in cyberspace by the time he wrote the book.
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
Regardless, this book still leaves me cold. I wish he did write it as a comic book - maybe a different medium would have helped to smooth out the flaws.
![Derek](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1484231855p1/5420722.jpg)
I wonder who is? "
Me!
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
I wonder who is? "
Me!"
Awwww, Derek :)
![Traveller](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1423246742p1/3145526.jpg)
At least your taste in books is usually pretty good. O=D
![Desinka](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1403292069p1/12571107.jpg)
![Desinka](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1403292069p1/12571107.jpg)
LOL, sorry to disappoint! I maybe need to read a positive review to check what people liked about the book. I was enjoying the linguistic part until it got entangled with the religion/virus/disease idea. This was unnecessary and totally pointless and lost me my sole interesting idea. And by interesting I mean one I Was interested in as I knew about it and could relate to it, not new and exciting as I'm a linguist and know about Chomsky's deep structure.
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
LOL, sorry to disappoint! I maybe need to read a positive review to check what people liked abo..."
I was very excited about the linguistic part as well. After all, Babel-17 based on that was great! But like you say, the inclusion of everything else made it too much, too lost in its own ideas.
Sorry, Derek! ;)
![Desinka](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1403292069p1/12571107.jpg)
LOL, you enjoyed the book while we suffered both disappointment and boredom... Who's better off here:P
![Derek](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1484231855p1/5420722.jpg)
Well, now that Desinka's cheered me up, none of the above. But I definitely meant "virtually", I think I meant "literally", and I'm not at all sure how one would sulk "figuratively".
![Desinka](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1403292069p1/12571107.jpg)
Well, now that Desinka's cheered me up, none of the above. But I definitely meant "virtually", I think I meant "literally", and I'm not at..."
LOL, I'm glad I've cheered you up;) I hope you won't return to sulking when I write a short but scathing review of the book:) Either literally or virtually:)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
Derek and the Emotional Rollercoaster. Sounds like a decent name for a band - or a book ;)
![Desinka](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1403292069p1/12571107.jpg)
LOL, guys:) I think I'll try to be polite and only swear in stars in my review:)) I'm very concerned for Derek's fragile emotional state after the slander of Snow Crash he's had to endure:))
![Ewan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1581875638p1/9582643.jpg)
![Nataliya](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1619377733p1/3672777.jpg)
I haven't read Gibson's book, but I keep hearing lots of good things about it. This makes me really want to give it a try.
![Ewan](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1581875638p1/9582643.jpg)
![Derek](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1484231855p1/5420722.jpg)
For all my distress over how so many of you feel about this book, I can't say I actually disagree with much here. Doesn't Gibson still write in longhand? You're definitely right that he doesn't have the computer knowledge that Stephenson has, and almost certainly right that his novels don't date so quickly. I'm not convinced that Snow Crash is dated yet (I've had long arguments about that—I think it comes down to a poor understanding [on one side or the other!] of what he's actually written), but it will be dated soon.
But for all that I love Stephenson, I love Gibson more!
I can't agree though that there's "a sense of mystery or other-worldliness in Gibson's books that is missing from Stephenson's". You might say that of Neuromancer vs. Snow Crash, but Gibson vs. Stephenson — not so much. Try Anathem.
![Samantha](https://images.gr-assets.com/users/1414033603p1/6351229.jpg)
(Ha, talking about a horrible cook self. People scatter in all directions when I declare that I'm busy cooking 'an experiment' ;) ) Maybe this novel was also 'an experiment' . :D
I agree with you on everything including Y.T. and the rat thing's revenge, though of course, surely such a rat-thing could only exist in the realms of fiction. Creatures like him would have been extra cool in a comic book/graphic novel!