SUMMARY

Snow Crash begins with a computer hacker named Hiro Protaganist who is worried about his future as a hacker and, to make matters worse, owes the mob a favor. The Mob and other such organizations now rule the country, because the American government has become extremely weak in an increasingly complex technological and violent world. Rent-a-Cops are the way of life, and neighborhoods each have their own kind. Hiro carries around samuri swords with him at all times and is not afraid to use them, even in the meteverse. The metaverse is not an uncommon term in cyberpunk fiction, but Stephenson takes the time out to explain exactly how he envisions it working, right down to where your avatar can appear and the facial expressions you are capable of. Hiro is one of the founding fathers of this metaverse; he made most of the programs and rules of it. But now he is broke, which is why he was delivering pizzas for the mob, which is in turn how he met up with Y.T. I don't want to give too much away, so I'll just say that the book is mostly comprised of Hiro's and Y.T.'s battle against the attempted taking over of the world by Jesus freaks through an interesting information/language concept. And it's really cool.

CRITIQUE

Snow Crash was an impressive and compelling novel. It accurately portrays a cyberpunkish world, but one that is a little more positive than the typical cyberpunk story. It is a more optimistic look on our future, and the outcome of our present technology. The book turns out to have a typical underdog vs. the world theme, but the plot is so intriguing that this should not dissuade you of the quality.

The character development is one of the best aspects of Snow Crash. Stevenson has a kind of in-your-face personality in his writing, which is brought out in the main characters in the novel, mainly Y.T. and Hiro. Even their names are a kind of parody on words- Hiro (hero) Protagonist (main character and problem-maker), Y.T. or Yours Truly, truly reflective of her f**k you personality, and Da5id, a weird combination of letters and numbers to make up a name, which leaves you wondering (does the 5 really represent a 5 or does it have something to do with the roman numeral V, which also means 5, which could then be pronounced David, or what??). Stevenson deviates a tad from *normal* cyberpunk with the physical side of his characters, also. For example, Hiro is not the same old white bread male; he is part black, part Asian. Y.T. is not usual, either- she's a woman, which is quite an accomplishment to make in the world of CP, which hardly ever uses women as its main characters, much less strong, arrogant, capable women.

Technology is an essential element of cyberpunk; Snow Crash's main use of technology is in its *metaverse* concept. Half of the time, Hiro is goggled into the Metaverse learning about things dire to his survival, from a suspended globe software thing that allows him to view any place on earth at any given time, to his librarian software, Lagos, that gathers knowledge about ancient times and ancient codes of language in an instant. The metaverse is Hiro's surviving tool and his only chance at changing the course of history. However, it is also a dangerous weapon that is being used against him constantly, at one moment to chop his head off in The Black Sun, at the next to totally destroy his and all other hackers' brains, in the form of the computer drug, Snow Crash.

SC is extremely well-written and full of suspense and excitement- and then- it's the end. Besides the blunt and disappointing walk-into-the-sunset-and-live-happily-ever-after ending, Snow Crash is a great book because it grabs you and doesn't let go. I still find myself musing over aspects of the book and am constantly reminded of it from situations and conversations in my life. Not being an especial fan of cyberpunk or much science fiction for a long period of time, I find it important to get people to read this book so they can expose themselves to a whole new, refreshing genre of literature. I recommend this to anyone and everyone who wants some fun reading as well as some mind-awakening and intellectual gain.