BOOKS - Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
One of my greatest pleasures is reading fantasy books - may it be magic-wielding types or those under the science-fiction category. I tend to read more of the magic fantasy and even some epic fantasies due to my early exposure to the Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books of the 80 and 90's [I guess some of the hardcore fantasy genre readers here are already shuddering on my books sources]. On the other hand, I'm less prone to read science-fiction books due to the topics the usually crop up on these types. Another reason would be the lack of available varieties under this category. Star Wars and Star Trek books may be the norm on the scifi book racks in National Bookstore and in Powerbooks. Nonetheless, those series will never find a place in my book collection.
Among the good science-fictions books that I've read, I found the post apocalyptic book Swan Song by Robert McCammon and the book about an alternate America in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson as great reads. Swan Song though is more like a horror book similar to The Stand by Stephen King [another great read]. Though I have a copy of the critically acclaimed Neuromancer by William Gibson, I have yet to get into the proper mood to read that one.
I have to thank some of the reviewers and Listmania contributors in Amazon for helping me find Snow Crash. I started reading this book about 5 days ago and I got totally hooked. If William Gibson made the cyberpunk genre then Neal Stephenson incorporated fun in the cyberpunk genre. This is one of the rare series I found that tried to incorporate some humor in a somewhat bizarre scifi book. It's very rare to find these types of books since most scifi are mostly too serious, too weird, too swash-buckling or too bad its irritating.
Snow Crash is about a Black Korean guy named Hiro Protagonist [yup that's the name] who had the talent to hack - both the digital and the literal way. He was one of the first few who designed the Metaverse [the alternate America's version of the Internet] and is also very competent in martial arts and wielding Japanese weaponry to the point that he's the Metaverse greatest swordfighter. However, he ended up being a pizza delivery boy to the Mafia-controlled Cosa Nostra and a freelance information gatherer for the Central Intelligence Corporation in order to survive. While jacked into the Metaverse, Hiro witnessed a dangerous virus that fries the brain of the user exposed to it. With his new friend, the underaged female trasher Y.T., they will try to search the source and eventually the cure of this new virus in both the real and the cyberworld.
The book's setting is really interesting and hillarious. The author was able to develop an alternate America that is very unique [everything is franchised, even the government and the police.] People obtain citizenship from private corporations - may the corporation be the mafia, the ethnic groups or just a form of decentralized business organization.
Another interesting thing on this book is how the author incorporated the ancient culture of the Sumerians etc with the digital world. Though some reviewers have found that part problematic [even me] it does tie up the story nicely. On another note, some readers might have issues on the book's discussion regarding religion as a biological/intellectual virus and of religion being for the mindless and uneducated. However, the author made some references on how religious faith can be possible to the intellectual atheists though he wasn't able to delve deep on the subject to retain the humorous mood of the book.
Overall, I recommend this book for all those who prefer a little humor in their cyberpunk / scifi books. The counterpart for this series would be Terry Pratchett's numerous Discworld books which also combined humor and fantasy in an enjoyable mix. I'll probably try to get copies of Neal Stephenson's books since I read that they're as weird as Snow Crash.
Among the good science-fictions books that I've read, I found the post apocalyptic book Swan Song by Robert McCammon and the book about an alternate America in Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson as great reads. Swan Song though is more like a horror book similar to The Stand by Stephen King [another great read]. Though I have a copy of the critically acclaimed Neuromancer by William Gibson, I have yet to get into the proper mood to read that one.
I have to thank some of the reviewers and Listmania contributors in Amazon for helping me find Snow Crash. I started reading this book about 5 days ago and I got totally hooked. If William Gibson made the cyberpunk genre then Neal Stephenson incorporated fun in the cyberpunk genre. This is one of the rare series I found that tried to incorporate some humor in a somewhat bizarre scifi book. It's very rare to find these types of books since most scifi are mostly too serious, too weird, too swash-buckling or too bad its irritating.
Snow Crash is about a Black Korean guy named Hiro Protagonist [yup that's the name] who had the talent to hack - both the digital and the literal way. He was one of the first few who designed the Metaverse [the alternate America's version of the Internet] and is also very competent in martial arts and wielding Japanese weaponry to the point that he's the Metaverse greatest swordfighter. However, he ended up being a pizza delivery boy to the Mafia-controlled Cosa Nostra and a freelance information gatherer for the Central Intelligence Corporation in order to survive. While jacked into the Metaverse, Hiro witnessed a dangerous virus that fries the brain of the user exposed to it. With his new friend, the underaged female trasher Y.T., they will try to search the source and eventually the cure of this new virus in both the real and the cyberworld.
The book's setting is really interesting and hillarious. The author was able to develop an alternate America that is very unique [everything is franchised, even the government and the police.] People obtain citizenship from private corporations - may the corporation be the mafia, the ethnic groups or just a form of decentralized business organization.
Another interesting thing on this book is how the author incorporated the ancient culture of the Sumerians etc with the digital world. Though some reviewers have found that part problematic [even me] it does tie up the story nicely. On another note, some readers might have issues on the book's discussion regarding religion as a biological/intellectual virus and of religion being for the mindless and uneducated. However, the author made some references on how religious faith can be possible to the intellectual atheists though he wasn't able to delve deep on the subject to retain the humorous mood of the book.
Overall, I recommend this book for all those who prefer a little humor in their cyberpunk / scifi books. The counterpart for this series would be Terry Pratchett's numerous Discworld books which also combined humor and fantasy in an enjoyable mix. I'll probably try to get copies of Neal Stephenson's books since I read that they're as weird as Snow Crash.
posted by Edaine Nightroad @ Thursday, June 01, 2006
5 Comments:
Snow Crash is definitely my favorite cyberpunk novel - in fact it's many people's favorites. Neuromancer is well worth the read though, when you finally get in the mood for it.
~SFAM
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com
Super color scheme, I like it! Keep up the good work. Thanks for sharing this wonderful site with us.
»
Great site lots of usefull infomation here.
»
Your website has a useful information for beginners like me.
»
I find some information here.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home