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Snow Crash | 
 enlarge | Author: Neal Stephenson
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy New: £3.66
You Save: £4.33 (54%)
New (26) Used (14) from £1.38
Rating:  44 reviews
Sales Rank: 3240
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 448
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0140232923
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780140232929
ASIN: 0140232923
Publication Date: October 27, 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW - ***Delivery usually * 2 - 3 * working days - From Aphrohead of SOUTHPORT, Lancs, uk *** . Priority Airmail used Worldwide on International orders. Thanks from all at Aphrohead.
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Amazon.co.uk Review
From the opening line of his breakthrough cyberpunk novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson plunges the reader into a not-too-distant future. It is a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city states, and the Internet--incarnate as the Metaverse--looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should. Enter Hiro Protagonist--hacker, samurai swordsman and pizza-delivery driver. When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do? He rushes to the rescue. A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible. --Acton Lane
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| Customer Reviews: Read 39 more reviews...
 Reasonable beginning, Amazing middle section, Weak ending August 7, 2008
If you like the sound of this book based on the back of the book (hero called Hiro, pizza delivery, etc etc), then this book is for you. However if you have heard how great this book is but are slightly put off by the description, then there really isn't enough to keep your interested to the end. The book starts slowly; has an amazing middle section where I though "wow this could turn out to be a great novel"; however the ending is weak, and this is where the book really falls down. The trouble is that we find out what is going on far too early in the book and there is nothing left for the ending of the book, which is just one long chase scene after another.
Audience:
Seems to be aimed at the mid/late teen audience, people growing up in the early 90s would also get a lot out of it too.
The good:
There are some great ideas in the book and its influence on films like The Matrix is clear
Some intelligent concepts relating to language and religion
Main character is well written
Does a great job of creating an interesting world (from an early 90s perspective)
The bad:
*Laughably bad sex scene*
Supporting characters are poorly written and often fall back on stereotypes.
Too much filler when the story really needs to move along
Lack of peril/drama
Boring ending
 High tech future runs out of steam October 21, 2007
Neal Stephenson delights in setting up and describing a parallel reality. Just like our world but not quite. And what a set up. His imagination dazzles in the first third of this story set in the near future, but then things start to go awry. Introducing a librarian to allow long explanations of his ideas and plot is a clunky writing device, made worse still as the story heads towards its climax with the major characters gathered for a final explanation as though this were some 21st century Agatha Christie. As the first part of Snow Crash shows, Stephenson could do better, and would later in his career, as his writing chops caught up with his imagination.
 How did I miss this? September 5, 2007
As a fan both of the Cyberpunk genre and of Stephenson, it's hard to believe that I've only just found this book. As ever with this writer, there are layers and layers of detail which make the imagined society feel absolutely real. And in 2007, this requires far less of an imagination that it must have in the mid 90s; Stephenson's vision is already developing in reality.
The themes of infection, duality and societal anarchy are explored beautifully and my only quibble is the way we don't get a particularly satisfying conclusion.
prophetic June 6, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found this a bit slow to begin with but after 100 pages or so the story really starts to motor, taking you along at a fair clip. The prose sizzles with stone-hard description, cool tech and a sassily cool main character. It's funny in places too, properly funny.
The ideas in here mark it out for special attention. Set in a chaotic, privatised, broken up, lawless future world, and inside a 3-D virual one, the story explores the nature of language, religion and hacking. Orbiting the central ideas, which I'm not sure gel completely convincingly (but are still convincing enough), we encounter other fine fruits of Stephenson's imagination like the massive floating refugee camp, Kouriers with their fantastic skateboards, and guard dogs from hell.
The rest of it works. Fine characters, some really great set pieces and a good ending. A super read - well worth the time invested.
(Snow)Crashed and Burned! April 22, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's almost 10years since I 1st read this, I've lost count of the times I've re-read it! This is what real sci-fi should be about, possible futures, read this, look at the publication date and then marvel at how spot on many of the concepts thru this novel are now reality. Not only did Neal Stephenson create a gripping read, but incorporated fact and future worlds..... still waiting for the kick ass movie this would make!!!!
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