Snow Crash

Hiro Protagonist, longtime unemployed L.A. hacker and greatest dork on earth, stumbles onto a new form of virus that infects not computers, but people, through their mind. He teams up with the Mafia and Y.T., a skater Kourier, to uncover media magnate L. Bob Rife's plan to enslave the populance and Raven's need for revenge upon America. In the process he digs into Sumerian history, tangles with the merciless Raven several times, and makes his way into the core of Rife's operation. At the same time, Y.T. does a lot of dirty Mafia work, gets kidnapped, and helps Hiro from oceanic lair.

Seriously, Hiro is the king of Dorkus. Stephenson is not just otaku, he's a Nipponphile, and Hiro's his Marty Stu: A mostly socially-clueless coder who also considers himself a great swordfighter, carrying his katana and wakizashi everywhere, he spends almost all of his time in the Metaverse, socializing with most on the outside by killing them. Y.T. thinks of him as a total dweeb, but somehow his hacker ex-girlfriend still sees something in him. I think his geekiness amused me throughout the book more than anything else, along with Y.T.'s skater ethos; she almost never loses her cool. Ultimately, it's techno geek wish-fulfillment fantasy done right, and if that appeals to you, this book is for you.

Neal Stephenson is the master of interposing hyperdescriptive passages and digressions throughout his novels, but the words flow so well that it doesn't grate too much. They mostly fall in one of three categories: Nifty, yes I know that, and Geez I don't care!, with an occasional no way pal. The book could never quite decide whether to be treatise or thriller, but by the end I did have a (very) specific idea of how he envisioned the future, and that contributed quite a bit to the story's flair. (Note: Chaps. 56 & part of 57 are 10 pages summarizing the events so far, should have been cut and should be skipped.)

A few complaints about the end... no spoilers. Where does the US President come from and why? He does nothing. Why did Uncle Enzo not think about Raven bringing glass knives when that was discussed only hours ago? What happened to Raven's H-bomb? I think a few plot threads got lost in all that.

And, you know, this is cyberpunk. I could take major issue with quite a few of the silly or mistaken assumptions, like the total ignoring of sustainable economies, or the fact that revivalism started here in mid-1700's in a movement called the Great Awakening, but I don't take it all seriously. I was irritated at some of the streams of raw historical/lingual information in the middle of the book, but the subject matter did interest me quite a bit. I love the way Stephenson can weave widely different disciplines into compelling stories and technologies. There is a lot of everything jam-packed in here, and while it's a tangle to sort out, it is enlightening and hugely entertaining once you do. I couldn't put it down for long. Definitely better and more expansive than its sequel, Diamond Age.