Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson Book Review

Snow Crash 

By Neal Stephenson 

Published Year: 1992

Page Count: 574 pages 

Medium Used: Kindle PW 

Genre: Classics, Science Fiction, Mythology, History, WWII,Fantasy, Hard Science, Mafia, Action, Drugs, Thriller, Metaverse, 2026-read. 

Rating: 4.5/5 😃😃😃😃🥳

I enjoyed it very much. Atleast for the major part. But I also felt restless and dissociated when Hiro Protagonist, our main character, is talking to the librarian in the Metaverse about religion and drawing parallels with virus propagation in humans. I didn't know if I had to laugh or take them seriously. How can they compare believers of a certain faith having cult prostitution or breast feeding, spreading viruses through their bodily fluids to those doing it in the computer world? Felt outrageous to me. What is this listening on radio waves from other planets for metavirus and spreading it to the humans over? These weird comparisons and analogies, I just couldn't stomach. The last 50 pages are solid mind hookers and adrenaline raisers. There is a clear demarcation between the good guys and the bad ones. There are only two main bad guys and a group of good ones trying to stop them. What is crazy here is the mafia and hackers of Metaverse are among the good ones! It makes one wonder what kind of crimes the other group must commit to make them more badder.

So basically the Mythological characters are Enki and Asherah. Enki couples with the babel myth where God has disrupted common speaking language of humans who wanted to build a tower to heaven. He gave them each a different tongue and they couldn't understand each other as a result. Enki has done the same to their psyche( deep down) and this made them think individually, question myth and discern the difference between good and evil. This gives rise to a dualistic world - material and spiritual. Then after his time, there are the followers of Asherah who spread common thinking/mindset through copulation or breast milk. This is like virus spreading and coiling around their spines like a serpent. Some religious fanatic called L.Rife makes a plan to take over the physical world through spreading of a blood virus and also take over the minds(through a drug called Snow Crash) of hackers from Metaverse, thereby becoming the most powerful individual ever. The main character, Hiro Protagonist is the best sword fighter in the world and is a hacker in the Metaverse. He can always be seen doning two swords which got from his African father who got them from a combat in Japan before Nagasaki bombing. Another main character, Y.T., is a Kourier, a delivery girl that has grown connections with Hiro, Mafia and Raven in the course of their chase and super hot adventure. Uncle Enzo is the head of Mafia. Lagos and Juanita are Hiro's associates who figure out the connections between myth and the virus Snow Crash. 

I would have loved if the myth is totally removed and there was some other explanation placed in its stead. I enjoyed the interactions of Y.T with others - i just loved her bad ass character. Hiro's expertise with swords is thoroughly enviable. He is invincible with them. Whenever he is in a fix, I would expect him to bring out his swords, his katana and bust the bad guys .. chop off their arms, decapitate them or some such feat! This is the book to introduce the term ' Metaverse' which is like a parallel world which can be entered by people wearing goggles and jacking themselves into  computer terminals connected via high speed fiber optical networks. They can wear whatever avatars they have and from what I have read here, there are a mix of hackers/programmers like Hiro, non programming clients like Y.T., software daemons who inhabit - come and go - this world. This snow crash drug is targeted only towards the hackers and they are the technology junkies who form the core of high thinking individuals - like those induced by Enki. Most of the religious, non tech people in the world can be easily swayed but not these right. I liked the whole premise. This is my first book with the author and I think he is super good at writing adventures and action sequences. I didn't bat an eye reading all the action scenes!! Do check out. 

Edit : Luckily, the number of pages with references and dialog relating to mytbology are few. Some 3 - 4 pages out of all 500+