I just finished reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. As a geek, I have to admin it took a long time for me to get around to this book. Neal Stephenson is one of the must read authors for geeks, but I just never got around to it. I did read his later book Anathem, and really enjoyed it. However, I can’t say the same for Snow Crash.
As a futurist, Stephenson nails many things in this book. There are similarities between The Street from the book, and the internet of our day. Remember he was writing this book over 20 years ago, just before the internet really got going. He also foresaw the dominance that communication networks would hold, and the ubiquitous connections the technorati would need. His idea of a head’s up display as a computer interface may also be prophetic, if Google Glasses take off.
All that being said, I found the story, and the characters in it really unbelievable. An incredible hacker who helped create The Street and still hobnobs with the rich and famous, living in a storage rental locker and living hand to mouth. A 15 year old skateboard courier who appears to have every gadget known to man sewn into her coveralls and hides her daily street thrashing from her mother. A megalomaniacal CEO who resurrects an ancient language just so his programmers won’t be able to remember what they worked on when they go home at the end of the day. I find these and many more characters too much. I consistently had to suspend my disbelief to allow these characters to have the motivations they claimed and take the actions they did.
The play off the Tower of Babel story is quite good, and the rise of corporate fiefdoms over national governments is starkly prescient. But the pantheon of new gods, the degree of loyalty a mob boss shows to a skater who delivered a pizza, and the dialogue between Raven and YT are just too far over the top. There were enough plot holes to drive a truck through, and I found myself rewinding the MP3 to see if I missed something when I found the characters rapidly transported to a brand new situation.
I really expected to like this book; because I loved Anathem