This is like a futuristic Lord of the Flies inside a big city university and dorm. The book is not good. It took me two months of slogging through it to finish it. I gave it two stars instead of one because I liked the idea (kind of) and the characters, but not the insane execution.

A fantastic early work by NS. I won't spoil anything but one major plot point was recycled in a later book.

By the time Snowcrash came out, it seemed like Neal Stephenson would've loved nothing better than people forgetting about his first novel. And yes, it is quite a bit silly and over the top in it's depiction of life at The Big U, but it's also funny and charming.