Перша половина книги, десь двісті сторінок, була прям неймовірно цікава, відірватися від книги було важко. Світи які описує автор, як реальний так і віртуальний, дуже прикольні, цікаві та яскраві, дуже добре та деталізовано розписано як в них все працює та взаємодіє. Ця частина книги мені сподобалась найбільше.
Головні персонажі, ну вони норм, розвитку вони не мають, які були на перших сторінках, такими залишаються і у кінці книги. Про другорядних я взагалі мовчу. Хтось помер по мірі розвитку сюжету, але якогось співчуття вони не викликають. Напочатку книги вимальовується непоганий та багатообіцяючий сюжет. Але з другої половини книги щось пішло не так, я далі просто не зміг розгледіти виразний сюжет за цим складним текстом.
Об'ємні та довгі розмови про релігію, шумерскі міфи, мову, комп'ютерне кодування, лінгвістичні віруси та ще багато чого, та все це ще якось пов'язано між собою. Перечитував по два рази глави та все одно на сто відсотків не зрозумів того що хотів сказати автор. Трохи складно, або я просто тупий щоб все це осягнути.
А ще мені здавалось що подача сюжету була така ніби смикана чи рвана, ну тобто не відчувається цілісності сюжету, наче між главами вирвані куски тексту, або якісь події залишається поза книгою, немає плавного переходу між подіями у главах.
Я розраховував що хочь фінал буде епічно крутим, але й цього не сталося. Автор закрив всі сюжетні гілки, (одного я так і не зрозумів, що там сталось з ядерною боєголовкою?) але це було якось дуже швидко, просто та читалось напрочуд нудно.
Враження від книги неоднозначні. Не можу сказати що книга геть погана, ні, вона норм, посередня, для мене на 3/5⭐

This book felt like a really good idea. One of those really good ideas that you know will make a good novel (or whatever it is you think about making), and you have all these other really good details so you add them to your good idea. And you come up with some more characters and they are really good and some awesome organizations and maybe have another good idea or two and you just keep adding them on, like paint in some Clement Greenberg adored jizz-fest of painting, layer upon layer and more layers you have all this great stuff going on, and then you realize you have to make it all do something. And something happens and it's really pretty unspectacular, like in the painting analogy there is all this great layering going on and what is produced is some big yellow smiley face, but this book is better than that but it was still something of a let down when you realize that all the build up, all the different organizations and people and neat ideas were all just so that what happened could happen in the book.

Oh and then as soon as the plot stuff climaxes the book comes apruptly to a halt, like if Star Wars cut to credits right as the Death Star started to explode (not that the stuff left in the movie after that was anything great, but it would still feel very abrupt).

Yeah, that is what this book felt like. Great ideas. Great build up, and then, 'oh, that's it?' *

*don't give me this Neal Stephenson was prophetic shit in defense of why this book should get 5 stars or more. Yeah, he named some things, but it's not like he predicted things existing, he just influenced things being named.

I have been busy with this book for a long, long time. I am now officially abandoning it. What started off as funny, funky and innovative has failed to live up to my expectations. The story gets heavily, heavily bogged down halfway through. Also, in my opinion, this book just tries too hard to be funny and smart. I appreciate what the author has tried to do, and if the other reviews are to be a benchmark he appears to have succeeded, at least somewhat. I also appreciate the fact that this is, supposedly, a piece of cyberpunk history. I liked Neuromancer. This, I didn't like.

It gets a star because I like 2 minor characters, Ng and Enzo (for the most part) and it has one really neat idea, which I'll discuss later.

I don't understand why this book is so well thought of. It has so many huge problems, which will be discussed, so spoilers. I will admit, cyberpunk doesn't really seem to be my thing, but only one of the issues of this book has implications beyond it. That'll be first

There is that big issue that really hurts all of cyberpunk in my mind. That is this silly tron/matrix version of the internet, with people running around as avatars and trying to accomplish moronic things in this real-world simulation in the net. It's especially egregious here because the book even talks about how when hackers are really trying to get things done, they use standard desktop type interfaces. With that in mind, why is this organization trying to plant a computer virus by having this guy holding a 'physical' item, driving to a place that is full of hacker avatars (what are they even doing here?) and then setting it off? Why not just program it? And, granted the stupid premise, why is the person they are sending in some real-world assassin (Raven) and not some computer expert???!! Having a big chase/fight scene in a computer is Tron silly. Which would be ok if this was meant to be a silly book. It's not.

Problem 2: bad mythology/comparative religion/history. Stephenson has a cool idea here. That there's this sort of linguistic virus that can lock people into patterns and that Babel was a historical event where someone intentionally confounded the languages as a sort of immunization against this virus. The virus in question is called the Asherah virus and so is associated with that cult. All good. Fine. Asherah isn't Eve. Doesn't work, sorry. Bad comparison. She was not worshiped from Mesopotamia to Spain. Bad. The Deuteronomists did NOT do away with animal sacrifice! Way the fuck out there bad. Synagogues didn't exist until, at the earliest, the Babylonian exile and weren't widespread until after the fall of the second temple. Bad. Speaking in tounges is an indication of infection by the virus. It cites Acts Reference to speaking in tounges at the Pentecost as a sign of the infection of Christianity by the virus, but ignores Jesus's reference to speaking in tounges as a good thing in Mark. Bad.
There's this whole equation of knowlege/data infecting people in the form of this virus and that's where the idea of the fall comes from. Stephenson trues to link Eve to Asherah for this reason, but ignores Prometheus, Coyote, etc.
Also, the code of Hamurabi isn't as early as it is implied to be in this book. Which shouldn't be a problem, because there actually were laws before that.
And finally, way to just ignore Egypt for some reason.
Oh, and trying to have binary code in your ancient hacking is really silly. Why would it be binary? Why, when you have that little picture, would you say that it looks like a 0 and 1 when there's no reason why Sumerian would have the same figures? Also, that looks like an o and a 1 or maybe a q. Oh, and there was no concept of 0 at the time!!!!
It's fine to work with a fictional idea and plant that in history, but it works a lot better if you get the history surrounding it right.

Problem 3: ruining a cool idea. Having the linguistic virus is cool. Making it a biological AND linguistic virus doesn't make sense. The mechanism is weird. Just over-doing it. Done.

Problem 4: Sword vs. Gun. The main character, Hiro Protagonist (oy), uses a samurai sword in real life, fighting people with modern weapons. Bull shit.

Problem 5: sexism. There's a great line in the book where Hiro is thinking about the way this woman was treated while working at a software company. He says something like that it was the kind of sexism from people who thought they were too smart to be sexist. Stephenson should pay attention to that. Hiro has a love interest, Juanita. Her whole point is to feed Hiro information to drive the plot forward and then, for no particular reason, agree to get back together with him at the end of the novel.
Additionally, there's a spunky 15yo girl skateboard character, Y.T.. Not a huge fan of the character type, but she's fine. At one point, she's held hostage on the big boat fortress of the bad guy and Raven basically decides that he's going to have sex with her. Essentially rape. Whether or not physical force is involved, that's what this is. I understand why Y.T. decides to just go along with it. He's a giant, she's basically defenseless and surrounded by hostile people. When this acceptance becomes enthusiasm/interest, I'm sorry. Standard nonsense-'oh, I'm being raped. it's so sexy.'

Problem 5: overdoing it. If you want to make fun of the bureaucracy of the government, that's all good fun. But it's just so overdone. This memo about how to share toilet paper. How long, to the minute, it should take to read. Ugh. It takes me right out of the story. It's silly and I don't buy it.

Problem 6: deus ex machina/lucky coincidence. Of course Y.T. has air bags physically installed in her body. Of course Jaunita can suddenly override Asherah and broadcast her own viruses (in order to let Hiro go and do his thing). Of course, for some reason, Hiro's internet sword can break into an internet wall even though they're designed to keep unwanted people out. Of course Uncle Enzo is some super bad-ass fighter. Of course the Mafia is fighting this weird religious cult. Of course Hiro's and Raven's fathers knew each other even though that winds up having no impact on the story whatsoever. Of course Y.T.'s old dog is now a super robot dog hybrid that can break his basic programming to go and help her.

Problem 7: Uncle Enzo to the rescue. Enzo is the head of the mafia. His personal interest in the well being of Y.T. is perhaps a bit odd, but certainly fine within the context of the story. (It's closest to a weird, father/daughter thing.) What doesn't make any sense is when he suddenly decides that he personally will go out and fight these people by himself and he wins against Raven. Weird. I know I mentioned this in #6, but it gets its own number because it both comes out of nowhere, fitting into the #6 category and is deeply problematic because it isn't in keeping with the nature of the character.


Problem 8: exposition. I like Diaspora by Greg Egan. That book has a whole lot of explaining of scientific principles in it. However, that was the point of the story. Snow Crash is essentially an action story. It's a bit annoying when every once in a while the story has to stop and explain all this stuff about Sumeria etc. That's annoying, but acceptable. It is not acceptable when, about 90% in the book, the story has to stop and explain what the hell has been going on and what the villains basic motivations are. Theoretically, Hiro is explaining this to Enzo and some other people, but he's really explaining to the reader, because it's pretty hard to get a clear picture of what is going on in the book.

Problem 9: loose ends. It is strongly implied that Raven dies at the end of the book. It is specifically stated that if he dies a hydrogen bomb goes off. If this happens, it is not mentioned.

Problem 10: couriers unite! I have a friend who was a bike messenger. He saw this movie about bike messengers where, at the end, all the bike messengers team up with the main character to help him overcome the bad guys because, of course, they're all one big happy family. This caused my friend a great deal of amusement. The same thing literally happens here. Y.T. a courier (spelled with a k, for some reason) is kidnapped and managed to get the word out to another courier. He calls the company which, because it is a company, trying to make money, sends a bunch of couriers (i.e. a bunch of kids on skateboards, which is funny, but not a problem) to go help Y.T.

So, yeah. I originally rated this as two stars. Thinking about it, I'm taking one of those away. Even if I could rate it 0, I'd leave the 1 for the reasons I stated up front.

When I first read Snow Crash, I thought to myself: "This thing is paced like a comic." Funny then to later discover that the novel was written after a comic book attempt at the same story fell apart.

Snow Crash is the paradigmatic Stephenson novel. Grabs you quickly, thrusts you head long into world that's so preposterous that he can't possibly be making it up, and the drags you along kicking and screaming until you're left startled and somewhat confused at a precipitous ending.

But don't let that fool you. This is probably Stephenson's best, most memorable work. It's certainly my favorite and it's certainly the one that's the most fun. (Which is probably why I've read it ten times.)

UPDATE: Yep. Still one of my all-time-favorites.

UPDATE: See also: Filet of Meta-Conflict.

UPDATE: Oct. 2020; reading it for the… 10th time? Still an all-time-favorite; still enjoyable as hell. Some of the absurdist dystopia feels very nightmare-come-mostly-true here in 2020. Meanwhile some of the other parts seem weirdly dated, but in the way where I remember when they didn't and so I have a direct through-line from "oh what a neat idea" to "LOL remember when we thought that was a neat idea?"

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SEE ALSO
• "10 Science Fiction Books That I Love (and you will at least like a lot)" at litreactor
• OMNI Reboot: Reviewing Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash (sic)

Un presente ma diverso. Una rete digitale chiamata Metaverso. Hacker e drogati, Mafia e fattorini della pizza, bombe atomiche portatili e virus linguistici.
Qui si ride di gusto. Evitate pure di sforzarvi nel cercare significati nascosti tra le righe, tipo alienazione sociale, dipendenza dalle droghe, il potere dell'informazione, ecc.. soliti temi cyberpunk. Anche se presenti sono del tutto secondari. Questa è la folle parodia di una ucronia anarchica e un filo distopica.

Partiamo dai due protagonisti: uno si chiama Hiro Protagonist, già il nome è tutto un programma, un incrocio tra John Wick, Neo di Matrix e la Sposa di Kill Bill, hacker che se ne va in giro armato con due katane micidiali. L'altra protagonista è una quindicenne che sfreccia con il suo skateboard super tecnologico sulle autostrade arpionando i veicoli in corsa facendo slalom come una surfista per portare pacchi in giro.

Un vero fumetto o cartone animato su carta che coinvolge e rapisce per la sua follia dilagante.
Sembra un romanzo di Dick, Gibson e Pratchett mescolati con LSD e steroidi.

La prima metà è un delirio, da applausi meritati.
Peccato ci sia un pesante calo nella seconda metà, complice la lunghezza eccessiva del romanzo, i totali cambi di ritmo durante le tediose spiegazioni da enciclopedia sulla natura del virus e una risoluzione sotto tono dell'intera vicenda. Se fosse rimasto al livello della prima metà lo avrei apprezzato maggiormente, invece Stephenson si sente in dovere di dare spiegazioni a valanga.

Il Metaverso ma soprattutto la trovata linguistica è interessante, seppur troppo pedante nell'esposizione anche per me che sono un simpatizzante delle stravaganti teorie di Zecharia Sitchin ed ho divorato tutti i suoi saggi. Se questi argomenti vi stuzzicano, vi consiglio caldamente di leggere il "Dodicesimo pianeta", o tradotto in italiano "il pianeta degli dei" per approfondire.

Adatto per trascorrere ore in allegria, ridendo di pancia delle folli trovate di Stephenson nel presentare questo mondo alternativo tra Mafia, droghe, virus e anarchia.
Il rap di Sushi K. mi è entrato nel cervello e mi ha steso.

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A present but different. A digital network called Metaverse. Hackers and drug addicts, Mafia and pizza delivery men, portable atomic bombs and linguistic viruses.
Here we laugh heartily. Also avoid trying to find hidden meanings between the lines, such as social alienation, drug addiction, the power of information, etc. usual cyberpunk themes. Even if present they are completely secondary. This is the crazy parody of an anarchic and slightly dystopian uchronia.

Let's start with the two protagonists: one is called Hiro Protagonist, the name itself says it all, a cross between John Wick, Neo from The Matrix and the Bride from Kill Bill, a hacker who goes around armed with two deadly katanas. The other protagonist is a fifteen-year-old who speeds with her super-technological skateboard on the highways, harpooning moving vehicles, slaloming like a surfer to carry packages around.

A real comic or cartoon on paper that involves and captivates due to its rampant madness.
It sounds like a Dick, Gibson and Pratchett novel mixed with LSD and steroids.

The first half is a frenzy, worthy of applause.
It's a shame there is a heavy decline in the second half, thanks to the excessive length of the novel, the total changes of pace during the tedious encyclopedia-like explanations on the nature of the virus and a subdued resolution of the entire story. If it had remained at the level of the first half I would have appreciated it more, but instead Stephenson feels obliged to give an avalanche of explanations.

The Metaverse but above all the linguistic invention is interesting, although too pedantic in its exposition even for me who am a fan of Zecharia Sitchin's extravagant theories and have devoured all of his essays. If these topics excite you, I highly recommend you read the "Twelfth Planet", or translated into Italian "the planet of the gods" for further information.

Suitable for spending happy hours, laughing heartily at Stephenson's crazy ideas in presenting this alternative world of Mafia, drugs, viruses and anarchy.
Sushi K.'s rap got into my brain and knocked me out.

Книга Стівенсона - це як наслідок втоми від одноманітності продукту, який виростав на дріжджах кіберпанку. Звідси і відсутність наскрізної бентеги жорстокого майбутнього, яка пронизує весь жанр та присутність яскравих барв, які скоріше притаманні сучасним тайтлам, серед яких найочевидніший Ready Player One.
Я б сказав, що Стівенсону вдалось створити настільки круту пародію на жанр, що його книга виходить за межі концепції і стає невразливою (принаймні поки)
Особливо сподобалось те, як майстерно автор поєднує фановий стьоб із теологічно-філософськими ідеями, в яких вірування та міфологія переплітаються з програмування та ШІ. Кайф!

Μου βίασε τον εγκέφαλο.
"Ο Χίρο Προτάγκονιστ είναι ένας ιδιοφυής χάκερ, δεξιοτέχνης ξιφομάχος και άνεργος ντελιβεράς πίτσας...".
Αυτό από μόνο του ήταν αρκετό για να το αγοράσω! Περίμενα να διαβάσω μία χαβαλετζίδικη περιπέτεια ΕΦ. Αλλά έκανα μεγάλο λάθος. Το βιβλίο περιέχει πολλή πληροφορία. Θρησκείες, μυθολογία(;), τεχνολογία. Και χαβαλέ. Δεν είναι από τα βιβλία που θα διαβάσεις απλά για να περάσει η ώρα. Γενικά η σχέση μου με την ΕΦ και την τεχνολογία δεν είναι και η καλύτερη, αλλά στο δίνει με τέτοιο τρόπο που απλά χάνεσαι μέσα στις πληροφορίες του(με την καλή έννοια). Πολύ δυνατό βιβλίο, που συνιστάται σε όλους τους οπαδούς οποιασδήποτε μορφής Φαντασίας και όχι μόνο.

I can only see this book as a score of missed opportunities.
I loved the first few chapters - the quick dive into an absurd dystopian world where delivering pizzas becomes a matter of life and death is particularly brilliant. The book is let down by its poor plot - on a par with a bad James Bond movie - two questionable scenes (in my mind), and a particularly unbelievable resolution of the 'snow crash' mystery. Basically, it all came apart in the second part of the book which also sports a rushed and unsatisfying end.
The three stars I gave the book is for the moments of brilliance that transform the book in parts.
There are descriptions and passages that are worth reading this book for.

*This section contains spoilers*

I did enjoy the 'badass' and 'hardboiled' shenanigans and dialogues very much, but there are two moments in the book that I could have done without.
The first one centers on the scene where our 15 year old heroine, Y.T. is seduced by arch - villain Raven. During (consensual) intercourse she manages to anaesthesize the guy with a device contained in her vagina. This is given a light treament and we are supposed to find it hilarious. Well, I read something not long ago that I thought was great advice for writers. How do you know your story is sexist (or not)? The advice given was to replace your heroin by a hero and see if you feel the same way about the scene. Now imagine a 15 year old boy in that same scene. I 'll let you make your own mind up on this one.

The other scene touches upon the name of one of the refugee that helps Hiro to get onto the villain's boat lair - that poor block's name is Transubstanciacion and we are told that everyone's calling him 'Tranny'. Very funny.
Now, let's do the same as we did before. Let's imagine a woman instead, her name is Controversial but her nickname is 'Cunty'. Now, you know were I am going with this.
Shame because actually Hiro is a great example of a non white protagonist.

قبل از خوندن بعضی کتابها برای خودم یه سری تصورات دارم و در مورد این یکی هم داشتم ولی تبدیل شد به یکی از خر تو خرترین چیزهایی که خوندم و فرسنگ‌ها با چیزی که فکر می‌کردم باشه، فاصله داشت
واقعا عجیب بود. بعضی جاها آبکی‌ترین کتاب ممکن رو می‌خوندی و بعضی جاهای دیگه داری به شکل خیلی عمیقی اسطوره‌شناسی و فلسفه و زبان‌شناسی می‌خونی. ولی چیزی که برام قطعیه اینه که از لحاظ دنیاسازی یکی از بهترین‌ کتابایی بود که تا حالا خوندم
بعضاً دیدم به کسایی که از بازیکن شماره یک خوششون اومده این کتاب رو پیشنهاد می‌دن. من فقط فیلم اون کتاب رو دیدم و راحت می‌گم به جز ایده‌ی دنیای مجازی هیچ شباهتی بهم ندارن و اگه با اون تصور برید سراغش احتمال 99 درصد پشیمون می‌شید
به کسایی که دنبال یه داستان سرراست هم هستن پیشنهادش نمی‌دم. با اینکه کلیت داستان قابل فهمه، ولی تمرکز روی مسیر داستان برام سخت بود که به خاطر تمرکز روی دنیاسازیشه
هرجور حساب می‌کنم این کتاب رو فقط به یه عده‌ی محدودی می‌تونم پیشنهاد بدم که کامپیوتر، برنامه‌نویسی، واقعیت مجازی، زبانشناسی و اسطوره‌شناسی علاقه دارن و با مقدار قابل توجهی طنز ابلهانه هم مشکلی ندارن :))
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سر ترجمه غر دارم بزنم
موقع خوندن می‌فهمیدم که ترجمه‌ی این کتاب باید خیلی کار سختی بوده باشه ولی به صورت کلی مترجم از پسش براومده بود
مشکلم بیشتر با انتخاب‌های آگاهانه‌ی مترجم سر بعضی کلمات و عباراته که به شخصه درک نمی‌کنم. مثلاً مترجم پاشنه‌ی آشیل رو چشم اسفندیار ترجمه کرده که وقتی چشمم بهش خورد یهو زدم زیر خنده و حواسم کلا از کتاب پرت شد
یه مشکل دیگه‌م هم سر ترجمه‌/عدم ترجمه‌ی اسم شخصیت‌هاست. یکی از شخصیت‌های اصلی داستان یه دختر پونزده ساله‌س به اسم اصلی وای. تی
y.t. مخفف yours truly هست
مترجم یورز ترولی رو "ارادتمند شما" ترجمه کرده و مخففش "ارشا" شده اسم این شخصیت توی نسخه‌ی فارسی
به شخصه با این مشکلی ندارم به شرطی که باقی اسامی هم ترجمه می‌شد که نشده
مخصوصا شخصیت اصلی داستان که اسمش هیرو پروتاگونیسته و نویسنده هم از این انتخاب اسمش منظور داشته
یا ریون که یکی از شخصیت‌های منفی داستانه که بازم ترجمه نشده.
اصرار به معادل‌سازی برای بعضی کلماتی که سالهاست همه از کلمه‌ی انگلیسیشون استفاده می‌کنن هم برای من حداقل جالب نیست اصلا. این حس بهم دست می‌ده که انگار مترجم دنبال خودنماییه بیشتر تا اینکه یه ترجمه‌ی تر و تمیز تحویل بده
همین دیگه
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این کتاب هدیه بود و مرسی از هدیه‌دهنده‌ش که یکی از کارهای خیلی مهم علمی‌تخیلی رو هدیه داد بهم ♥

This book is awful. Never ever read it. It's mastubatory shit written by a self-absorbed pseudo academic with a lolita syndrome or ephebophilia. I can't really decide which. Read Neuromancer instead.

3.5 Stars
This modern cyberpunk classic is smart, funny and oh-so-cool. I loved the setup with a pizza delivery hacker who is literally named "protagonist". The story is intentionally over the top as it satirizes the cyberpunk subgenre. I adored the beginning, but I thought the story was unnecessarily long. I think the novel would have had a stronger, sharper narrative if it had been a few hundred pages shorter. While not perfect, I would definitely recommend this novel to science fiction readers.