Snow Crash-Neal Stephenson
It's the near future. The United States exists as a rump state, just another statelet competing with Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, New South Africa, and the Mafia. Going through this mess, just trying to make a living by delivering pizza and selling information to the Central Intelligence Company in Langley are Hiro Protagonist, and YT, Kourier extraordinaire, who end up involved in trying to stop a conspiracy that could destroy our civilization, replacing it with something older and darker.
I want to start out by saying that by page 50, I sent a note to the friend recommending it saying, "This book is ridiculous. It might as well be titled 'Book Written Specifically for Gitai and His Friends.' Do we conform to an archetype this closely or did Neal Stephenson create us?" In other words, I loved it.
It's got Semitic languages, Biblical references, the history of the Near East, MMOs, samurai swords, action, adventure, compelling characters, and memetics. It couldn't have gotten any more tailor made for me without a gay love story. Hiro is a hacker and someone has found a way to hack the human brain, and infect it with a virus, the eponymous Snow Crash virus. Hiro has to figure out what the hack does, how to reverse it, and how to stop the antagonist from taking over humanity, and in addition to writing such beautiful phrases as, "To condense fact from the vapor of nuance," he writes a hell of a compelling story, pulling together a couple thousand years of history, science, and myth to build a story that's exciting, engaging, and compelling. In many ways, it reminds me of Tom Robbins, but updated for the children of Robbins' original audience.
I highly recommend it. I picked it up because I was curious about Anathem, but not about to make my first attempt at an author by picking up a fucking tombstone of a book. I will be getting Anathem, now, and probably any other book by Stephenson I can get my hands on.
I want to start out by saying that by page 50, I sent a note to the friend recommending it saying, "This book is ridiculous. It might as well be titled 'Book Written Specifically for Gitai and His Friends.' Do we conform to an archetype this closely or did Neal Stephenson create us?" In other words, I loved it.
It's got Semitic languages, Biblical references, the history of the Near East, MMOs, samurai swords, action, adventure, compelling characters, and memetics. It couldn't have gotten any more tailor made for me without a gay love story. Hiro is a hacker and someone has found a way to hack the human brain, and infect it with a virus, the eponymous Snow Crash virus. Hiro has to figure out what the hack does, how to reverse it, and how to stop the antagonist from taking over humanity, and in addition to writing such beautiful phrases as, "To condense fact from the vapor of nuance," he writes a hell of a compelling story, pulling together a couple thousand years of history, science, and myth to build a story that's exciting, engaging, and compelling. In many ways, it reminds me of Tom Robbins, but updated for the children of Robbins' original audience.
I highly recommend it. I picked it up because I was curious about Anathem, but not about to make my first attempt at an author by picking up a fucking tombstone of a book. I will be getting Anathem, now, and probably any other book by Stephenson I can get my hands on.