Snow Crash

Written by Neal Stephenson
Published by Bantam Doubleday Dell

Take William Gibson, Robert Anton Wilson, Akira Kurosawa, Mario Puzo, and a couple issues each of 2600, Thrasher, and The Futurist.  Toss them in a blender and hit frappe.  The result: Snow Crash, a mind-bending ride into the not-so-distant future, where corporations reign supreme, and the franchised city-state is the order of the day.  Stephenson has crafted a masterpiece, and it's little wonder that Bill Gibson recognized him as the heir apparent to the cyberpunk throne.

To begin, the central characters of Snow Crash are familiar archetypes without being hackneyed or cliché.  Hiroaki Protagonist, or Hiro, is a freelance hacker and intelligence gatherer for the Central Intelligence Corporation.  Of course, the CIC doesn't have the money to keep him in style, so he delivers for the Mafia's CosaNostra Pizza part-time and promotes concerts for his burnout roommate, Vitaly Chernobyl and his band, the Meltdowns.  Oh, and he's the greatest swordsman in the world.  It says so on his business cards.  His partner in crime is Y.T. (Yours Truly), a 15-year-old skateboarding courier who makes her living screaming down the freeway at ridiculous speeds, harpooned to the back of automobiles with a magnetic grapple.  Stephenson delivers these two classic cyberpunks (the impoverished, badass hacker and the tough, independent street kid) with a new twist, and a sense of style that is uniquely his own.  The pop culture references fly thick throughout, so if Vitaly Chernobyl and the Meltdowns made you groan, beware.

The plot also satisfies.  Ranging from cryptography to ancient Sumerian religions to neurolinguistics, the book left my head spinning with the connections Stephenson forges between these subjects.  Stephenson extends Campbellian archetypal mythology into the digital age, showing us a new version of the Hiro of a Thousand Faces.  The info on ancient mythology is nicely done, and (unlike many of his profession) surprisingly accurate.  Of course, all myths have various versions, and the version chosen can make quite a difference in interpretation.  Thoughtfully, Stephenson actually credits his sources, in true academic fashion, a practice that more writers should be adopting, IMHO.  Of course, I'm an academic, so it's probably the only way I'll see my name in print outside of this lovely Flatland.  With enough twists and turns and interesting secondary characters to fill several books, Snow Crash can keep you guessing to the bitter end if you don't watch carefully.  RAW veterans will appreciate the plot as it unfolds with a little less surprise than most readers, as the pattern should be familiar to most of you.

Now, before I convince you that this is the Greatest Book of All Time(TM), let me drop some knowledge.  The book drags in places.  This can't be helped, to some extent, because Stephenson can't count on the masses to have any working knowledge of Sumerian mythology, so some backstory must be played out, or things make no sense.  In a perfect world, we would all recognize the names and exploits of Enki and Inanna without a lot of prodding, but oh well.  This slows down the pace, and as each character is brought into the know, the reader gets a refresher course, and that gets a bit repetitive.  For those familiar with the infamous Heinlein Lag Effect, this may not present a problem.  Also, if you don't mind a brief digressive lecture in the midst of your ass-kicking sci-fi, this will not present a problem.  And who knows, you might learn something.

Diagnosis:  High-octane cyberpunk fiction of the highest order, with rich setting, interesting characters, and a plot that looks like a pretzel.  Cinch the prose straps a little tighter, and this book would be a legend.  Still, a damn fine piece of work.

Final Grade: A-