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Snow Crash

by Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash

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  • Synopses & Reviews
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ISBN13: 9780553380958
ISBN10: 0553380958
Condition: Standard


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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

One of Time magazine's 100 all-time best English-language novels.

Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison — a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about Infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous... you'll recognize it immediately.

Review

"Stephenson has not stepped, he has vaulted onto the literary stage with this novel." Los Angeles Reader

Review

"A cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole." San Francisco Bay Guardian

Review

"Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the 21st century." William Gibson, author of Neuromancer

Review

"Brilliantly realized....Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow." The New York Times Book Review

Review

"Snow Crash takes on a whole slew of nasty contemporary trends and extrapolates them hilariously into a pessimistic and unlikely newar future....this is one book to chill out with this summer." Mondo 2000

Review

"Stylish noir extrapolation becomes gloriously witty social satire...savor Stephenson's delicious prose and cheerfully impudent wit. Cyberpunk isn't dead — it has just (belatedly) developed a sense of humor." Locus

Review

"A fantastic, slam-bang-overdrive, supersurrealistic, comic-spooky whirl through a tomorrow that is already happening. Neal Stephenson is intelligent, perceptive, hip and will become a major force in American writing." Timothy Leary

Synopsis

First arriving on the scene in 1992 to critical acclaim, this definitive novel of the information age weaves virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between. Stephenson is author of the bestselling Cryptonomicon and The Diamond Age.

Synopsis

One of Time s 100 best English-language novels A mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous you ll recognize it immediately
Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo s CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse."

Synopsis

In this mind-altering romp--where the term "Metaverse" was first coined--you'll experience a future America so bizarre, so outrageous, you'll recognize it immediately - One of Time's 100 best English-language novels

Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison--a writer so original he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse.

Praise for Snow Crash

" Snow Crash is] a cross between Neuromancer and Thomas Pynchon's Vineland. This is no mere hyperbole."--The San Francisco Bay Guardian

"Fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the twenty-first century."--William Gibson

"Brilliantly realized . . . Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow."--The New York Times Book Review

Synopsis

The "brilliantly realized" (The New York Times Book Review) modern classic that coined the term "metaverse"--one of Time's 100 best English-language novels and "a foundational text of the cyberpunk movement" (Wired)

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous . . . you'll recognize it immediately.

Synopsis

The "brilliantly realized" (The New York Times Book Review) breakthrough novel from visionary author Neal Stephenson, a modern classic that predicted the metaverse and inspired generations of Silicon Valley innovators

Hiro lives in a Los Angeles where franchises line the freeway as far as the eye can see. The only relief from the sea of logos is within the autonomous city-states, where law-abiding citizens don't dare leave their mansions.

Hiro delivers pizza to the mansions for a living, defending his pies from marauders when necessary with a matched set of samurai swords. His home is a shared 20 X 30 U-Stor-It. He spends most of his time goggled in to the Metaverse, where his avatar is legendary.

But in the club known as The Black Sun, his fellow hackers are being felled by a weird new drug called Snow Crash that reduces them to nothing more than a jittering cloud of bad digital karma (and IRL, a vegetative state).

Investigating the Infocalypse leads Hiro all the way back to the beginning of language itself, with roots in an ancient Sumerian priesthood. He'll be joined by Y.T., a fearless teenaged skateboard courier. Together, they must race to stop a shadowy virtual villain hell-bent on world domination.


About the Author

Neal Stephenson issues from a clan of rootless, itinerant hardscience and engineering professors (mostly Pac-10, Big 10, and Big 8 with the occasional wild strain of Ivy). He began his higher education as a physics major, then switched to geography when it appeared that this would enable him to scam more free time on his universitys mainframe computer. When he graduated and discovered, to his perplexity, that there were no jobs for inexperienced physicist-geographers, he began to look into alternative pursuits such as working on cars, unimaginably stupid agricultural labor, and writing novels. His first novel, The Big U, was published in 1984 and vanished without a trace. His second novel, Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller, came out in 1988 and quickly developed a cult following among water-pollution-control engineers. It was also enjoyed, though rarely bought, by many radical environmentalists. Snow Crash was written in the years 1988 through 1991 as the author listened to a great deal of loud, relentless, depressing music.

Mr. Stephenson now resides in a comfortable home in the western hemisphere and spends all of his time trying to retrofit an office into its generally dark, unlevel, and asbestos-laden basement so that he can attempt to write more novels. Despite the tremendous amounts of time he devotes to writing, playing with computers, listening to speed metal, Rollerblading, and pounding nails, he is a flawless husband, parent, neighbor, and all-around human being.


4.9 12

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating 4.9 (12 comments)

`
RLENDRUM , September 13, 2018
If you love Science Fiction, Snow Crash is a must read!! Once, I started reading it, I couldn't put it down.

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Judy Maynard , September 09, 2015 (view all comments by Judy Maynard)
I still have the 1992 uncorrected proof of Snow Crash which just blew me away. Still one of my top ten favorite books. I must have hand sold over 100 copies. Now with an election year coming up I would suggest Interface a near-future political thriller, written by Stephen Bury (Neal Stephenson and George Jewbury). Bio-chip implant at it's best.

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chipkerchner , March 24, 2013 (view all comments by chipkerchner)
I'm asking myself "Why didn't I read this book back in early/mid 90s?" This book is amazing in so many ways. His description of technology is eerily dead on to how we've progressed in the past 25 years. It's both fun and exciting (android life forms, 3D fully immersive internet, skate boarding wonders, heroic pizza deliverers/hackers). While it's mildly dystopic (hyper inflation, private enterprise running what's left of society, unstoppable assassin, floating refugee ship island, mind controlling viruses). Cyberpunk books should "try" to model themselves after this one.

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exxxconn , August 04, 2012
If you like Cyber Punk and Humor than this is your book!!! Great plot elements and wonderful characters abound in this classic gem. One of my favorite books and I highly recommend it.

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Anna Hernandez , January 04, 2010 (view all comments by Anna Hernandez)
The world in this book is bleak but offers a light at the end of the tunnel for our troubled world. "Wait a minute, Juanita. Make up your mind. This Snow Crash thing—is it a virus, a drug, or a religion?" Juanita shrugs. "What's the difference?"

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Greg McCaskey , January 02, 2010
This is by far one of my favorite books I have read it at least 5 times, There is humor Action and drama enough to keep fans of many types of books Happy I suggest everyone reads it at least once.

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ibkazul , January 01, 2010
With this book NS became one of the first to meld history,linguistics, math and several kinds of science with futuristic speculation to form the world that we now know is our own.

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julius , October 13, 2008 (view all comments by julius)
I have always found that in the genre of science fiction, that what makes a good writer is the ability to see what we have before us and following these to various possible conclusions. What makes the writer great, is when some of these conclusions come true. It was thus with Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, so to with Neal Stephenson. Snow Crash introduces us to Hiro Protagonist and the "Street", a three dimensional virtual world that you plug into and interact in this world via an avatar. You can be anything in this world. Sound familiar? Sure we don't plug into our computers for full immersion participation, but anyone who has played World of Warcraft or socialized in Second Life can dig this! There is also the globe in Hiro's virtual office on the Street. Very like Google Earth. When I read this book, (my first by this author) in 2005, I checked the publication date and was surprised to see that the original publication date was 1992! Of course the story is very good and the characters are engaging as well. All in all a very exciting read!

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Susan Belhassen , September 27, 2008 (view all comments by Susan Belhassen)
One of my most favorite books -- and I greatly thank my friend Kris for turning me on to what has become one of my favorite authors. Anyone else notice writing similarities between Neal Stephenson and Tad Williams (whose books I also very much enjoy)? Well, whatever. They both rock. Snow Crash and the little Zodiac are my two favorite Stephenson novels (and I think I've read everything out in paperback).

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Arboreality , July 17, 2007 (view all comments by Arboreality)
Have to tell you a story ... I told my boss the theme of the book, and how I loved that the main character's name was "Hiro Protaganist", and he laughed and said he's never heard of Neal Stephenson. He poked fun at me for reading no-name "scifi" writers and said I was probably the only person in 20 blocks who even knew who Stephenson was. We were on our way to coffee, and when we walked in I turned to the people ahead of us in line and said "Have you heard of Neal Stephenson?", to which they responded "Of course! He's great! Have you read Snow Crash?". So there. Also, the book is great. :)

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kittencupcake , July 17, 2007 (view all comments by kittencupcake)
Through satire and history you will find yourself lost in a land that is so surreal and yet so close. Cyberpunk, Sumerians and heavy-metal geekery with an IQ of 223. One of the most imaginative hard-core cyberpunk novels of our time.

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jabcracker1 , December 05, 2006
It was a great book in many ways (the language ploy is not a new one... L.S. Vygotsky, Hess & Shipman, Luria etc. have looked at the role of inner language in thought and perception) ... but I was troubled by 15-year old YT's sexual encounter. Seems the age of such acceptance in popular literature is being pushed lower and lower. To me, THAT is the virus in this book.

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780553380958
Binding:
Trade Paperback
Publication date:
05/02/2000
Publisher:
PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
Series info:
Bantam Spectra Book
Pages:
576
Height:
1.30IN
Width:
5.40IN
Thickness:
1.25
Series:
Bantam Spectra Book
Number of Units:
1
Copyright Year:
1992
Series Volume:
#97-752
UPC Code:
2800553380950
Author:
Neal Stephenson
Author:
Neal Stephenson
Subject:
Humorous fiction
Subject:
High tech
Subject:
American fiction
Subject:
Science fiction
Subject:
Science Fiction and Fantasy-High Tech
Subject:
Science fiction, american

Ships free on qualified orders.
Add to Cart
$12.95
List Price:$18.00
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1Cedar Hills

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