- ISBN: 9780553380958
- Copyright Year: 1992
- Publication date: 05/02/2000
- Publisher: PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE
- Pages: 576
- Author: Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is the book that helped establish the cyberpunk genre of science fiction. In some non-specified not-too-distant future, there has been a worldwide economic and political collapse. The government has given up most of its authority to private, corporate and often criminal organizations that franchise themselves out to control different areas. In parallel, the Metaverse is a virtual world created by hackers with more room than the ‘real’ world.
Hiro Protagonist is one of the best of these hackers as well as a master swordsman in both the Metaverse and the physical world. Though he would probably prefer to continue to be a Deliverator for the Mafia’s pizza franchises, he gets dragged into a partnership with YT, a 15 year old skateboarding Kourier. Snow Crash is a new drug that is part computer virus, part religion, part Sumerian mysticism. It is able to crash a computer and also a human brain.
Other than a few references to out-dated technology (CRT’s and pay phones), this 30 year old book is still very relevant and fresh. The universe that Stephenson creates in Snow Crash is rich and full. He creates a new genre, combining virtual reality and physical reality and ties in everything from prehistorical mysticism to corporate franchises to the splintering and commercialization of government. It is not a world that I would like to live in, but it is a fascinating universe to visit.
_____________
A little closer to our current universe:
Plastiphobia – aka Plastivore by Matt Truxaw
Matt Truxaw’s newest book is Monster, which released on 1/12/2026. This urban fantasy, horror, thriller will keep you turning the pages.
He is also the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia/Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
You can find them all on Amazon in Paperback, Hardback, Kindle and/or free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read any of them, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets MANY of his books out of the library/Libby so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
If you want to be ‘in-the-loop’ on these and other works, you can follow his author’s page on Amazon or his Facebook page.
For more reviews and articles by Matt here on Amazing Stories (Click here).
Monster: A Novel by Matt Truxaw
That protagonist name bounced me out of the book *every single time* it was used. And helped set my attitude of not liking Stephenson’s books.
Not just the “Protagonist” part; the “Hiro” (Hero) as well; the protagonist is supposedly half Korean out of Japan–the odds that a Korean mother would want a Japanese first name for her kid aren’t very great IMO. I’ve been told that Koreans still resent the time when the country was “owned” by the Japanese.
If the US had fallen, the odds of US-based corporations continuing to develop products are also rather low, I think. Although Stephenson’s Metaverse is interesting, the book in itself seems unlikely, although I’m familiar with some parts of the Snow Crash virus and the possibility (including the linguistics/brain link) is fascinating.