Neal Stephenson seems to be very good at confusing his readers, then intriguing them and before you know it, you're off on a crazy, cyber-punkish, near future thrill ride that by the end convinces you that Stephenson is pretty much AWESOME and can do very little in the way of anything wrong.
Snow Crash is one such book. It took me a little bit of work to get into this book- like The Diamond Age, it takes a couple of chapters to wrap your head around the ins and outs of the world that Stephenson is dropping his characters into but once you do, you're good to go. In this case, Snow Crash takes place in 21st Century LA, where the federal government has ceded control of pretty much everything to private enterprise and the country is dotted with burbclaves (suburban enclaves) and small franchise micro-states that protect their 'citizens' that are willing to pay membership/citizenship fees. Into this are flung our hero, appropriately (and wittily enough) named Hiro Protagonist, hacker, sword fighter and all around bad ass. And YT a young Skateboard courier.
When Hiro (who was delivering pizza for the Mafia, a successful franchise in this world) finds himself in a jam, YT bails him out and although he loses his job, the two of them partner up to gather intelligence and track down the mysterious virus known as Snow Crash- something that's threatening the survival of the Metaverse (the full immersion internet hacker playground a la TRON where Hiro is a 'warrior prince') but the world itself.
And that's where this book takes a random left turn and dumps you straight into Sumerian mythology. Near as I can understand it, the Snow Crash is an ancient neuro-linguistic virus (the original Sumerian language being presented as firmware for the brain) and Snow Crash is trying to spread that virus throughout the world again. It's complicated, needless to say- perhaps overly so. But needless to say, Hiro and YT are in a race against time preventing this virus from causing the infocalypse- the end of all information as we know it.
Not withstanding the lengthy diversions into Sumerian mythology (interesting but totally not my thing), this is another great yarn from Stephenson. The ideas of the Metaverse- a sort of virtual reality, possible future internet that sounds a lot like either TRON or the Matrix not to mention the idea of a virus that can not only mess up your computer to a fare-thee-well but actually infect your brain as well? It turns into an exciting, thought-provoking mish-mash of technology, religion, culture slapped onto a 21st Century Los Angeles that has just enough ties with the present day to be believable.
If I've got a bone to pick, it's with the extensive discussion of Sumerian mythology. I mean, I get it- I understand why it's important to the story and all that jazz and it was interesting it just seemed to take an extensive amount of time away from the story itself. (Which I found to be a lot more interesting.) But having said that, I doubt that Mr. Stephenson writes these books to be easy reads. They can be difficult to read but challenging yourself now and again isn't something that I consider to be a bad thing.
Overall: It's Neal Stephenson-- so in general, it kicks ass. This one wobbles a bit here and there but it was still an engrossing, enjoyable read.
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