Highest Rated Review by the Community
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community May 19, 2008
Pros: remarkably fresh and visionary, even sixteen years after publication
Cons: the slight flavor of kiddie porn
Summary: When you've been given the name Hiro Protagonist, you're typecast from the day your birth certificate was completed. Luckily for our hero Hiro, however, he meets the challenge quite nicely: he's both a world-class swordsman when wielding the ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 6, 2011
Pros: Um...different.
Cons: A lot of little things (style, dated, abrupt ending, etc.)
Summary: For the May book in Calico Reaction's 2011 Book Club, Snow Crash got chosen. I picked it because it sounded like a good time and I wanted to read something by Neal Stephenson. Wish granted, though I'm pretty indifferent on the ... read more
-
-
Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Oct 8, 2005
Pros: Action, hacking, internet building fun!
Cons: Some will be put off by jargon, but it's not enough to hurt most readers.
Summary: At the outset we meet our protagonist, Hiro Protagonist (yes, it is a stupid name). It is difficult to tell exactly what is taking place. The narrator speaks in third person who is quite annoying at first but you get used to it; does not last through the ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Apr 13, 2003
Pros: A katana wielding hacker takes on religious fundamentalism and delivers pizza.
Cons: The book ended and I had to return to reality.
Summary: After reading this book, I couldn’t think of anything cooler than a katana-wielding computer cowboy who spends equal time delivering pizza, hacking computers, and saving the world. And as such, I was drawn into this novel, and loved it. Really, the ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Mar 15, 2003
Pros: Post-Modernism at it's best. Breaking away from conventional genre type-casting
Cons: It ends wrong, and too fast.
Summary: Once in awhile you read a book that makes you understand totally the concept of why you cannot beat a book with a movie, game, or other form of entertainment. This book does that eloquently. Easily a fore-runner of the cyber punk genre, it is so much ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Feb 9, 2003
Pros: Fast paced story, non-conventional characters, easy to read
Cons: May contain too many historical and philosophical references for pure cyberpunk readers
Summary: There are quite a few Cyberpunk novels out there, and many more are coming out every year but Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson is still one of the best. Even though it was first published in 1992, the concepts and the storyline in this book is still ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jan 15, 2003
Pros: Loose cannons
Cons: Loose threads
Summary: Note: Minor plot details are revealed herein.
Here's a recipe:
Combine, in roughly equal proportions, the startling imaginativeness of Philip K Dick, the cyberpunk sensibility and savvy of William Gibson, the surrealism of Thomas ... read more
-
-
Rated a Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jan 2, 2003
Pros: Amazing depth, Sumerian mythology in cyberpunk!
Cons: None in my opinion.
Summary: If you are looking for a book to pick up and read any time in the near future, "Snow Crash" by Neal Stephenson is my reccomendation. I'm not normally a fan of the cyberpunk genra, but this novel is not your generic cyberpunk reading material.
... read more
-
-
Rated a Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 5, 2001
Pros: Some good ideas based around Cyberspace, language and an extremely capitalist future.
Cons: Slow and vague parts of un-involving action development/description.
Summary: I love the ideas that Cyberspace present but I have now found 'Neuromancer' and 'Snow Crash' to be heavy-going reads. Their smart technology-involved 'futuristic' attitude seems to hinder an otherwise great opportunity for real theme-exploration. Having ... read more
-
-
Rated a Helpful Review by the Epinions community
May 28, 2001
Pros: Highly imaginative and well-crafted cyber novel.
Cons: Some boring passages about ancient language.
Summary: Neal Stephenson is one hell of a writer. From the opening sentence, the reader is hurled into the life-on-the-edge world of the Deliverator, a guy who turns out to be no more than a pizza delivery man of the future. Hiro Protagonist is the Deliverator ... read more
-
-
Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
May 8, 2001
Pros: Postmodern adventure with a surrealistic twist and great ideas!
Cons: Postmodern adventure with a surrealistic twist and weird ideas.
Summary: I read this book a few years ago when I borrowed it from a friend. It's on my reread list as soon as I get a new copy of it, since it's been long enough that I forgot some of the details I loved. Rereadability, the Classic quality in a novel is how I ... read more
-
-
Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
May 3, 2001
Pros: Better than Neuromancer, this Sci-Fi epic re-invents the Cyberpunk genre.
Cons: If you start reading it, you better clear your schedule for the day.
Summary: I've been reading and writing Cyberpunk Sci-Fi for about ten years now. I was starting to feel let down by my fellow artists in the field. The genre was becoming tired and boring. It was getting to be harder and harder to read someone who wasn't just ... read more
-
-
Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Nov 23, 2000
Pros: It moves fast through out most of the book, smart, funny
Cons: It will drag in some places
Summary: In my opinion this is the best book that I have ever read. I love his view on how corporate the world will become and how the government will collapse. The mediaverse is an excellent view of what the internet will become. I have seen some places, today, ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Sep 28, 2000
Pros: Raven, Sword-Fighting, Raven, the Mafia, Raven
Cons: Flat ending...and some characters just get left behind.
Summary: It really says something about human nature that even when the entire US of A has been turned into a gigantic strip-mall and pizza delivery is handled by the Mafia that people will still try to argue that it hasn't been "30 minutes or less" and ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Sep 22, 2000
Pros: Madly inventive, great pacing.
Cons: Not much.
Summary:
I read this book on a vague recommendation; on the strength of this book, I'm going to read everything Neal Stephenson produces.
The genre is cyberpunk, and the style is fast-paced, but the book is so much more. This isn't by any ... read more
-
-
Rated a Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 31, 2000
Pros: fast paced and entertaining
Cons: want more
Summary: Snow Crash
Let me just say, I think Neal Stephenson is a genius. To fully appreciate just how amazing he is, you have to appreciate his catalog of recent work. His eco thriller is hard to find, so to date I have read his three latest novels, ... read more
-
-
Rated a Somewhat Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 16, 2000
Pros: Amazing perfection of Sci Fi
Cons: None, flawless reading orgasm
Summary: Akira bike scenes, Matrix Lobby battles every 40 pages, though provoking ideas presented on communication and language that binds Sumerian myth with a Matrix type world. This book will not only give you a great read, but will INSPIRE you, you will view ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Aug 15, 2000
Pros: Frenetic, funny, and utterly brilliant
Cons: Abrupt ending
Summary: Peer into my little crystal ball and take a look at the future, a future tinted with a cynics eye, a future where every little fragmented chunk of society has fragmented some more. If you think that future is right around the corner, then your name must ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 30, 2000
Pros: Great story, I really can't say enough about it.
Cons: Can't really think of any.
Summary: When I was in elementary school my mother was real good at making us read all summer. I read a lot of good books that way, and I picked up the talent of speed reading. However, once I got to high school and it's propensity to force you to read these ... read more
-
-
Rated a Very Helpful Review by the Epinions community
Jun 24, 2000
Pros: amazingly creative and entertaining futuristic vision
Cons: very little plot, theorizing in middle bogs story down
Summary: Snow Crash starts off with a samurai delivering pizzas for the mob in an amazing car of the future, and that's only the beginning. The pages of Snow Crash are filled with creative, humorous, and sometimes depressing, visions of the future. A future ... read more
-
|
|
