Snow Crash in On Paths Unknown

Jan 16, 2010 Traveller rated it it was ok

Shelves: sf, cyberpunk, two-and-a-half-stars

Did you ever have a kid at school who tried to appear smart and as the font of all knowledge by catching on to the tail-ends of things while listening to adults, absorbing some of it, and then spouting forth in front of an assembly of kids, his (or her, --let's be fair here) own regurgitation of what he had heard in the adult quarter, which would often make most of the other kids hang on to his/her every word simply because they themselves didn't have a clue what he was talking about?

Well, with ...more

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Mar 06, 2012 mark monday rated it it was ok

Shelves: rain-man-reviews, i-gave-up, scifi-modern

derisively laugh to me for opportunities of full and cringe-worthy and tedious equally be to found i which, Against A Dark Background beloved the disliked who jackass of kind the am i that mind in keep also should you, seriously review this take you before but. FAIL. hipness insouciant of display a with audience its dazzle to designed lie a - lie brazen some of middle the in worship i someone catching like was it, one this with was i disappointed how express can't words. nowhere go but brilliant ...more

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Jan 02, 2012 [Name Redacted] rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: alternate-history, sci-fi, futurity, religion, comedy, languages, cyberpunk

I could have sworn I had read this when I was in High School, but given how much of it I simply did not recognize, it's possible I only heard a description of it from friends. Sadly, that description was far more engaging than the book itself, which proved tremendously disappointing.

I'm sure part of my disappointment is also connected to my professional background; in the same way that my neuro-scientist ex-girlfriend cannot enjoy any sci-fi story involving the brain because all the plot-crucia I could have sworn I had read this when I was in High School, but given how much of it I simply did not recognize, it's possible I only heard a description of it from friends. Sadly, that description was far more engaging than the book itself, which proved tremendously disappointing.

I'm sure part of my disappointment is also connected to my professional background; in the same way that my neuro-scientist ex-girlfriend cannot enjoy any sci-fi story involving the brain because all the plot-crucial scientific errors are glaringly obvious to her, I cannot enjoy attempts to discuss religion and ancient history by non-scholars because (nine times out of ten) they are so full of anachronistic and ahistorical nonsense that I can't focus on the narrative. And while Stephenson has some great ideas, and a really great premise, his understanding of Antiquities is PISS-POOR, turning what could have been a delightful alternate-history sci-fi conspiracy novel into little more than The Da Vinci Code for computer science majors. Word of advice, folks: when you're constructing a narrative around certain key historical events, make sure YOU GET THE FACTS AND TIME-LINES RIGHT. If he had just stuck with the ancient Mesopotamian angle, it would have worked out fine, but his attempts to shoehorn his ideas into the history of Judaism, Christianity and Islam only revealed how little he actually understands about those religions or their history. Also, his anti-Pharisee bias is so strong, and so grounded in misinformation, that it sometimes felt more like I was reading an Evangelical Christian tract than a novel. Seriously -- there were points at which I began to wonder if he might not be an anti-Semite himself.

And it's worth mentioning that this novel has NOT aged well. It's intended to be a futuristic sci-fi story about plutocratic-dystopian America, but given that the main character is a 30-something Baby Boomer, it's full of middle-aged people who served in the Vietnam War, and all the slang appears to be from the 1980s "Valley Girl" movement... and it was published in 1992... Well, even at the time of publication these predictions were dated and impossible, so I have chosen to count it as an alternate-history novel. His anti-American sentiments appear grounded in the sort of cookie-cutter, stereotypical Liberalism that was already threadbare in the 1980s, and he depicts American racism, misogyny, etc. with the sort of garish lack of proportion that only someone entirely sheltered from actual American society by both an insular political ideology and social circle could have accomplished.

Even looking past all the historical anachronisms, anti-religious bigotry, potential anti-Semitism, and haphazard chronology, the book itself is a cluttered mess. The moments of genuine insight and excitement (which are present!) are obscured behind exposition dumps which last for chapters and drawn-out, tedious action sequences. There's too much going on, too many characters, too many events, and too little of it matters. The characters are either flavourless or unlikable (with the exception of "Fido" and Raven, oddly enough), and the conclusion feels rushed, forced and abrupt.

So much potential, most of it wasted.

I'm not giving up on Stephenson though! He must have done SOMETHING to earn his place in the pantheon of cyberpunk authors, and I'm intrigued by the schism I've seen among his fans. You have those, like Jerry Holkins (Tycho Brahe of "Penny Arcade") who cleave to his older work, and after reading this I have to assume that has more to do with nostalgia than the merits of the works themselves; and you have those, like my friend Wyatt, who cleave to his newer work, like Anathem, which has been repeatedly recommended to me and sounds far more interesting and thoughtful than "Snow Crash" proved to be. So we'll see! ...more

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Aug 01, 2009 Emma rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: americana, fiction, 2012, war, abduction, sci-fi_speculative, drugs_substances

(some spoilers within)

Just felt like a whole lotta guff about nothing. He was obviously very prescient about things like the internet and virtual reality, and I liked the set up with the small 'countries' like little gated communities within LA. But the first half of the book was so technical, setting up how everything worked *constantly*, and the second half was relentlessly, eye-rollingly 'badass'. I'm not sure why it's getting two stars; maybe because I liked his sense of humour, surprisingly ...more

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Aug 25, 2008 Nate D rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

Not exactly good, but extremely fun. Especially if you can get into its brand of psycho techno-mythology, which pulls together linguistics, neurophilosophy, computer theory, and Sumerian legend into a pretty well-coiled ball of highly inspired nonsense. And then pads out the theory with all kinds of really unnecessary, stupid (but also totally fun!) action sequences. (The opening is, seriously, a desperate race against time to deliver a pizza). Also contains some of the best and lamest visions o ...more

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Jul 18, 2011 SubterraneanCatalyst rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, favorite, more-please

I read this a couple of years ago after spending years not reading it. Yep. It was on my TBR list forever and when I finally read it I was irritated it took me so long to get to it because I love it so much and then strangely happy that I waited so long for it because I could bask in my enjoyment with fuller appreciation (I suppose?).
I am beyond lazy when it comes to writing reviews but I had to say that this book contains one of the best little descriptions of what it feels to be multicultural ...more

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