This is my second NL book, the first being Anathem.
I loathed the beginning of Anathem with every fibre of my being because it was just several pages of architectural description and had no real plot value. But enjoyed the story overall, even if I was left confused by the ending.
In contrast, I enjoyed the beginning of Snow Crash immensely … >!till he got to the descriptions of the concert stage and the Lagos dude. None of the action and traveling scenes registered in my head. The most important plot points were a dialogue between a computer programme and the protagonist. I couldn’t even tie in the content from this dialogue to the virus, it felt so bizarre – what do deuteronomists rewriting the Bible have anything to do with the virus? I have no understanding of the motivations of characters like Uncle Enzo, Mr Lee, Ng, YT… why did Enzo dislike L. Bob Rife, why was he friendly with YT to the extent of risking his people to save her, none of it made sense. Having said that, i enjoyed the world building, the metaverse concept, the sardonic humour, the toilet paper regulations, all of it. The ending was so rushed and anticlimatic that i felt cheated.!<
It felt like he was exploring many different concepts and got bored of those halfway through and left them unfinished. Same with the whole book.
by bredbuttgem
13 Comments
You just summed up my feelings for Stephensons entire body of work.
Super fascinating ideas and concepts—but without much compelling urgency to make me want to keep digging through the endless conceptual paragraphs.
I loved both books, Anathem as an adult and snow crash as a kid, but I haven’t found a passion to reread either.
I think maybe Enzo helping YT is a commentary on both mafia guys and modern politicians. They’ll do shit that doesn’t make sense just to help out someone they happen to like.
Incomplete and too long? Call that the Stephenson Special.
It’s also greasy and creepy af
He doesn’t know how to write a conclusion.
Example, Seven eves, Cryptonomicon, Reamde, Diamond Age.
All of them seem to be setting up for a sequel that never happens.
I feel like his writing/ideas are like when crypto people try to explain crypto to the average Joe. It’s confusing and mixed up and when you try to question it they just end the conversation making you feel like an idiot by saying something like, “well, you just don’t get it.” When actually, it makes no sense and it can’t be explained.
I love almost everything Stephenson writes. But, he does not know how to end a book. It’s like he has so much cool stuff to put in the book, and he tries to put it all in. Because of those two things, the plots seem to meander. They meander more because of alternating between multiple perspectives.
Actually, my only exception to this was Anathem, which I suspected was because it was from one character’s perspective.
I begrudgingly have to agree with this. I love so much of his books but often left at the end with a “wait…what just happened” feeling.
I loooved Stephenson in my 20s, thought he was THE SHIT. Now I’m in my 40s and find him exceptionally meh. Oh has the world changed or have I changed?
That is how I felt also. The book had a lot of interesting ideas, but not enough focus to properly explore any of them.
Snow Crash was amazing the first time I read it. I’ve tried to re-read it a couple times since and can’t get past the first couple chapters. I’ve tried other novels by Stephenson and can’t get into them
I tried to read it recently and only made it about 1/3rd of the way through before I gave up in frustration. Every time he started talking about something cool he’d veer off in a totally different direction and talk about something I didn’t give a crap about for like 30 pages.
I think the problem with Snow Crash in that regard is that the snarky cyberpunk part is so fascinating that it feels like that’s the main story. While in reality, it’s Rife’s migrant plot line that’s the real focus of the story.
At the heart of the story there’s the concept of mind control. L. Bob Rife figured out that the ancient Sumerians had a language that could literally reprogram the minds of people. He’s been collecting and studying this language to create a computer virus that can affect and rewrite people’s minds.
Essentially that makes L. Bob Rife the villain and his mind control plan is the evil plot of the story. He essentially infected the thousands of refugees on the raft and he’s bringing his own converted supporter group to the mainland.
Hiro is involved because his friend is directly affected by Rife’s virus. Hiro slowly puzzles together Rife’s plan.
Y.T. is a partner of convenience to Hiro after saving his butt early on in the novel by completing a delivery for him.
Uncle Enzo is a high-up mob boss who is low-key actually a pretty decent guy. He’s disillusioned with the focus of his underlings on petty crime and profit without any understanding of concepts like honor and family. As a result, he takes a paternal interest in Y.T. who he sees as more competent and more in line with his values.
So when Hiro’s investigation gets Y.T. abducted by L. Bob Rife, Uncle Enzo basically supports Hiro’s attempt at bringing Rife down and saving Y.T. Enzo’s animosity towards Rife is mostly fuelled by Rife’s taking Y.T. It’s the whole maffia blood for blood thing when you touch their family.
Maybe I’m forgetting something but I think mr. Lee plays no real role in the story. He just comes up as an explanation of how society has entirely fragmented into being run by commercial entities. For example mr. Lee’s neighborhood franchises.