March Book of the Month: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Thread starter Himeo
- Start date
-
Guest, did you like the last podcast notification?? Well here's the second one, and for the third podcast! Yep. This Thursday 8-8-24 at 7pm Central
Go here to check out his podcast thread for info on topics and links!Go into the FoH discord and find the Happy Time Fun Hour channel and give it a listen!
spronk
FPS noob
- 23,302
- 27,097
Context is important for this book too, most of us who really like the book read it in the 90s (book was published in 1992) when there was no Internet, no cell phones, no MMOs, etc. It was my first exposure to the idea of Cyberpunk/Metaverse/Corporate Society and I was pretty awestruck by those things. I haven't read this orDiamond Agein over 10 years, and both probably aren't going to age that well.
Grimmlokk
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 12,190
- 133
Finished. It's poop. I'll never trust a book suggestion from Merkins again, you are a monster sir.
Context certainly matters, people who read LOTR 30 years ago still swear by it while many people I've talked to who read it recently were mostly bored to tears.
That said, there's no excuse for a 30 page speech from a single character that just lays out the whole story. No why or how, just this is what was and is and you will take it on faith. That's just bad storytelling. When Hiro says it just stands to reason that Rife would eventually get the metavirus(that we just take on faith exists) with his space satellite power and somehow trap it...I would have thrown my book if it wasn't a nook.
The latter half of Hiro's assault on the aircraft carrier was really anti-climactic as well.
I want a spin off book called The Further Adventures of Uncle Enzo, Ng, and Raven.
Context certainly matters, people who read LOTR 30 years ago still swear by it while many people I've talked to who read it recently were mostly bored to tears.
That said, there's no excuse for a 30 page speech from a single character that just lays out the whole story. No why or how, just this is what was and is and you will take it on faith. That's just bad storytelling. When Hiro says it just stands to reason that Rife would eventually get the metavirus(that we just take on faith exists) with his space satellite power and somehow trap it...I would have thrown my book if it wasn't a nook.
The latter half of Hiro's assault on the aircraft carrier was really anti-climactic as well.
I want a spin off book called The Further Adventures of Uncle Enzo, Ng, and Raven.
I can't fault you for that opinion, having re-read it, it doesn't hold up that well. The LOTR parallel is dead on. I think it's biggest fault is the pop-culture and fads it extrapolates from was a very small snap-shot. Grunge, microbrews, etc all went the way of the dinosaur and lost relevance. Stephenson can get super fucking long winded explaining the 'cool concept' he uses as a base theme in each of his works. It's the reason I put down his Baroque Cycle books 100 pages in. his book Zodiac might have held up a little better.
I had zero credibility anyhow so nothing of value was lost.
Void
BAU BAU
- 9,761
- 11,660
The pop culture stuff didn't bother me since I'm old enough to remember all that shit. It is the long-windedness that got to me. And the fact that it is almost like someone just handed him the solution to everything at the very beginning, but we have to sit there and listen while he makes sense of all of it. Granted, I'm still not finished (I'm trying!), so I could be missing some key plot point, but it literally seems like someone else (the person that wrote the Librarian program) has already figured everything out, but decided to give it all to Hiro so that Hiro could foil the master plan...but instead of just telling Hiro what the whole plan was, he forced him to listen to the Librarian drone on for hours and hours until Hiro finally figured it out himself. But all the info was already there, so Hiro didn't do much that someone else couldn't have done too (minus stealing a super fast motorcycle and cutting people's heads off with a sword of course, because all hackers are super cool like that). Oh, and look, Raven doing badass Raven stuff!
I think the problem is we sit through Hiro learning what he needs to.
Then we have to sit through him explaining it to others.
I liked it, but felt some parts got repeated.
I did picture raven like a darker version of Nathan Explosion from Dethklok though, especially after they talked about the tattoo Raven had.
Then we have to sit through him explaining it to others.
I liked it, but felt some parts got repeated.
I did picture raven like a darker version of Nathan Explosion from Dethklok though, especially after they talked about the tattoo Raven had.
Zodiac
Lord Nagafen Raider
- 1,200
- 14
