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queergoth_reads's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Prefacing this review with the face that I read this for a book club and would never have picked it myself.
I really dislike this. I know it was written in the 90s and there should be some leeway for things but this book aged very poorly. It feels like a self indulgent, self insert. The orientalism is very strong and it made me so uncomfortable. It felt like maybe it wanted to try and be satire but I didn't get that. It just felt racist, misogynistic and ableist.
There was absolutely no reason Y.T. needed to be 15 other than to fit some creepy fantasy.
I read somewhere that is was recommended reading a tech company and honestly when this is what people in stem have been hailing at the holy grail, it's no wonder there is so little empathy and diversity (I say this as someone in a stem career).
I will say some of the ideas we cool but the execution was all over the place.
I really dislike this. I know it was written in the 90s and there should be some leeway for things but this book aged very poorly. It feels like a self indulgent, self insert. The orientalism is very strong and it made me so uncomfortable. It felt like maybe it wanted to try and be satire but I didn't get that. It just felt racist, misogynistic and ableist.
There was absolutely no reason Y.T. needed to be 15 other than to fit some creepy fantasy.
I read somewhere that is was recommended reading a tech company and honestly when this is what people in stem have been hailing at the holy grail, it's no wonder there is so little empathy and diversity (I say this as someone in a stem career).
I will say some of the ideas we cool but the execution was all over the place.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Racial slurs
scorbus's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Racial slurs
nikogatts's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I'm confident in saying that every major element in this book had something about it that I really liked and something that I really disliked.
Worldbuilding
Liked: The vision. Snow Crash's near-future United States has many of the usual dystopian hallmarks: pollution, a powerless government, religious zealots, hyperinflation, a refugee crisis. One of this world's defining features is that nearly everything in it, from suburban neighborhoods to highways to public restrooms, is privately owned and part of a corporate chain. Many of these chains are owned by criminal organizations (the most prominent in the book being the Sicilian Mafia), religious groups, or the remnants of nation states. The employees of rival organizations openly engage in armed combat with one another. Access to certain locations is impossible unless you're able to pay for entry, qualify for membership, or, in the case of the suburbs, become a full citizen of an exclusive neighborhood. These divisions are enforced by a variety of (also privately owned) security and police forces, as well as a plethora of sci-fi weapons. Is it an America that I would like to live in? Absolutely not. But it is a fascinating read, and it's grounded enough in the realities of modern capitalism to hit a bit close to home.
This segmentation of a formerly open world ties into the book's central theming around the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. Instead of separating humans into various languages, as God did by destroying the Biblical Tower, Snow Crash's humanity has segmented itself into enclaves of corporate loyalty. In this torn and shredded world, two potential Towers of Babel rise.
One Tower is the Raft, a massive floating community of refugee boats and pirate ships tethered to an aircraft carrier owned by the Jim Bakker-esque billionaire L. Bob Rife. From here, Rife distributes the drug known as Snow Crash, which hacks into people's brains and forces them to act as loyal drones that speak in tongues.
The other Tower is the Metaverse, an online virtual reality open to anyone who can find a point of access. The quality of one's avatar and the ownership of virtual property is dependent on the user's hacking ability or wealth, but the world is generally open to, and able to be explored by, anyone tech-savvy enough to log on. The problem here is that the Metaverse is only used by a fraction of the population, and the more knowledgeable users are uniquely susceptible to Snow Crash's effects.
These settings are populated by more speculative concepts and fantastic technologies than I could possibly list here, and the imaginative near-future that Neal Stephenson creates is by far the most interesting part of this book.
Disliked: The execution. I went into this book knowing that it would be info-heavy. I'm not opposed to infodumps (I actually often enjoy them), but they have to be done in a way that doesn't halt or impede the rest of the story. This book can be very difficult to read for the first ten-or-so chapters, because a character will take a single action and then there will be pages and pages (sometimes the rest of the chapter) explaining the technologies being used or the origin and structure of the organizations involved. Many of these infodumps include information that isn't relevant at the time or that never becomes relevant, and some of it is downright insulting (I know that all of these numbers are 2 to the power of something; you don't have to tell me every time).
As the main characters gather more information about Snow Crash, the infodumps expand into entire chapters where a character word-vomits about a concept for five to ten pages. Even to me, a person who enjoys learning new but useless things, these chapters are tedious, especially when they occur in the last 75 pages of the book.
Characters
Liked: Y.T. She's a smart-talking teenage courier trying to make her own way in a harsh world. She's no-nonsense without being try-hard and she doesn't hesitate to smack a creep (until the last third of the book, when the author insists on having her sleep with a middle-aged man, <i>ugh</i>). Under her tough exterior, she has affection for the few close people in her life, especially her overworked mother. And for all of her street smarts, Y.T. is still a teenager in a world run by adults and she has to figure out how to survive when the people in power point their crosshairs in her direction.
Disliked: Pretty much everyone else. The main character is called Hiro Protagonist, and his name is the most interesting thing about him. His personality can be summed up as "cool geek guy." That is to say, he doesn't have a personality at all, but he has several cool skills, like computer programming and katana-wielding, that are supposed to fill the void. He largely exists as the reader's access point to the bulk of the information relevant to the plot, since he's both the Designated Guy Who Explains Things and the Designated Guy People Explain Things To.
Uncle Enzo would be interesting if the book had leaned into the evil underneath the mobster cliche. The Mafia isn't a noble or honorable criminal group and Stephenson missed an opportunity to use a corporatized Mafia as a way to satirize the mainstream Hollywood portrayal. Instead, the book pushes Enzo into a kindly father-figure role for a teenage girl he barely knows and the Mafia organization gets a stereotypical but sanitized portrayal.
There is an attempt to give Raven a tragic backstory to justify him wanting to nuke America, but it just falls flat because...is there even an America anymore? (Maybe that was the point, but it's a poorly made point.) This character is a blunt instrument and it's slimy as hell that the author makes him attracted to (and then "in love" with) a 15-year-old.
The remaining characters -- Juanita, Da5id, various allied goons, various opposing goons -- either existed as tools to move the plot along or weren't around long enough to make an impression.
Story
Liked: The content and themes. With all of the sci-fi speculation and satire stripped away, Snow Crash is a thriller about a dangerous new drug and the unlikely duo investigating its spread. Instead of a good cop and a bad cop, or an FBI agent and a captured serial killer, the two protagonists are a freelance hacker and a teenage courier. Their equipment is futuristically enhanced, but their goals and actions mirror those of any detective duo: collect intel, interview a handful of involved parties, follow the trail, find the source of the drug, and get into a few gun/sword fights in the process.
This type of premise could normally go either way in terms of quality, and Neal Stephenson elevates it beyond a standard guns-and-drugs story by tying in themes of language (from ancient Sumerian to modern programming), ancient historical and religious theory, and the psychological concept of viral knowledge. Combined with the above-mentioned worldbuilding and this story, for all of its issues in execution, was an amazing read.
Disliked: The writing and pacing. It takes more than two dozen chapters for Hiro Protagonist to start actively investigating Snow Crash and the breadcrumb trail left behind by a murdered man. Some of this is because of the density of the aforementioned infodumps, but some of it is because it takes more than 200 pages for someone to tell Hiro to do something.
It also can't be overstated how the glut of background information pushes relevant story details, both major and minor, off the page. I don't remember reading how Y.T. makes it to The Raft in the latter half of the book. I don't remember what Y.T.'s mom was being questioned for or what bearing that had on the plot. I don't remember how Hiro went from not knowing who Vitaly Chernobyl was to being his roommate and concert promoter. I don't remember why Hiro and Y.T. call each other "pod." Maybe these things are never explained; maybe the explanations got lost in some lengthy description. Either way, the writing emphasizes background information over storytelling, and the story suffers for it.
The Ending
Liked: Y.T.'s helicopter escape. Cinematic and kickass. An overconfident cult leader brought down (literally and figuratively) by a bunch of teens answering the call of one of their own.
Disliked: Oh god he's still explaining things. The last fifteen to twenty chapters are rough because it feels like the book should be rapidly building toward a climax. But instead of accelerating, the action keeps stopping for more explanations, including explanations of things that were already explained earlier in the book. The worst part is when Hiro and Raven are reciting their fathers' tragic backstories to each other over voice link while they're also doing a high-speed motorcycle chase through the Metaverse.
Bonus
Liked: Fido, the robot dog who defied his programming to save the nice girl who took care of him. Also, the accompanying philosophical question of whether Fido's virtual fate, along with the largely virtual existence of another character, is truly satisfying.
Disliked: The '90s-era racism and sexism, particularly the sexualization of 15-year-old Y.T., the double standard of how Colombian narcos are portrayed compared to the Mafia, and the bizarre, nerd-culture-specific way that Japanese people are portrayed.
Liked: The vision. Snow Crash's near-future United States has many of the usual dystopian hallmarks: pollution, a powerless government, religious zealots, hyperinflation, a refugee crisis. One of this world's defining features is that nearly everything in it, from suburban neighborhoods to highways to public restrooms, is privately owned and part of a corporate chain. Many of these chains are owned by criminal organizations (the most prominent in the book being the Sicilian Mafia), religious groups, or the remnants of nation states. The employees of rival organizations openly engage in armed combat with one another. Access to certain locations is impossible unless you're able to pay for entry, qualify for membership, or, in the case of the suburbs, become a full citizen of an exclusive neighborhood. These divisions are enforced by a variety of (also privately owned) security and police forces, as well as a plethora of sci-fi weapons. Is it an America that I would like to live in? Absolutely not. But it is a fascinating read, and it's grounded enough in the realities of modern capitalism to hit a bit close to home.
This segmentation of a formerly open world ties into the book's central theming around the Biblical tale of the Tower of Babel. Instead of separating humans into various languages, as God did by destroying the Biblical Tower, Snow Crash's humanity has segmented itself into enclaves of corporate loyalty. In this torn and shredded world, two potential Towers of Babel rise.
One Tower is the Raft, a massive floating community of refugee boats and pirate ships tethered to an aircraft carrier owned by the Jim Bakker-esque billionaire L. Bob Rife. From here, Rife distributes the drug known as Snow Crash, which hacks into people's brains and forces them to act as loyal drones that speak in tongues.
The other Tower is the Metaverse, an online virtual reality open to anyone who can find a point of access. The quality of one's avatar and the ownership of virtual property is dependent on the user's hacking ability or wealth, but the world is generally open to, and able to be explored by, anyone tech-savvy enough to log on. The problem here is that the Metaverse is only used by a fraction of the population, and the more knowledgeable users are uniquely susceptible to Snow Crash's effects.
These settings are populated by more speculative concepts and fantastic technologies than I could possibly list here, and the imaginative near-future that Neal Stephenson creates is by far the most interesting part of this book.
Disliked: The execution. I went into this book knowing that it would be info-heavy. I'm not opposed to infodumps (I actually often enjoy them), but they have to be done in a way that doesn't halt or impede the rest of the story. This book can be very difficult to read for the first ten-or-so chapters, because a character will take a single action and then there will be pages and pages (sometimes the rest of the chapter) explaining the technologies being used or the origin and structure of the organizations involved. Many of these infodumps include information that isn't relevant at the time or that never becomes relevant, and some of it is downright insulting (I know that all of these numbers are 2 to the power of something; you don't have to tell me every time).
As the main characters gather more information about Snow Crash, the infodumps expand into entire chapters where a character word-vomits about a concept for five to ten pages. Even to me, a person who enjoys learning new but useless things, these chapters are tedious, especially when they occur in the last 75 pages of the book.
Characters
Liked: Y.T. She's a smart-talking teenage courier trying to make her own way in a harsh world. She's no-nonsense without being try-hard and she doesn't hesitate to smack a creep (until the last third of the book, when the author insists on having her sleep with a middle-aged man, <i>ugh</i>). Under her tough exterior, she has affection for the few close people in her life, especially her overworked mother. And for all of her street smarts, Y.T. is still a teenager in a world run by adults and she has to figure out how to survive when the people in power point their crosshairs in her direction.
Disliked: Pretty much everyone else. The main character is called Hiro Protagonist, and his name is the most interesting thing about him. His personality can be summed up as "cool geek guy." That is to say, he doesn't have a personality at all, but he has several cool skills, like computer programming and katana-wielding, that are supposed to fill the void. He largely exists as the reader's access point to the bulk of the information relevant to the plot, since he's both the Designated Guy Who Explains Things and the Designated Guy People Explain Things To.
Uncle Enzo would be interesting if the book had leaned into the evil underneath the mobster cliche. The Mafia isn't a noble or honorable criminal group and Stephenson missed an opportunity to use a corporatized Mafia as a way to satirize the mainstream Hollywood portrayal. Instead, the book pushes Enzo into a kindly father-figure role for a teenage girl he barely knows and the Mafia organization gets a stereotypical but sanitized portrayal.
There is an attempt to give Raven a tragic backstory to justify him wanting to nuke America, but it just falls flat because...is there even an America anymore? (Maybe that was the point, but it's a poorly made point.) This character is a blunt instrument and it's slimy as hell that the author makes him attracted to (and then "in love" with) a 15-year-old.
The remaining characters -- Juanita, Da5id, various allied goons, various opposing goons -- either existed as tools to move the plot along or weren't around long enough to make an impression.
Story
Liked: The content and themes. With all of the sci-fi speculation and satire stripped away, Snow Crash is a thriller about a dangerous new drug and the unlikely duo investigating its spread. Instead of a good cop and a bad cop, or an FBI agent and a captured serial killer, the two protagonists are a freelance hacker and a teenage courier. Their equipment is futuristically enhanced, but their goals and actions mirror those of any detective duo: collect intel, interview a handful of involved parties, follow the trail, find the source of the drug, and get into a few gun/sword fights in the process.
This type of premise could normally go either way in terms of quality, and Neal Stephenson elevates it beyond a standard guns-and-drugs story by tying in themes of language (from ancient Sumerian to modern programming), ancient historical and religious theory, and the psychological concept of viral knowledge. Combined with the above-mentioned worldbuilding and this story, for all of its issues in execution, was an amazing read.
Disliked: The writing and pacing. It takes more than two dozen chapters for Hiro Protagonist to start actively investigating Snow Crash and the breadcrumb trail left behind by a murdered man. Some of this is because of the density of the aforementioned infodumps, but some of it is because it takes more than 200 pages for someone to tell Hiro to do something.
It also can't be overstated how the glut of background information pushes relevant story details, both major and minor, off the page. I don't remember reading how Y.T. makes it to The Raft in the latter half of the book. I don't remember what Y.T.'s mom was being questioned for or what bearing that had on the plot. I don't remember how Hiro went from not knowing who Vitaly Chernobyl was to being his roommate and concert promoter. I don't remember why Hiro and Y.T. call each other "pod." Maybe these things are never explained; maybe the explanations got lost in some lengthy description. Either way, the writing emphasizes background information over storytelling, and the story suffers for it.
The Ending
Liked: Y.T.'s helicopter escape. Cinematic and kickass. An overconfident cult leader brought down (literally and figuratively) by a bunch of teens answering the call of one of their own.
Disliked: Oh god he's still explaining things. The last fifteen to twenty chapters are rough because it feels like the book should be rapidly building toward a climax. But instead of accelerating, the action keeps stopping for more explanations, including explanations of things that were already explained earlier in the book. The worst part is when Hiro and Raven are reciting their fathers' tragic backstories to each other over voice link while they're also doing a high-speed motorcycle chase through the Metaverse.
Bonus
Liked: Fido, the robot dog who defied his programming to save the nice girl who took care of him. Also, the accompanying philosophical question of whether Fido's virtual fate, along with the largely virtual existence of another character, is truly satisfying.
Disliked: The '90s-era racism and sexism, particularly the sexualization of 15-year-old Y.T., the double standard of how Colombian narcos are portrayed compared to the Mafia, and the bizarre, nerd-culture-specific way that Japanese people are portrayed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Kidnapping
saturniidae's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
this book is uh. Wow.
I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to see Hiro as the incompetent nerd way out of his depth he clearly is or if I'm somehow supposed to think he's actually cool.
The first half of the book does a good job of building the anarcho captialist hellscape that the characters inhabit, but the second half quickly spirals into an incomprehensible mess with muddled themes.
Really exemplifies why silicon valley techbros are how they are, if this book inspired them.
I'm still not sure if I'm supposed to see Hiro as the incompetent nerd way out of his depth he clearly is or if I'm somehow supposed to think he's actually cool.
The first half of the book does a good job of building the anarcho captialist hellscape that the characters inhabit, but the second half quickly spirals into an incomprehensible mess with muddled themes.
Really exemplifies why silicon valley techbros are how they are, if this book inspired them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Ableism and Animal death
Minor: Racial slurs and Transphobia
No seriously this book's second half includes a 15 year old girl being brainwashed and groomed eventually culminating inbites_of_books's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.5
I wanted to like this book much more but there were simply too many things that didn't do it for me.
The first couple of chapters I really enjoyed. As Stephenson described this futuristic world where corporations are the leaders of the world and where it is better to work for the Mafia than to get an education and try to have a traditional job, I could see how our world could end up like this in a couple of decades. The idea of the Metaverse was also very promising and interesting but unfortunately that never really took off.
Once Stephenson started to try to add too much logic to this futuristic, sci-fi world, it started to fall apart for me. There were chapters where one of the protagonists (called Hiro Protagonist ha) is basically getting a lecture from an AI about religious history, linguistics, and anthropology. Which are very interesting on their own but basically took me way out of the story and made my logic mind show up and be like "this makes zero sense." Then, in the next chapter we are back into exploring more of the ways that this corporation-led world is messed up and following (or trying to follow) the ways that our main characters are trying to solve the mystery of a virus that is affecting hackers but is also a drug in the real world... There's definitely mystery and intrigue but I ended up just wanting to know what was going to happen in order to be done with the book once and for all without really caring much about the main characters.
I am mostly frustrated because Stephenson has some great ideas, some really promising characters, and it all just ended up going nowhere for me. Like Y.T. was a super interesting character, a 15 year old girl who is super independent and wants to live her own life and not follow in her mother's footsteps as a government worker. Meanwhile she's just a means to an end and like that's it? Zero character development for anyone here. Oh and another super interesting character was Ng, a man who is paralyzed and heads one of the best security systems and rides around in a car that's been adapted so he can use it as a wheelchair/transportation/apartment/storage of very cool weapon system. His character was probably the best one who had clear intentions and purpose and I wish we'd had more of him throughout the book (he would have been a great main character!)
So disappointing... I'm not sure I'd want to try another of Stephenson's works, but who knows, maybe if he's done something a bit more cohesive and less all over the place I'll give it a shot.
The first couple of chapters I really enjoyed. As Stephenson described this futuristic world where corporations are the leaders of the world and where it is better to work for the Mafia than to get an education and try to have a traditional job, I could see how our world could end up like this in a couple of decades. The idea of the Metaverse was also very promising and interesting but unfortunately that never really took off.
Once Stephenson started to try to add too much logic to this futuristic, sci-fi world, it started to fall apart for me. There were chapters where one of the protagonists (called Hiro Protagonist ha) is basically getting a lecture from an AI about religious history, linguistics, and anthropology. Which are very interesting on their own but basically took me way out of the story and made my logic mind show up and be like "this makes zero sense." Then, in the next chapter we are back into exploring more of the ways that this corporation-led world is messed up and following (or trying to follow) the ways that our main characters are trying to solve the mystery of a virus that is affecting hackers but is also a drug in the real world... There's definitely mystery and intrigue but I ended up just wanting to know what was going to happen in order to be done with the book once and for all without really caring much about the main characters.
I am mostly frustrated because Stephenson has some great ideas, some really promising characters, and it all just ended up going nowhere for me. Like Y.T. was a super interesting character, a 15 year old girl who is super independent and wants to live her own life and not follow in her mother's footsteps as a government worker. Meanwhile she's just a means to an end and like that's it? Zero character development for anyone here. Oh and another super interesting character was Ng, a man who is paralyzed and heads one of the best security systems and rides around in a car that's been adapted so he can use it as a wheelchair/transportation/apartment/storage of very cool weapon system. His character was probably the best one who had clear intentions and purpose and I wish we'd had more of him throughout the book (he would have been a great main character!)
So disappointing... I'm not sure I'd want to try another of Stephenson's works, but who knows, maybe if he's done something a bit more cohesive and less all over the place I'll give it a shot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Classism
brigitte's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Rape
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
SNOW CRASH is a cyberpunk fantasy starts with a high-stakes pizza delivery and ends with some cool explosives, taking a path that leads through many burbclaves, at least one cult, and a lot of exposition that relies on fascinations explanations of ancient Sumer to discuss a computer virus that's messing up brains.
It's using and remixing available stereotypes to their limit to create cartoonishly distilled essences that allow for quick action in the partitioned but not wholly divided setting. There are stark boundary lines all over the place, governing laws, behavior, and life-or-death stakes for everyone within these borders, lit by each Franchise's signage and governed by their franchisee manuals. Where the grooves of life are so well worn around most denizens that they barely notice a disturbance to their routines, unless they’re the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist or perhaps the Kourier Y.T. There's a franchise for most things, and some of those things are racism. There's some fatphobia and scattered ableist language which seem to be regular levels of bigotry instead of forming the kind of pointed social commentary which underpins and incorporates the other -isms.
Hiro’s biracial identity (Black/Japanese) matters to the story and exists for more than the surface-level excuse to name the main character “hero protagonist” with alternate spelling. There are several moments where he figures out things based on how someone reacts (or doesn’t) to his appearance and background.
Y.T. isn't as introspective as Hiro, but she gets a decent amount of focus and her perspective is integral to the story, both as an active agent and as an observer with a very different point of view from Hiro, a non-hacker one.
As a cultural artifact, this feels more prescient than it perhaps has a right to be because a lot of people have tried to make things more like the world imagined here, and that's not always a good thing. Reading it now is strange because even something like the word "avatar" as a representation of one's physical self in a digital context was popularized by this book and so it doesn't feel new, though it was at the time.
It's using and remixing available stereotypes to their limit to create cartoonishly distilled essences that allow for quick action in the partitioned but not wholly divided setting. There are stark boundary lines all over the place, governing laws, behavior, and life-or-death stakes for everyone within these borders, lit by each Franchise's signage and governed by their franchisee manuals. Where the grooves of life are so well worn around most denizens that they barely notice a disturbance to their routines, unless they’re the protagonist, Hiro Protagonist or perhaps the Kourier Y.T. There's a franchise for most things, and some of those things are racism. There's some fatphobia and scattered ableist language which seem to be regular levels of bigotry instead of forming the kind of pointed social commentary which underpins and incorporates the other -isms.
Hiro’s biracial identity (Black/Japanese) matters to the story and exists for more than the surface-level excuse to name the main character “hero protagonist” with alternate spelling. There are several moments where he figures out things based on how someone reacts (or doesn’t) to his appearance and background.
Y.T. isn't as introspective as Hiro, but she gets a decent amount of focus and her perspective is integral to the story, both as an active agent and as an observer with a very different point of view from Hiro, a non-hacker one.
As a cultural artifact, this feels more prescient than it perhaps has a right to be because a lot of people have tried to make things more like the world imagined here, and that's not always a good thing. Reading it now is strange because even something like the word "avatar" as a representation of one's physical self in a digital context was popularized by this book and so it doesn't feel new, though it was at the time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, and Xenophobia
Minor: Excrement and Pregnancy
selfsoulfriend's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Several of my friends have recommended this book to me, describing it as a better Ready Player One, so I decided to take them up on it because I trust their opinions. What they (and the reviews I read) failed to mention was the casual racism and cultural insensitivity that turns up every other page. It honestly ruined the book for me. It's not overtly hateful, mostly just offensive comments/ stereotypes. If it was only once or twice I'd be willing to look past it since the book is 30+ years old, but there's way too much of it for comfort. There's also an uncomfortably explicit sex scene between a 15 year old character and a much older man. I finally let myself put the book down about 80 pages from the end when a character named Tr*nny was introduced. This book just kept getting worse and the plot wasn't good enough to redeem it. The story felt very disorganized, was badly paced, and there were a bunch of huge infodumps where maybe a quarter of the information was actually relevant. Several chapters are literally the main character getting a history lecture from an AI and he just gets fed the information on a silver platter when it's convenient to the plot. I wish I was exaggerating. If you're trying to decide whether or not to read it, I'd say it's not worth it. I honestly don't know why it's so highly regarded as a cyberpunk must read.
(Side note. Even considering all its flaws it's still better than Ready Player One)
(Side note. Even considering all its flaws it's still better than Ready Player One)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Moderate: Racial slurs and Racism
Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia
wikipedia's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Racial slurs
Moderate: Rape
rubybastille's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
This was GREAT and INSANE. Sometimes too insane, and with too many infodumps, but I loved the characters and the shameless Rule-of-Cool stuff that goes on.
2024 reread: actually I still mostly agree with my original review. It’s nice to read cyberpunk that has a sense of humor and that makes an attempt (in a now-dated-feeling-but-at-least-it-tried 90s way) to include and even center characters from marginalized groups. The infodumps get old, though, especially Hiro’s lecture near the end.
2024 reread: actually I still mostly agree with my original review. It’s nice to read cyberpunk that has a sense of humor and that makes an attempt (in a now-dated-feeling-but-at-least-it-tried 90s way) to include and even center characters from marginalized groups. The infodumps get old, though, especially Hiro’s lecture near the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Sexual harassment, and War
Moderate: Homophobia and Racial slurs