Neal Stephenson

Published: 26 Aug 2024
Last updated: 1 Dec 2024

Snow Crash

Snow Crash book cover

Quick storygraph summary:

Snow Crash is about a lot, perhaps too much at once. Stephenson has crammed an awful lot of ideas and combined them in interesting, if sometimes totally ludicrous ways - but it never takes itself too seriously, so the obvious flaws of a loose and chaotic plot, plenty of fluff and exposition and some inconsistent pacing don’t really seem all that important if you buy into Stephenson’s enthusiasm to tell you about all these interesting ideas that he’s had around future technology, neurolinguistics and ancient Mesopotamian history - and fusing them all together.

Its uneven, in both pacing and quality, the ending section wraps up all-too-quickly and characters are frustratingly underdeveloped, but I’m listing all these negatives because I’m massively conflicted - my all-too-logical brain sees all these issues but my heart really enjoyed going along for this chaotic ride. Not only that but there are small sections and chapters are utterly fantastic in their own way, the over-the-top no-fucks-given “Deliverator” opening that kicks the book off, Hiro’s utter disdain of corporate & government programming, YT’s strained “parents just don’t understand” relationship with Mom, and Fido. God bless Fido.

I would wager this book to be extremely ‘marmite-y’ and polarised in people’s opinions and thoughts - by being a 20-something guy I feel ridiculously pre-disposed to enjoy this power fantasy despite all rationality nagging away in my mind.

Termination Shock

Snow Crash book cover

Quick storygraph summary:

After trekking through this 700 page tome, I’m still not quite sure what the purpose of this story nor why I bothered reading it in its entirety, especially given the highly meandering fashion the first half of the book takes - setting up multiple story threads (with the trademark Stephenson diversions and ramblings) that have no apparent connection, either with each other nor with the apparent promise of a “techno-thriller”.

It does all, eventually, tie together although its certainly leans more toward the “techno” side of the “techno-thriller”, with many descriptions of a near-future battling with climate change and rising sea levels and all the machinery and various contraptions built to either cope with these changes or to conduct geoengineering conveyed as a last-ditch effort to save the planet once and for all, at least temporarily.

For a book focused on climate change, the only real focus is around the techno-libertarian geoengineering and as a by-product the thus-far inability for humanity to solve the issue so far (usually taking the form in taking the piss out of the “Greens”, which while understandable feels like cheap shots). In fact, not much else is mentioned - the consensus that regular politic simply won’t solve the problem and that geoengineering must be the solution (even if temporary) appears already agreed, and there’s not discussion or dissection to be had on why this is the case which feels like a missed opportunity. The only connecting tissue, and what ends up connecting some of those initial disconnected story threads, is merely the outcome of this geoengineering and how certain countries may respond geopolitically, especially if said geoengineering negatively affects their local climate. Outside of a few out-of-the-blue “set-pieces” set up through the books, climate change feels relatively benign? - with all its negative impacts having already happened and dealt with. This doesn’t even touch on the fact that our heroes are all extremely wealthy elites who constantly take private jet flights, which while fitting the techno-libertarian fantasy is very jarring - is that deliberate political commentary, a legitimate prediction or just buying into the techno-libertarian dream? I really have no idea, and that could extend to many, many aspects of the book.

After the first half of significant meandering, it does eventually follow up its promise on “thriller”, although it feels somewhat rushed, anticlimactic and only (half-)resolves one of the main story threads of the book, with many left to the wayside. Even then, we hear often that the geoengineering featured is merely a temporary solution, but the conclusion offers nothing about what a more permanent solution looks like nor what a post-geoengineered world looks in the longer term - which is a highly unsatisfactory “everyone lived happily ever after” ending. I found the Stephenson formula to work great for Snow Crash (although many of my complaints also echo through here, perhaps spotting a trend) but when you aren’t entirely invested, it becomes a real slog. Termination Slog.

As a side note, the near-future setting is all over the place, and it is extremely jarring to COVID, AWS, USA’s Jan 6 (?! going to age like milk) and other of-this-current-time references mixed with other worldbuilding that would clearly involve a larger passage of time to occur (primarily the change in climate, but also geopolitical changes such as USA being a dysfunctional nightmare with China/India being world superpowers, amongst others). Perhaps minor, but it never felt like an entirely coherent vision.