Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (A Review)

With only so many hours in the day, it’s impossible to read all the books that one wants to. But one should make the time for Snow Crash. As one view of the possible near future where governments have fallen to give way to franchised collections of territories, it acts as a warning as much as anything. The basis of the plot rests on language being able to perform a viral operation, like a disease being able to change the basic DNA of the system that it infects. And while the overall premise is commendable in its scope (so much historic detail is provided that the reader wants to believe in the theory), combining the visual snow that changes programmers and the babel-approach of fluid exchange that changes people in the non-virtual world does not really ever create a coherent flow of possibility. I felt that the over-the-top suppositions were not well enough supported despite the attempt at solidly founding them in some factual basis. However, I would still recommend this novel as a fantastic introduction to the world of cyberpunk.