スノウ・クラッシュ

A classic! Original, action-packed but with wonderful humor...even the near-future dystopia of its setting gets closer every day. This is one of those books that friends may tire of hearing you rave about, not unusual for Stephenson's books, but gets better with each re-reading.

Excellent novel, and an easy segway into work of Stehpenson's apocalyptic type societies

read few years ago, I remember it was pretty good

i loved the opening sequence but then it got a little slower and not as funny, but overall pretty good book. It is amazing how good the author saw todays reality from the 80s

An absolute must read sci-fi classic. So far ahead of it's time. This was my first time reading Neal Stephenson and now I'll be digging in to his entire catalogue.

needed for college class. was a good read tho. i recommend it

Ok, this is like all happening, like basically now

Very good book cant put it down

A great read for the first two thirds if you also write William Gibson......even if there is a slight imbalance between the narrative and the philosophical detail concerning the origins of religion. Interesting stuff so you forgive him. But the last third to quarter wobbles for me when he gets stuck into plot resolution and descends into a sort of mad max action thriller on The Raft.

They told you to read 1984 before it was too late. Well, it's too late. This, like a lot of cyberpunk classics, provides a vision of an imagined future that eerily parallels the current era. The tone is almost satirical in its bleak but functioning idea of the world now divided between corporate-owned franchise districts as laws, nations and the political shadowplay we know in this world have been fully eroded and dissolved, with money being the only power acknowledged by most. Impressively, the more absurd some of the ideas in the book may seem, they actually hold more realism than some of the more solemnly discussed concepts in the book. It's like if Neuromancer had been written by Jello Biafra and frankly it's better. The characters' experiences inform the dialect of their narration and the voice of the book is full of smartass attitude even for cyberpunk, but also helps immerse us in the futuristic world without having to over-explain the mundanities of the era. As a fan of Sumerian history, the Babylon story/mother tongue, cults and magic, I was happy to see these incorporated to the storyline as well, in a way that really satisfyingly links up with the cyber-techie story. The characters are all entertaining and unique, including the dog, whose internal monologues be assessments of situations were not only cute and funny but really add to the whole variety of ways the book presents LANGUAGE.
"Cyberspace" is presented as the metaverse- which is essentially Google running on a VR Second Life engine, where people walk around as avatars of their own choosing. Like a lot of cyberpunk classics, the nerds who read it are now making the planet and thus a lot of the language we use today to discuss computer and internet-related concepts have caught on in the real world, most noticeably the use of the Indian religious concept of an Avatar being the word to describe a person's visual appearance online.
I could go on about reasons I feel this book issa ma la ka na an absu wa ho I mel sep na aya ra gi hkk

Just couldn't get into it

Couldn't finish the first chapter. The author starts describing in detail every kind of trivial details of technology (like bits, bytes, pixels etc). Also most technologies I could see where not really "sci-fi" in the sense that anyone who likes the genre can imagine they'll be here very soon, if not present already.

Just read in June 2016, and it continues to be a fresh, open-minded vision of a connected world. Amazing that dealing with the rapidly evolving world of computers and its connectivity, the 24 years that have passed continue not being noticeable.

This is a book that should be tailor made for me. Computers, near future, interesting and unique characters, pretentious history stuff, lots of action. So, why did I find myself not getting very excited by it? Though the book is considered a classic of modern science fiction, and has a lot going for it, I found it a read that just never did capture my attention. It was easy to put down and didn't draw me back very well. The big fault was the massive history lesson and a plot point from that history I just could not accept. The history lesson went on and on forever at times. I really would rename the virtual character "Librarian" to the more appropriate name "Basil Exposition". It got me bogged down every time I got into it and was far more detail than needed in places and wandered around quite a bit. I did finish the book and the ending was exciting and fun, but it was not what I would call one of my favorite summer reads at all.

Really good book!

Just finished this book on Kindle, and wowee, it's incredible. If you enjoy sci-fi, or history, or comedy, or characterisation or just plain good story telling then you will enjoy this book. Moving, funny, thrilling, prophetic and intelligent in equal measure, it's one of the best novels I have ever read.

But amazon, please sort out the MASSIVE spelling mistake that others mention in these reviews, it's very detracting and sloppy to keep it included.

Imaginative, shocking, and overwhelmingly witty.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. After having finished Ready Player One somewhat recently before reading this, I marveled at the similarities considering the books were written something like 25 years apart. And the fact that this one was written in the early 90s is not lost on me, as there were many futuristic components that are eerily similar to what we have in our world today.

The biggest downfall of me was that this book was so incredibly dense. On the one hand, Stephenson created a fictional world based on the real world where I live (Los Angeles) and described it with immense detail. (And I can totally see the city/country heading this way, btw.) But on the other hand, there was so much description to slog through that I found myself re-reading some things over and over trying to absorb it and not always quite getting it. Definitely a gripping story overall, but was left many times confused as to what was going on.

Plus In the end, there were many questions left unanswered, but it is what it is. Would still recommend it for anyone who likes Futuristic Sci Fi.

Not my kind of book.

Another excellent NS novel. Action comedy with a dystopian twist set in the near future. Recommended for most sci-fi fans.