Rating: 
Summary: Shoulda been a graphic novel.
Review: The whole religious/scientific tie-in was very interesting, but really didn't need as much exposition as it received. It's as if he put it in there in order to say, "look at how much I know and you don't. Nyah, nyah." This is typical geek maneuver that reminds me of the fat comic store guy on The Simpsons.As for it's technological stuff, it was pretty mediocre. Lots of very obvious extrapolations of the technology present, or just around the corner, in the early 90s. His understanding of what the Wired magazine audience grasps is quite good, but there's nothing really original here. What bothers me most is how he figured North American culture would be, in the near future. The whole gamut of franchised city states and jails with everything owned by private interests is just ridiculous and cartoonish. This is the whole reason I'm not sure whether or not this book is a cyberculture lampoon or if he was serious when writing it. Hopefully this book was intended to be a satire, otherwise this boy needs some tender lovin' Betty Ford. The thing about it that's great: it reads like the hardest of hardcore action movies. This thing just screams for a hollywood movie to be made from it. You've got your cardboard cut-out bad guy, your spunky kid (who just happens to be a strong willed female, OH MY!), and your ultra/anti-cool hero all wrapped up in a world of corruption and violent actions. It's as predictable as finding a bug in a Microsoft product, but a hell of a lot more fun. Buy it, read it, enjoy it. Then when you run out of trillion dollar bills for toilet paper, use this instead. Pure brain candy, but I liked the flavour.
Rating: 
Summary: THE BEST BOOK IVE EVER READ
Review: You must go buy this book NOW if you are at all thrilled by technology or want a hip vision of the future
Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT book!
Review: I've been reading science fiction for over forty years now, and I have to rate 'Stephenson''s SNOW CRASH as one of the best. There are over 175 reviews above here, and they'll give you details. I'll just say that it's a great read, and it will bear re-reading as well.
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Summary: Wow
Review: It portrays a unique look at the future with an all powerful internet. It also analyzes the use of religion.
Rating:
Summary: This review is great!
Review: If you haven't read "Snow Crash" and you're trying to guess whether to plunk down $$ based on the reviews, just remember this. Some reviews give this book 2 or 3 stars (usually quite acceptable), but then the reviews list as faults: "bad science/technology", "bad writing." Since this book was released, several companies were created based on the concepts in this book. Black Sun Interactive, which takes its name from a bar in the book, is one big publicly traded company that springs to mind (it was recently bought). After the book was published, online avatar universes like "Worlds" immediately became vogue. Companies started seeing big money in the micropayment concept. Data warehousing for trivia (described as the CIC in the book) suddenly seemed possible. Though Stephenson didn't "create" some of the concepts in the book, he popularized them all. If "avatars" don't thrill you, it's because he opened, completed, and closed that whole concept in "Snow Crash." As to the writing -- it is consciously modeled after comic books, framed in present tense, and told in the diction of the future 'era'. People giving this book a low rating (and still saying, "I loved it anyways"), merely need to get their expectations in line.
Rating: 
Summary: flawed genius
Review: After a fantastic start, this book just fizzled. At the risk of oversimplification, it went like this; First 1/3- Brilliant, inventive, insightful, satiric look at the near future, chock full of fascinating characters. Second 1/3- Impossible to follow, excrutiatingly long descriptions of ancient gods, customs, etc. The author spent a lot of time researching this, no reason to waste a single fact. Fascinating characters either not developed, or simply dropped. Last 1/3- Hollywood style climax, lots of shooting and chasing. (Plus a two paragragh summary of the 2nd part). The many flashes of brilliance just make the poor sections that much worse. It's as if the had so many great ideas that he was overwhelmed trying to cram them all in a book.
Rating:
Summary: A fun read
Review: I enjoyed Snow Crash immensely. The main character, Hiro Protagonist, has a wonderfully wry outlook. The characters and situations are just off enough to be funny, but not so much so that this doesn't work as a science fiction novel. However, be aware that the first chapter is much more humourous than the rest of the book. My only real quibble with this book is that the primary female character, Y.T., who is allegedly a 15-year old, acts *nothing* like any real girl of that age would. I don't have a problem with her athleticism as a skateboard courier, after all, most Olympic gymnasts are teenagers. But, her sexual self-possession cannot be explained away by the ownership of a device that makes rape impossible. There is something about the way she acts generally that interfered with my ability to suspend my disbelief when reading the book. And I'm not the kind of person to complain about characterization. My guess is that Stephenson was trying to write the female equivalent of the typical resourceful teenage male character that you find in these types of books, but just plain didn't know enough teenage girls to know what they are like. (Note, his later book, "Diamond Age" does a much better job with the female characters, while in his earlier book, "Zodiac" his female characters might just as well be cardboard cutouts.) Anyway, read the book!
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Summary: James Bond in Cyber Space???
Review: Snow Crash is a fast action, James Bond type, thriller. However, one needs to be familar with computer jagin/ terminology, seeing how the story deels directly with a computer virus. This is not your every day computer virus, this one actually kills the computer operator. In some parts, I received a headache trying to bring a sense of realism to this futuristic nightmare. Hell, it was something different and I had fun with it.
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Summary: It was very good, and I don't usually read sci-fi.
Review: Neal Stephenson has written five books. The book that made his place in the literary world was Snow Crash. This book is based on Stephenson's idea of our future and how it is linked to our past. The United States' economy has crashed and little city states pop up all over the United States. These city states are formed by ethnic or cultural distinctions. They all meet in a place called the Metaverse. They always believed that the Metaverse is safe if you have enough "medicine" for your computer. Because of this belief they people do not believe that they can be hurt in any way, this is were the Snow Crash virus is most virulent. The virus only effects computer programmers because they naturally understand the binary code, they brain is 'programmed' to understand it. They are then feed directly to the brain an overload of the binary code which shuts down the higher reasoning sections of the brain and allows the ancient memories to surface. This ancient language is based on the Semitic language of ancient Sumeria. He traces the 'linguistic virus' through out history from the fall of the Tower of Babel to his futuristic virus. The only thing about this book that I did not like was the way it would jump around and add people that never really seemed necessary for the story. I do not usually read science fiction books, so I do not know if this is the usual way they are written. I still really enjoyed the book. I found the sections on the religion and mythology very fascinating. It made me question some of the religious beliefs that I took for granted, as well as, questioning our future. I think I am questioning the future in the same manner my parents did when they read George Orwell's 1984. The whole idea of Big Brother and being watched in comparison to being part of Little China or Little Sicily. I think that this could happen, look at all the hate between ethnic backgrounds here in the United States. Someone once said the United States is like a Melting Pot of cultures, others have said that is a Salad Bowl. I have always believed the Salad Bowl theory.
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Summary: An all too realistic fantasy. Definately a page-turner.
Review: Pizza delivery. Cyberpunk. Mythology. Sword fighting. If any of these words catch your eye, this could be your new favorite book. Hiro Protagonist is a jack-of-all-trades in an America where the only things we are still better at than any other nation are movies, music, microcode, and pizza delivery. Not only that, he can swash buckle with the best of them. Snow Crash is a combination of two very dangerous ssubstances in the modern world. It is a drug and a computer virus. The effect of which is alienation from society due to an inability to communicate with others. It is up to Hiro and his compadres to prevent this post-modern experience of the Tower of Babel. Working out of a former U-Stor-It compartment, he teams up with several intersting characters. The most notable ones include Vitaly Chernobyl - punk rocker extraordinaire. He also occupies the storage compartement. Hiro is his concert manager. Juanita, ex-girlfriend and co-worker, is an extremely intelligent hacker, and also a very perceptive individual. Y. T., professional Kourier, is an adolescent skate punk who has a knack for getting herself, and others, into and out of sticky situations. Snow Crash is an exciting, fast-paced adventure into the future. The further into the adventure one travels, the nearer this future seems. Stephenson's organization seems to be awkward and confusing at first. At times it seems like the reader is getting random access to Hiro Protagonist's brain. However, nothing could better express the ever-increasing state of chaos that accompanies the rapid progression of information technologies. Stephenson may have chosen more original content for his work, but what makes this book so interesting is the reality of it. Snow Crash is a real eye-opener. Much of what I originally found humorous about Stephenson's presentation of society really hits home after pondering it for a while. His fictional society is materialistic, disconnected, and segregated by many factors. Hopefully, we can learn from this book and encourage society to make a turn for the better.
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