Number of Pages: 440 pages
Genre: Science-fiction, cyberpunk, thriller
The book is set in a futuristic Los Angeles. The United States Government no longer exists, having ceded most of it's power to private companies and entrepreneurs. LA is now divided up among numerous franchises and syndicates. People escape from their everyday lives into the computer-generated reality of the Metaverse, where you can be anyone and do anything, providing you have the necessary money, technology and coding skills. A new drug called Snow Crash, is spreading through the Metaverse. In reality, though Snow Crash is a deadly new kind of computer virus, which doesn't just infect the system, it infects the operator.
Sword-wielding, pizza-delivering super-hacker Hiro Protagonist, and loud-mouthed, teenage, skater punk courier Y.T. soon stumble upon the shadowy conspiracy behind Snow Crash, who are seeking to bring about a worldwide information apocalypse.
This is one of the most influential science-fiction novels of the 1990s, most notably popularising the term "avatar" for a computer representation of a person (although it wasn't the first to use the term in that context). The book takes in linguistics, archeology, mythology, religion, computer science and politics, and ranges from surreal, punning humour, to hard-edged action. Tonally it is all over the place, and it does get bogged down in the middle with long exposition. Plot elements are picked up and dropped without explanation, but when it works, it works brilliantly. It is funny, it is exciting and and an intriguing, involving thriller. If you are a fan of Ghost in the Shell or Akira then you'll probably really enjoy it.
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