Novel published 1992

I read this novel nearly 20 years after its publication, and as a person largely inexperienced with online games, skateboarding, and virtual reality, I have to say I almost drowned in acronyms but was awed by Mr. Stephenson’s incredible narrative that is about, well, nearly everything the future may throw at us, including the extinction of free will and the mysterious metaverse now creeping to the margins of our personal landscapes. This novel is both an adventure into new territory (for some of us) and a radical eye-opener. I heartily recommend it.

The author’s penchant for punning and in-jokes takes the edge of this narrative of imminent “infocalpse/apocalypse.” It’s a long haul down the roadways of history and language but engrossing, bruising, and yet curiously tender.

America in this novel is no longer a federation of states but a patchwork of rogue nations, each with its passports, guards, aspirations, and rationale, and all of them—even the Mafia—teeter on the brink of extinction from a dynamic, new Ozymandias. He appears to be an avatar of L. Ron Hubbard who plots to restore “linguistic hygiene” and community to the world population by means of a) a virulent form of mind control and b) a bespoke thug who carries nuclear weaponry.

There are two protagonist-heroes: first on the scene is Hiro Protagonist, a mixed-race martial arts expert and co-founder of the metaverse who strives to forestall the villain’s “snow crash” operation that would destroy the minds of the world’s best hackers. Coming to Hiro’s aid at the first blow, is Y.T., a fetching 15-year-old skateboarding courier. She is foolhardy but wise beyond her years. She loves her clueless mom and once loved an abused dog who has never forgotten her. The backgrounds of Hiro and Y.T., their information-gathering, and their physical/virtual journeys taken in tandem or separately lay the foundation of this fictional world underpinned by history, from Sumerian theology to 20th-century warfare.

How amazing Mr. Stephenson’s imagination is in this application of modern technology to the development of the human brain and its capacity for language and free thought! He is the perfect author for readers who like to think as well as feel.