Excellent book even a couple of decades since first publication. Be forewarned that the pacing of the narrative is a little frenetic. But once you get used to it, it is a very fun ride. ( )

I just really like what this guy is doing. He extrapolates the way our capitalist society is evolving. The result is too far-fetched, but still holds enough truth in it. Besides it is also a nice holiday read, a SF-thriller with some history of language and religion in it, nice!

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This book was pretty good. Started off a little slow and disjointed, but as you learn more and more of what's going on it all starts fitting together. Some familiar tropes with the Metaverse and a sword-wielding hacker, but a lot of moving parts throughout the book and an interesting theory/idea to build a plot around. ( )

I quite enjoyed this-- it's not my favorite, or even my favorite [a:Neal Stephenson|545|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192826259p2/545.jpg], but it certainly captures a lot of the things I enjoy about his writing style. Stephenson does really good near-future sci-fi because he excels at taking something from our own time and going crazy with it, but at the same time keeping it detailed and sprawling and very realistic. In the case of [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1157396730s/830.jpg|493634], all you have to do is accept one possibly science-fictional idea in order for the rest of the story and world to fall into place with a resounding crash.

Near the end where they're author-dumping philosophy of religion... I can even agree with the line of thinking to an extent, but the part where Judaism is summoned up and just as quickly dismissed as 'a good attempt for the time, but outdated and replaced by Christianity' felt like a punch in the stomach. That's a pretty good simplification of the way it looks from the outside, but it's something Jews hear all the time, as if Judaism is made irrelevant and pointless by its eventually more popular offshoot.

Almost as a side note, I was entertained to notice the similarities of Hiro's "Earth" program to Google Earth. I wonder whether Google got their inspiration from the book, or if it's just an obvious idea. (Probably more the latter.) ( )

Re-read this after a number of years, and I must say it held up much better than I expected it to, especially for something originally written so long ago. Long before there was anything like Second Life or any of the elaborate MMORPGs we have today, Stephenson conjured up a digital world for his characters to play in. This gives him the title of techno-prophet, in my book. Ultimately, though, it is the characters of Hiro Protagonist (best character name, ever) and Y.T. and Stephenson's not-entirely-dystopian-but-certainly-not-utopian future that draw me in and hold me even a second time around. ( )