Being a dye in the wool cyberpunk fan, I thought of reviewing a piece of fiction that may potentially convert the many groups of naysayers turned off by technobabble. It is a bit of a sweeping statement to suggest that all novelised cyberpunk fiction are always very dense in concept, but quite often the narrative and wordplay, seems to get plunked rather frustratingly on the bench as oversights to make room for the ideas delivered.
While reading the first few chapters I was hoping Snow Crash would break the mould in terms of accessibility and for the first forty pages, this piece seemed like a decent gateway for onlookers to take an interest in cyberpunk. The action and narrative was smooth to begin with, and written in a manner that seemed engaging for different types of readers. However this positive soon starts to fall by the wayside.
Snow Crash is about a Hacker called Hiro Protagonist, a now prodigal hacker and programmer whose pizza delivery role gives him a semi-covert guide to indulge in other pursuits. Pursuits that consist of the virtual online world called the Metaverse, which allows him to associate with other hackers. However while meeting up his old acquaintance Juanita, he stumbles across a weird new virtual drug called Snow Crash that purports to affect the user outside of the Metaverse as well as in. Observing this drug affect a fellow hacker first hand, draws him into the underbelly of the Metaverse, and into a sinister plot that threatens not only the Metaverse but the real world existing outside it.
The concepts provide a surfeit of food for thought, how the plot proves to be bloated at times. You’ll be so hard-pressed to be quite attentive, and it might feel too tasking a book to overcome without a few breaks within several sittings, with perhaps most giving up entirely, searching for a lighter read. However if you’re willing to invest the time and brainpower to follow the narrative even in its clunker moments, then it is a rewarding read.
The cyberpunk verbiage is probably the biggest criticism of this novel, particularly with its author’s obsession to create coined terms and portmanteaus in order to give his hypothetical future more gravitas. This wouldn’t be a problem if a glossary of terms was available inside the novel, however there does not seem to be a readily available edition that contains such a glossary. Despite this casual readers will be able to understand the broader elements of what is occurring in the main story.
In summary, cyberpunk has a bad reputation for isolating casual readerships outside of an established fan base already esoteric and plugged in to the ideas, terminology and concepts, and unfortunately with Snow Crash this is no different. It’s still a very good addition to the genre and I would recommend it for those interested. However for the uninitiated; you might want to return to your box sets of The Matrix if you’re looking for cyberpunk that’s easy to digest.
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