Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson

My first impression of this book is that it reads like something a teenager would write about his kooky adventures as an unsung hero, I don’t mean that in a negative way, by any means, because I think it was intended to be read sort of like that. I think it gives off that vibe because of the severe lack of pronouns and also the fact that the protagonist of the story, “the deliverator” is amped up to be this superb hero despite the fact that pizza delivery boy isn’t the most lucrative of job descriptions. I think the fact that it’s written like that made the book all the more interesting to me. For one, it was grounded in a reality I semi understood and it was mildly humorous and so it caught my attention, whereas most sci-fi novels don’t typically do that for me. So the story plays out with Hiro, the protagonist and so called “Deliverator” who is a former pizza deliverator for the mafia, freelance spy, hacker and concert promoter, meanwhile the US government has collapsed with the NSA and the library of congress, as it’s only remnants. The responsibilities of government have now been taken on by different franchises causing there to be a weird overlap between business and government. During the telling of the story Hiro discovers a new drug called snow crash thanks to the help of a newfound friend Y.T.  The story continues on with Hiro using his computer hacking skills and superior abilities with swords to unravel the mysteries of this new narcotic. I found the story rather interesting, I enjoyed traipsing through this new found world and exploring the decline of cultures and societies and seeing how they rebuilt themselves, for instance Kong bucks because the inflation of the dollar was so profound. I think it was an interesting take on the world if businesses were allowed to be on the same footing as government. All in all I would say it was a very clever novelization.