After several weeks of erratic reading schedules, I finally finished Snow Crash. For the uninitiated, Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson’s take on cyberpunk, and has been compared both to Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and William Gibson’s Neuromancer (which effectively invented cyberpunk as a genre). I’ve not read Vineland or Neuromancer

(yet), so I can’t comment on the accuracy of these comparisons. But the

book–which I enjoyed, if not loved–did remind me of a few other works

of science and fiction, such as:

  • Google Earth – There’s a

    big fat version of Google Earth that’s a fairly significant plot device

    in the novel, which is interesting since Stephenson wrote the book in

    1991.

  • Threshold – The technique of alien invasion in the new sci-fi TV series (from Star Trek‘s Brannon Braga) shares some striking similarities to the Sumerian infovirus in Snow Crash.
  • Moby Dick

    – The confluence of text and meta-text, the multichapter diversions

    into laborious and fascinating exposition, and the blatant referencing

    of whaling, obsessive journeys, and of Melville’s novel itself.

  • Second Life – Of course

    there’s a VR world in a cyberpunk book, but the

    grassroots-and-open-source feel of Stephenson’s world reminds me most

    of Second Life, right down to the co-opting of online real estate by agenda-wielding businesses.

  • Transmetropolitan – The hyperconsumerist, hyperfactionalized, zealot-infused dystopia of Snow Crash is a slighty more real and sinister version of Warren Ellis’ psychotically funny futurescape.
  • Sousveillance

    – Inverse and grassroots surveillance as a business model is a huge

    part of this novel, and while the story doesn’t quite match current

    thinking, we could get there pretty quick.

So anyway, go read the book. It’s pretty cool. Me, I’ve got a sudden

craving for a slice of pizza delivered in a pseudo-batmobile by a

cyber-samurai working for the mafia. MMMM….pizza.