6 ms·
I'm a big sci-fi reader. Snow Crash is one of those books that I really wanted to like, but I was unable to get past the odd writing style and run-on sentences.
by ezekg 2y ago
I'm a big sci-fi reader. Snow Crash is one of those books that I really wanted to like, but I was unable to get past the odd writing style and run-on sentences. I got about half-way through but never finished it. I know some people swear by Stephenson, so maybe I should give it another chance later in life.
- ABraidotti 2y agoI'm a big sci-fi reader as well, and I'm on a tear this year after neglecting the genre for about a decade. I find Stephenson's books to take a lot of headspace, and I don't always have that. But I do like giving books another shot at my time after a few years. I finally gave Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl another attempt and I'm enjoying it much more than I thought I would.
- zeroonetwothree 2y agoIt’s not my favorite of his books. Try Cryptonomicon (if you like history/math) or Anathem (if you like sci fi/math) or The Diamond Age (if you like sci fi).
- aetherson 2y agoI think that Snow Crash is good, but those are three of his best books, too. I appear to be a little odd in liking Reamde as much as I do, but if you want something lower-concept and more thriller-like, I really enjoy Reamde.
- swells34 2y agoThose three and REAMDE (which I'm currently rereading) are just fantastic. Snow Crash was very stylized; too much for some tastes, not enough for others.
- netule 2y agoI loved REAMDE until a little more than halfway through, when it became a DNF for me.
- sangnoir 2y agoIMO, Stephenson's books are too long for the stories they tell, especially the final 25-33% - those can be a real slog. I gave up on Seveneves at about 90% or the book, reading it was no longer fun. I read a handful of his prior work to completion when I was a book completionist, so I can't tell of it says anything about the nature of the novels, or my own perseverance.
- ljlolel 2y agoI’d say the first half set up is the always the slog with his books and the best part payoff is the end.
- actionfromafar 2y agoSeveneves are very much two books. I liked the first one best.
- jorvi 2y agoDoesn't that make them quite mediocre books when viewed holistically? Imagine if movies were like that: a huge slog for 1h15, and then a twist at 1h50 at which point it actually gets interesting/entertaining. Don't get me wrong, I love a good slow burn read/watch, but "slog" is not that.
- ljlolel 2y agoAnathem payoff is worth it
- aetherson 2y agoI think that's a failure mode his worse books fall into, but I've found his better books enjoyable all the way through.
- nsxwolf 2y agoWith Cryptonomicon I had to keep stopping to look up every other word in a thesaurus. It made me feel incredibly stupid and just made the experience a slog.
- ljlolel 2y agoTake it as a relatively fun way to improve your vocabulary ! (And apparently needed)
- MattSayar 2y agoOne of the biggest pros of a reading device like a Kindle is that you don't have to interrupt the flow, just tap the word and get your definition. Same for footnotes. It was the only way I could get through Infinite Jest.
- knowaveragejoe 2y agoI'm really enjoying The Baroque Cycle.
- PretzelPirate 2y agoInterface is the best Neal Stephenson book.
- nradclif 2y agoStephenson had a rough start in my opinion—Snow Crash isn’t really his best. Try Anathem instead. If you don’t like that, you probably won’t like Stephenson.
- airstrike 2y agoI enjoy it more for the concepts it introduced and the "food for thought" aspect than for the actual writing, if that makes sense.
- fullstop 2y agoSnow Crash was difficult for me as well, and I read a lot of sci-fi. Maybe it's not aged well since the 90s.
- garblegarble 2y agoI feel like this happens a lot with seminal works: the concepts get remixed (or simply regurgitated) by others down the decades to the point where the original often doesn't feel original to a modern viewer/reader.
- slothtrop 2y agoI don't think it aged well, speaking as a fan of Stephenson.
- lz400 2y agoAlso a big sci-fi reader. I think I lasted about 20 pages in snowcrash, something about pizza delivery or something, it was so silly it left me confused. It really soured me on trying to approach anything else by Stephenson.
- sailfast 2y agoYou're really missing out. Hiro Protagonist is a great character, and the idea of modern capitalism (Pizza delivery chains) combined with the yakuza underworld makes for some excellent cyberpunk imaginings.
- Ono-Sendai 2y agoThe initial pizza delivery segment is kind of a humorous prelude. The tone of the book changes a fair bit after that.
- d13 2y agoI had the same experience. It was absolutely juvenile; the writing style was that of precocious 7th grade student.
- slothtrop 2y agoIt's an early novel and sillier than the ones that follow. Among my least favorites, but I can appreciate it for what it is.
- Barrin92 2y agoI also read a lot of sci fi and honestly I never really got Stephenson either. In particular the most popular stuff, Anathem, Cryptonomicon, the history trilogy just has so much Encyclopedia like infodumps in it, it was a slog for me. Honestly his books that people don't talk about often I found more interesting, like Zodiac which is a shorter eco thriller and even Reamde even though it was long it at least has a really interesting plot going for it. My biggest problem with him is, and I don't really mean it as an insult, but he's like a poor man's Pynchon or Hesse. If you like maximalist and historical fiction or like reading about people in monasteries might as well pick up GR or The Glass Bead game.
- sailfast 2y agoI don't recall laughing out loud reading Siddhartha, but man I laugh my ass off every time I read Cryptonomicon, as well as a lot of his other books. They're often over-the-top wink-wink caricatures and often full of humor and clever references.
- The_Colonel 2y agoStephenson is for me a hit and miss author. I adore The Diamong Age, Anathem, Seveneves. I didn't finish the first book of Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon. Some of his other books I don't plan reading since I don't expect them to be good. I'd say Anathem is his best book overall, but the first 100 or so pages is almost pure world building without much action which might turn people away. Seveneves is close and is more accessible from the beginning. Just skip the last (after time jump) part of the book which is... unnecessary and bad.
- X-Istence 2y agoAnathem was almost unreadable due to the aforementioned world building but also apparently needing to redefine every single last word in the dictionary. But Cryptonomicon, Snow Crash and REAMDE were amazing.
- Carrok 2y agoAfter the time jump was fantastic. Is it directly related to the first half? Maybe not, but it's a well thought out picture of what happens as that timeline continues on. Plus it's just fun. I love the entire book (Seveneves).
- The_Colonel 2y ago> a well thought out picture of what happens as that timeline continues on TBH it seemed very ... "idealistic" in a way, "racist" would be another word, but I'd like to avoid the word's moral connotations. Just the idea that the descendants of this particular Eve are physically strong and then descendants of this Eve are intellectuals. It kinda seemed like a fairy tale instead of an actual development, which would realistically end up way more "messy".
- EdwardCoffin 2y agoMy impression was that with this part he was trying to come up with his own version of the fantasy trope of different races with different characteristics (orcs, elves, men, etc), and imagining a situation that could produce such.
- cubefox 2y agoAn odd writing style is a defining feature of the cyberpunk genre according to the canonical cyberpunk anthology "Mirror Shades" (edited by Bruce Sterling). Stephenson actually mentions the anthology in the interview. Snow Crash is relatively tame compared to some books by Williamson and Sterling. I think the idea is that you wouldn't understand everything either if you were actually transported into the future: there would be a ton of new terminologies, unfamiliar concepts, and a changed culture that takes different things to be a matter of course.
- ezekg 2y agoAh, so maybe I just don't like cyber punk then. I usually stick to hard sci-fi. :D
- NavinF 2y agoPush through the odd writing style. It gets a lot better once you understand the setting and characters a few chapters in.
- somenameforme 2y agoI had a somewhat analogous experience with Seveneves, which many people have recommended endlessly. At some point in the book, around half way IIRC, there is an event that happens which explains the title. And it goes from something like an interesting hard sci-fi, to a sort of weird meandering fantasy thing that took a nuke to my suspension of disbelief. It also felt like the book was basically two entirely different books at that point. I simply could not get into it, or passed it.
- uncanneyvalley 2y agoSeveneves is the only Stephenson book I haven’t reread, and it’s because I don’t want to encounter that event again. I suppose I understand why he made that choice, but I don’t have to like it.
- jimbob45 2y agoThought it was just me. I'm into sci-fi for the ideas and there were too few interesting ideas and too much fluff around them. Better authors have been able to communicate more interesting ideas in many less pages. It's why I think short stories are the ideal medium for sci-fi.
- oersted 2y agoDefinitely Snow Crash was challenging and shows its age. Some of his older books have similar bizarro vibes, I could not get into The Diamond Age the first try. Seveneves was much more accessible, as was The Rise and Fall of DODO, and the Baroque Cycle. Fall or Dodge in Hell is a bit more challenging but for different reasons than his early works, the subject matter is just more abstract. No doubt they are all meandering and longwinded, the newer ones perhaps more so, but that’s Stephenson, it can be a strength and a weakness.
- kreyenborgi 2y agoI too started on Snow Crash feeling like "this is going to be great", since it was recommended next to books I enjoyed like Neuromancer. But the pseudo-scientific feel of the Sumerian stuff just completely turned me off, I couldn't decide whether it was meant to be serious or a parody of really bad cyberpunk.
- QuesnayJr 2y agoIt telegraphs very strongly that it's not meant to be taken seriously. The main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, for example.
- teddyh 2y ago> The main character's name is Hiro Protagonist, for example. It actually isn’t. That is the name he works under, a sort of stage name, as he styles himself as a sort of programmer celebrity. His actual name is Hiroaki. (This is mentioned in the book.)
- Vecr 2y agoIs that true? 1) I can't remember that 2) I've never heard anyone say that 3) my grep is coming up empty. I'm not explicitly saying you're lying but I'd like more evidence.
- __rito__ 2y agoI loved Snow Crash especially because it is rare to see western scifi authors base so much of a story on early history or mythology. I have read a number of novels in Bengali that are like this, but was refreshing to see one famous book by a famous author in English.