I’m not sure if Neal Stephenson isn’t in fact two people. On the one hand, his writing is lurid. Gratuitous violence, high-speed chases and hot chicks make frequent appearances. On the other hand, he includes carefully researched ideas and real science. It’s delightful that one man can do and does both.
Stephenson published Snow Crash in 1992. The novel is set in a dystopian future a decade later, although it’s unclear exactly when. The protagonist is in his early 30s and his father is a World War II veteran, so it can’t be much later than 2005. The genre is firmly cyberpunk. Fortunately, Stephenson’s dystopian future has not come to pass.
It’s been some time since I read Stephenson’s Anathem and Diamond Age, which I both enjoyed. More recently I read Fall, and my experience with Snow Crash was the same: Neither book could hold my interest until the end. One reason is that both books are long – Fall has 883 pages, Snow Crash has 559. I think Stephenson’s pulp fiction writing style may be the other reason. It produces a metaphorical sugar rush that after the first hundred pages wears off. The ensuing crash makes the remaining pages a slog.
Nehaveigur 