Snow Crash

The prototypical cyberpunk thriller with an interesting side-take on the future of capitalism. Hiro and Y.T. join forces in and out of the “metaverse” to stop a virtual virus from killing the real-life hacker elite. Thinks a lot harder than its contemporaries about the parallels between religion and technology and the programming “languages” that underlie each of them. Also manages to set the stage for MMORPG's to come, though what we have today is surely more dumbed-down than what Stephenson had imagined. The book keeps the reader in a state of perpetual confusion, and the answers come quickly and unexpectedly (except for some unnecessary bits of pure exposition). A blast to read, though the story dissolves near end into an action sequence carrying less weight than it deserves. Really should have read this one years ago!