Snow Crash

Hard to collect my thoughts on this one. Took a really long time to get going. The 2nd half was better and more connected. The world was cool, a high tech low life corporate America ad absurdum. The central idea of a latent root language in the brain, that if mastered can be used to program people, is interesting but its expression in this novel is layered in a tonne of religious-historical discourse which at times both hampers the action and labours the point. The full extent of the philosophy of language behind the idea wasn't really brought out. Then again, it's not a philosophy essay.

The book could be cut down a lot and not lose anything. A tonne of the novel is just building up the mafia, building up YT, building up Raven. Does the final confrontation pay off? Not..really. The ending is fine enough, a little rushed, the baddies get their comeuppance, the heroes poon off into the sunset (... I never did get over that word). If you're already sold on how cool the world is by the first few chapters, which I was, you'll slog through a lot of the book like “yeah I get it, get on with it now”.

But there's a world changing, understanding-of-humanity changing idea at the core here. A reimagining of the reasons behind the evolution of all language, culture, and religion. So despite it being a bit bloated, it's still a 4 star book in my mind. Slimmed down and streamlined it could have been a 5, there's plenty to think about here.

The 17 year old me who downloaded hack/phreak text files over dialup really wanted to read it, and I know he wouldn't have been ready for it back then. The 38 year old me who just finished it for the first time... he got it, but maybe he's too old to get excited about it any more.

Maybe it's the right book at the wrong time. But I'm glad I read it.