I thought that I'd used up the cyberpunk genre. Every bookI've picked up in the past year is about a strung out so-and-solooking for one last fix, or one last cybernetic implant, or looking to pull off that one great cyber-heist. I thought that we'd become a mass of Gibson clones.
Then I read Snow Crash.
From Cosa Nostra Pizza to personal nuclear devices to *ahem* "butt pirates," Stephenson creates his world out of the throw-away jokes and put-downs of our own. The result is that Stephenson's isn't a far-flung future...it's what's right around the corner, it's what we're going to be calling home.
Snow Crash is a brilliant blend of tounge-in-cheek humor, authorial self-awareness (never mind that the main character is called Hiro Protagonist!), and hard edge science fiction. Stephenson's characters, while starting out as cultural cliche's--the skate punk, the godfather--turn out to be people that you care about and, in some way, can identify with.
Granted, for Stephenson fans (or those of you that have read at least one other of his novels), the plot and shape of Snow Crash will be quite predictable, the names have only been changed to protect the innocent. But, that can't change the fact that Stephenson delivers a top notch performance with more car chases, online intriuge, random violence, freaky antagonists, Sumerian myth, "nice doggies," and punk humor than you can shake a katana at.
For those of you looking for the next leve of cyberpunk, put down that applesauce...you've got it right here.