Read Lately: Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

• I'm several years behind the times, but I finally got around to reading Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash. And thank goodness I did because if I waited another five or ten years, it would be too late.
• Stephenson's book, like any great work of speculative fiction, is a fascinating portrait of our potential future. Snow Crash shows us an American ruled by the classic megacorporations of cyberpunk, but this time organized on the franchise model of today's disposable culture. We follow the exploits of two primary characters, the eccentrically named hacker Hiro Protagonist and a courier known only as Y.T, as they uncover a conspiracy to spread an informational virus. I never was actually sure why as the story is quite complex and I have very little brain.
• The best features of this novel come from updating the old cyberpunk to relate with our current relationship to the future and how far we've come already. It's also one heck of a fascinating read. Although this book will become dated like all speculative fiction, Snow Crash is a clever and evocative novel that any fan of the genre can enjoy.