Snow Crash by
Neal Stephenson is set in the near future, where everything is a private corporation, including the mafia, the jails, and the church. Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza, but he is also one of the best hackers around, and the best swordsman in the world. While "goggled in" to the Metaverse, one of Hiro's friends, a fellow hacker, falls victim to a new computer virus: Snow Crash. This particular virus affects only hackers, and in the wrong hands, will have devastating results. Connected to the virus is a new religious cult, rising rapidly in popularity. Hiro's ex-girlfriend, a neurolinguist, is investigating the cult, and finds it is associated with Sumerian myth and the Tower of Babel. Hiro gets involved in the mission to put a stop to the cult's leaders, picking up along the way a cocky young Kourier, Y.T., as sort of a sidekick, and coming face to face with Raven, a psycho out for revenge.
After reading
Neuromancer, I was a little bummed out on cyberpunk, but after
Snow Crash, I totally get it. We follow both Hiro and Y.T. throughout the book, and with both of them there is almost non-stop action, both in reality and in the Metaverse. When we're not in the middle of guns blazing or swords swinging, then we're finding out something new about the virus or the cult, which only adds to the urgency of Hiro's task.
