Comment by anton-c

Comment by anton-c 20 hours ago

7 replies

Necromancer was cool. Never managed to get through the other cyberpunk classic Snowcrash though. Did I get the right book? Pizza delivery?

bigger_cheese 7 hours ago

I think Snow Crash is an interesting book but I can see how people could be turned off by it. It kind of straddles a weird line where parts of it almost read like parody or an attempt to troll the audience but at the same time it explores serious concepts.

It kind of screams at you "look how absurd this is" but then plays it straight and explores the ideas seriously.

JKCalhoun 19 hours ago

Just my opinion, but neither were .. revelatory for me. They were both just okay. I'm not really an avid reader though.

  • Espressosaurus 17 hours ago

    If you read Snow Crash before the age of 25 it's revelatory.

    If you read it after 25 it's laughably on-the-nose.

    In highschool it was the greatest book I ever read.

    Some books require the reader to be in a particular place in their lives.

    • mjevans 9 hours ago

      I was lucky enough to have it as part of my college literature course. I had a choice of Greek classics or SciFi and, though I'm missing a TON of Greek classic context these days I do not regret reading ANY of the scifi books! IMO it's a pity I couldn't take both!

      There's a lot of content in the book that reads differently years later. It's extremely easy to criticize outside of the situations present in the book.

      Fiction is a good a place to consider alternate worlds, situations outside of the norm, and people with circumstances you'll never (or hope to never) encounter yourself. That makes it a great place to refine morals and reach a deeper understanding of why things might be good or bad.

  • anton-c 19 hours ago

    I mean idk when you read it, but like the author said I've seen this language be absorbed so I can't take it in as fresh innovative stuff. I was born after the novel came out so obviously was decades old when I read it.

    • JKCalhoun 19 hours ago

      I did read both when they came out (in paperback anyway). But I know what you mean. Friends who had not read The Lord of the Rings but saw the films can be excused for thinking the story was "derivative".

Krasnol 15 hours ago

There is a huge difference between both.

Snow Crash would be a hollow joke without Gibson etc.

It is now just a joke with some encyclopedia mixed in.

Terrible ending. As always with the author btw.