Another classic, in this case a modern classic, in the sci-fi genre.
Weird factoid- this book wasn't even nominated for a Hugo Award.
Neal Stephenson's writing is excellent, though as my buddy Dan has remarked, he sometimes is a little too smart and too precious for his own good. That being allowed, I will say that this book is a giant and casts a giant's shadow, and I totally understood why.
The premise of this book... well it kinda has many premises. It winds up being an interlocking "Pulp Fiction" style plot following multiple protagonists and antagonists. Lotta interested parties, lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous, you get the picture. He also coined the term "avatar" in its modern technical sense in this book.I think that it is second only to Neuromancer in its prescience as a harbbinger of the internet age.
If you claim to be a sci-fi person and you are trying to move beyond just the classic age, this is a must. I'd say that in my lifetime there are probably only four must-read science fiction novels that have been written, which is to say that they are so influential and so widely popular and famous and just really great that you must read them. One is "Neuromancer," one is "Ender's Game," one is this book, and "Hyperion" is borderline.
I probably like "Snow Crash" the least of that bunch, but it is required nonetheless, and it is also among the sci-fi books that I will review that will be solid reading no matter what kind of fiction you are into. Great plot, great characters, great ideas, and the dialog isn't bad either.
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