--- product_id: 38177655 title: "Snow Crash" price: "€ 3.36" currency: EUR in_stock: false reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.fr/products/38177655-snow-crash store_origin: FR region: France --- # Snow Crash **Price:** € 3.36 **Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Snow Crash - **How much does it cost?** € 3.36 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Currently out of stock - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fr](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/38177655-snow-crash) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Only once in a great while does a writer come along who defies comparison—a writer so original, he redefines the way we look at the world. Neal Stephenson is such a writer and Snow Crash is such a novel, weaving virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cybersensibility to bring us the gigathriller of the information age. Snow Crash In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo’s CosaNostra Pizza, Inc., but in the Metaverse he’s a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that’s striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous…you’ll recognize it immediately. “Brilliantly realized…Stephenson turns out to be an engaging guide to an onrushing tomorrow.” — New York Times Book Review Review: Still an amazingly good read even 25 years after publication - I reread this book recently, and was surprised that a 25 year old book could hold up so well. Speculative fiction can often be overtaken by reality, but there were few examples of that in Snow Crash. The book offers a lot for a reader who wants some real substance in fiction. The backstory of the "Snow Crash" virus (about 2/3 the way through the book) was perhaps the longest pure exposition section I've ever seen in a work of fiction, yet I was riveted by it. Neal Stephenson is perhaps the smartest person writing fiction today, and it shows in the way he can research a topic, comprehend it deeply, and then render an entertaining explanation in the context of a story. It takes amazing chutzpah to name your main charcter "Hiro Protagonist", but Stephenson pulls off what others probably couldn't, and Hiro is indeed an excellent protagonist. A man of multiple and amazing talents, nevertheless the book opens with him delivering pizzas. Early on, Hiro seems to just blunder into key events, but eventually he rises to be more pro-active and becomes a true hero. The dystopian society is at times all too plausible. It seems Stephenson saw in advance the breakdown of our institutions in the 21st century. (That also helped him generate a completely different dystopia in The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) , which you should definitely read if you like Snow Crash.) If Stephenson has one flaw as a writer, it's that most of his books have abrupt endings. This one leaves a few loose ends. Without spoiling things too much, I'll mention one example. A main character possesses a nuclear warhead and rigs it to protect himself from attack, yet we never see that resolved in the ending. It's not clear for a couple of the main characters whether they even survive or not. So I wish his books has at least a minimal denouement. But I'll take that flaw for some of the most entertaining and though-provoking books I've ever read. Review: MYTHOLOGY MEETS TECHNOLOGY - 0101 1100 1101 0001 1111 0010 0101 1010 What if looking at these seemingly innocent binary numbers could not only affect your computer, but your brain as well? After all, your brain is simply a biological computer itself. This is one of the main themes in Stephenson's SNOW CRASH, a becoming-more-recognizable future where people divide their time between Reality and the Metaverse. The other theme is more complex, but tries to draw parallels between Sumerian mythology and computer viruses. It's interesting in that it challenges the reader to alter their view of history, but the analogies are not as well drawn as they could be. Fortunately, these two suit-and-tie topics are woven into a story that features an eccentric cast of characters and an action-packed storyline. I couldn't use the phrase "colorful cast of characters" as some of them are literally black and white in the Metaverse! For example there's the main hero, Hiro Protagonist. I haven't come across a name that creative since Prince S., a character in Dostoyevsky's THE IDIOT. The sword-wielding, motorcycle-riding Hiro reminded me heavily of Cloud from the famous FINAL FANTASY 7. Then there's the skateboarding Y.T. (not Whitey!), a 15-year old, skateboarding female Kourier that reminded me of the rebellious John Conner of TERMINATOR 2. The locations are just as interesting, where people live in storage units or the neighborhoods of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, The Sacrifice Zone, Nova Sicilia, Narcolumbia, et al. It's not exactly Mister Roger's Neighborhood either as each place has their own rules and lots of security to keep out unwanted people. Just off the shore of the West Coast (where most of the story takes place) is a mass of ships called The Raft. Very similar to Mieville's ship-city of Armada in his book THE SCAR (written many years after this book). It is here where Hiro and gang meet up with several of the major antagonists as the novel draws to a close. With so many crazy ideas all into one book, it is understandable that the first hundred pages read like SNOW CRASH FOR DUMMIES, complete with laugh-out-loud humor, to make your transition into this world easier than Orientation Day at school or work. After those first hundredish pages, the story races along like a mechanical guard-dog on a straight highway. The mythology portions come up about halfway, but are presented by a Librarian. The best way to imagine the Librarian: What if GOOGLE could talk? or What if that stupid paperclip in MICROSOFT OFFICE actually did something useful for once? The ending, while action-packed and exciting, is where I felt some disappointment. The last line is good, but there is not much closure on what happens to the characters and the chapters that were previously ~15 pages are rapidly narrowed down to ~5 pages--a sign of an author who can't contain his excitement at almost finishing his book. But on the whole, I found this novel much more enjoyable and understandable than William Gibson's earlier NEUROMANCER. If Hiro were rating this book, he would give it 0100 out of 0101 Stars. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #6,682,237 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #39 in Hard Science Fiction (Books) #55 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Books) #114 in Science Fiction Adventures | | Customer Reviews | 4.3 out of 5 stars 20,410 Reviews | ## Images ![Snow Crash - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71sLtXyzqPL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Still an amazingly good read even 25 years after publication *by B***S on August 24, 2018* I reread this book recently, and was surprised that a 25 year old book could hold up so well. Speculative fiction can often be overtaken by reality, but there were few examples of that in Snow Crash. The book offers a lot for a reader who wants some real substance in fiction. The backstory of the "Snow Crash" virus (about 2/3 the way through the book) was perhaps the longest pure exposition section I've ever seen in a work of fiction, yet I was riveted by it. Neal Stephenson is perhaps the smartest person writing fiction today, and it shows in the way he can research a topic, comprehend it deeply, and then render an entertaining explanation in the context of a story. It takes amazing chutzpah to name your main charcter "Hiro Protagonist", but Stephenson pulls off what others probably couldn't, and Hiro is indeed an excellent protagonist. A man of multiple and amazing talents, nevertheless the book opens with him delivering pizzas. Early on, Hiro seems to just blunder into key events, but eventually he rises to be more pro-active and becomes a true hero. The dystopian society is at times all too plausible. It seems Stephenson saw in advance the breakdown of our institutions in the 21st century. (That also helped him generate a completely different dystopia in The Diamond Age: Or, a Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (Bantam Spectra Book) , which you should definitely read if you like Snow Crash.) If Stephenson has one flaw as a writer, it's that most of his books have abrupt endings. This one leaves a few loose ends. Without spoiling things too much, I'll mention one example. A main character possesses a nuclear warhead and rigs it to protect himself from attack, yet we never see that resolved in the ending. It's not clear for a couple of the main characters whether they even survive or not. So I wish his books has at least a minimal denouement. But I'll take that flaw for some of the most entertaining and though-provoking books I've ever read. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ MYTHOLOGY MEETS TECHNOLOGY *by E***P on July 4, 2009* 0101 1100 1101 0001 1111 0010 0101 1010 What if looking at these seemingly innocent binary numbers could not only affect your computer, but your brain as well? After all, your brain is simply a biological computer itself. This is one of the main themes in Stephenson's SNOW CRASH, a becoming-more-recognizable future where people divide their time between Reality and the Metaverse. The other theme is more complex, but tries to draw parallels between Sumerian mythology and computer viruses. It's interesting in that it challenges the reader to alter their view of history, but the analogies are not as well drawn as they could be. Fortunately, these two suit-and-tie topics are woven into a story that features an eccentric cast of characters and an action-packed storyline. I couldn't use the phrase "colorful cast of characters" as some of them are literally black and white in the Metaverse! For example there's the main hero, Hiro Protagonist. I haven't come across a name that creative since Prince S., a character in Dostoyevsky's THE IDIOT. The sword-wielding, motorcycle-riding Hiro reminded me heavily of Cloud from the famous FINAL FANTASY 7. Then there's the skateboarding Y.T. (not Whitey!), a 15-year old, skateboarding female Kourier that reminded me of the rebellious John Conner of TERMINATOR 2. The locations are just as interesting, where people live in storage units or the neighborhoods of Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, The Sacrifice Zone, Nova Sicilia, Narcolumbia, et al. It's not exactly Mister Roger's Neighborhood either as each place has their own rules and lots of security to keep out unwanted people. Just off the shore of the West Coast (where most of the story takes place) is a mass of ships called The Raft. Very similar to Mieville's ship-city of Armada in his book THE SCAR (written many years after this book). It is here where Hiro and gang meet up with several of the major antagonists as the novel draws to a close. With so many crazy ideas all into one book, it is understandable that the first hundred pages read like SNOW CRASH FOR DUMMIES, complete with laugh-out-loud humor, to make your transition into this world easier than Orientation Day at school or work. After those first hundredish pages, the story races along like a mechanical guard-dog on a straight highway. The mythology portions come up about halfway, but are presented by a Librarian. The best way to imagine the Librarian: What if GOOGLE could talk? or What if that stupid paperclip in MICROSOFT OFFICE actually did something useful for once? The ending, while action-packed and exciting, is where I felt some disappointment. The last line is good, but there is not much closure on what happens to the characters and the chapters that were previously ~15 pages are rapidly narrowed down to ~5 pages--a sign of an author who can't contain his excitement at almost finishing his book. But on the whole, I found this novel much more enjoyable and understandable than William Gibson's earlier NEUROMANCER. If Hiro were rating this book, he would give it 0100 out of 0101 Stars. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Original and Audacious; Wildly Entertaining *by S***Y on July 1, 2014* Neal Stephenson writes science fiction that requires a certain level of attention and concentration to follow and stay on top of. You can’t lay a Stephenson novel down for a few days and hope to come back and take up where you left off. This is not pulp science fiction. In this audacious novel, Stephenson crafts a dystopian Earth near the end of the 20th century. Most civilization has broken down and even in the United States, society has devolved into semi-sovereign “franchulates” (franchise consulates) and “burbclaves” (suburban enclaves). A rampant form of pure capitalism reigns, with private ownership of roads and police protection. Existing alongside this “free for all” is a Metaverse, an on-line world governed largely by hackers. Now, dystopia coupled with virtual reality is nothing new, however Stephenson takes it up a notch, weaving Sumerian and Old Testament mythology throughout the story. Some may find elements of Stephenson’s world silly, and some of it is pretty far out there, but much of it comes across as biting satire and I found it enormously entertaining. The “heroes” of the story are Hiro Protagonist, a freelance stringer for Central Intelligence Corporation (a privatized successor to the Library of Congress), a computer software designer and the greatest sword fighter in the world (in the Metaverse) and Y.T., a souped up skateboard riding 15 year old courier. With the help of the Mafia (Cosa Nostra, Inc.) and assorted other supremely interesting characters, Hiro and Y.T. discover a new designer drug, Snow Crash, whose purpose is to inject a virus into the deepest level of the brain, acting much the same as a computer virus. Seeking to prevent spread of the virus, Hiro and Y.T. cross swords with Bob Rife, the richest man on the planet, who seeks to use Snow Crash to exert total control over the world's population. Elements of economic theory, religion, virtual reality, Sumerian mythology and linguistics take this story out of the realm of anything you’ve ever experienced. Four and a half stars, rounded up to five simply on the basis of its originality, scope and audacity. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.fr/products/38177655-snow-crash](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/38177655-snow-crash) --- *Product available on Desertcart France* *Store origin: FR* *Last updated: 2026-05-19*