SNOW CRASH

SNOW CRASH
1992 novel by Neal Stephenson

Whew! That was a whirlwind tour through a futuristic 'real' gritty landscape of corporate-states (formerly America) and 'unreal' Metaverse occupied by realistic avatars. In both places, our hero Hiro Protagonist and heroine Y.T. speed along streets on motorcycle or skateboard and join forces to investigate what destructive plans have been made against hackers.

They meet when Hiro crashes the pizza delivery car he is driving and Y.T. comes along and does him the favour of delivering the pizza on her skateboard. She rides to delivery points by attaching a cable to vehicles that are driven in the direction she needs. Although Hiro's description isn't at all like him, I couldn't help thinking of Hiro looking like actor Masi Oka who played "Hiro Nakamura" on Heroes. Y.T.'s character brought to mind actress Jewel Strait playing "Kaylee Frye" on Firefly because of the similarity of their spunky characters.

Yes, this is cyberpunk but it's not dark like Gibson's Neuromancer. Instead, it carries you along like Y.T.'s joyful though hair-raising skateboarding trips through a fast and furious series of adventures leading to the discovery of who, what and how the evil forces plan to destroy the computer systems that every person and corporate entity depends on.