Book of the Year

Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash combined ideas of virtual reality, holographic avatars, and corporate marketing into one colorful world and called it "the Metaverse".

For the characters of the book, their Metaverse is essentially like our Internet, but taken to an extreme:

• the wealthiest have the most access
• it is driven by advertising
• it is largely privatized
• its creators still exert a huge amount of control over how it works

Without spoiling the book, there are lots of "viral" ideas in Snow Crash, both literally and figuratively speaking. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic makes the literal virus aspects of Snow Crash feel painfully relevant today.

In my opinion, Snow Crash feels like it was written in 2021, rather than 1992.

If you enjoy dystopian, "hard" science fiction action, with sprawling worldbuilding, this book is for you.

Get it from your local library or buy a copy from your local bookstore.