Snow Crash is Neal Stephenson's breakthrough cyberpunk novel.
A breakneck-paced 21st-century novel, Snow Crash interweaves everything from Sumerian myth to visions of a postmodern civilization on the brink of collapse. Faster than the speed of television and a whole lot more fun, Snow Crash is the portrayal of a future that is bizarre enough to be plausible.
Not-too-distant future - a world where the Mafia controls pizza delivery, the United States exists as a patchwork of corporate-franchise city-states, and the Internet - incarnate as the Metaverse - looks something like last year's hype would lead you to believe it should.
In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for the Cosa Nostra. But in the Metaverse, he's a warrior prince, last of the solo hackers, and the greatest sword fighter in the world. Now, he's racing along the neon-lit streets, the skirts of his black leather kimono flapping, on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse ! When his best friend fries his brain on a new designer drug called Snow Crash and his beautiful, brainy ex-girlfriend asks for his help, what's a guy with a name like that to do ? He rushes to the rescue.