Hacker News Books

Snow Leopard was one of the best releases I remember. I'm hoping for a Snow Leopard-ish update for iOS 13 so it has a fair shot at getting the attention and praise it deserves.

That was what I was thinking - except stuff Stephenson writes about in Snow Crash that seems similar to what happens here is after some kind of societal meltdown.

Snow Leopard was a boring release, but a very nice OS. This release feels like it might be similar.

Snow Fall was considered an incredible success in online presentation, and a lot of papers have tried to emulate it since. Any similarities you notice are probably not accidents.

Snow Leopard was an entire release dedicated to making Leopard faster and more stable ... so at first glance it makes sense your memory of it is so positive.

Another great web piece by the New York Times. The other two I know of are Snow Fall [1] and the Riding the New Silk Road [2].

1 - http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/

2 - http://www.nytimes.com/newsgraphics/2013/07/21/silk-road/

Hey, I'd say Snow Crash (for history in geekery).
The Ender series.
Some of Neil Gaiman (I do love TPratchett, though not on this list) ..

At the moment I'm a lot into short stories, and that'd mean Ted Chiang of course, and Greg Evan, as well as some of Vinge Vernor.

Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash anyone?

http://genius.com/Neal-stephenson-snow-crash-chapter-three-a...

Hiro Protagonist and Vitaly Chernobyl, roommates, are chilling out in their home, a spacious 20-by-30 in a U-Stor-It in Inglewood, California.

Stephenson is in a league of his own when it comes to this kind of story. Snow Crash was a terrific piece of work, where the main protagonist :) was a hacker deeply lacking in entrepreneurial skills. Cryptonomicon had a ton of stuff in it, even down to Bobby Shaftoe getting cracked over the ear with an oar when he was reunited with his beloved Glory :-)

Snow Crash is much lighter fare, and my usual suggestion for people who want to try Neil Stephenson. Though with the audience here, Cryptonomicon is probably a good bet.

Does anyone else feel a comparison between this novel and Snow Crash? Some of the plot points are eerily similar.

You can't compare Stephenson and Banks. Banks is actually a good writer.

I don't really enjoy Stephenson's prose. It's often plodding, rarely beautiful. Thankfuly, apart from its lacklustre ending, Snow Crash largely compensates through sheer entertainability. It's unapologetically fun in a genre which tends to take itself far to seriously.

In good hands, I really think it can make a very good show.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
Foundation series.
Snow Crash.
2001: A space odyssey.

Why?

All are so much fun to read over and over again.

I guess no book list can ever escape the mediocrity of Neal Stephenson. At least it wasn't Snow Crash this time.

Snow Crash came long before Cryptonomicon, and the former dealt more with virtual reality than the latter (IIRC).

However, Neuromancer and the other Gibson Cyberpunk novels came well before Snow Crash.

Also, Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings.

Snow Crash - Convincing possible future dominated by media, corporations, computers, and drugs.

The Origin of Consciousness and the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind - Fascinating delve into, among other things, why Homer is boring but gets better, prehistoric art in early human cultures, schizophrenia, and perception and the points it breaks down.

(I work in VR games so take with a grain of salt)

Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Adams
Discworld series - Pratchett
Foundation - Asimov
American Gods - Gaiman
Snow Crash - Stephenson
Next - Crichton
1984 - Orwell

I find it interesting that most of the discussion about Snow Crash is "how about that other amazing book/series"?

AFAIK no one has tried the High House trilogy or Mythago Wood series or the classic sci fi book Heavy Weather.

Heavy Weather as a setting would seem well matched to soap operic writing which we'll probably be subjected to regardless of what we want, then finally spring the tornado on them in the last episode of the last season.

Snow Leopard was a glorious dream of stability and reliability. I miss it.

YT was in Snow Crash and I think that HT should be HP: Hiro Protagonist. Although I don't remember that quote in the book.

I'm not sure I follow the author's complaints though. Its not cyberpunk because the young protagonist has a glib jacket? Its not cyberpunk because the plot impact is high? Lots of cyberpunk works have high impact plots. Ghost in the shell and Neuromancer had some global military AI. Snow Crash had a villain with a nuclear bomb. A lot of the characters in these books were not deep at all. In fact I think accepting the dystopia as normal and living inside it's rules is almost a hallmark of the genre.

I don't really understand the plot complaints other then they just didn't like it that more or that it didn't fit their idea of what the game should be.

I am reminded of Snow Crash where the government has turned into an hyper bureaucratic system. It describes in several tedious pages an addendum to the office rules for toilet paper an TP pooling. But fear not, productivity was not lost since employees were expected to read the new rule within a specified quick time.