Just gone back to reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. It's a cyberpunk novel from kind of a dystopian future, where USA split up into several hundred city-states that are basically privately owned by various groups from churches to corporations to crime syndicates. In the beginning, the protagonist (who's name is actually Hiro Protagonist) gets into some trouble in regards to his job (which happens to be delivering pizza for a mafia-owned restaurant chain) and, while trying to fix them, manages to get involved (partially by his friend and ex-girlfriend) with a new drug called "Snow Crash", that also doubles as a computer virus and turns out to be a much bigger problem than it seemed at first. Of course, Hiro is the one who is eventually forced to try to solve it.
I'm only one third into the book at the moment, but I already love it. The world it takes place in is really weird, but at the same time incredibly interesting, imaginative, detailed and unique, and so is the writing style. The story itself is moving forward a bit slowly, but I don't really mind, because firstly, there is still lot of stuff happening, and secondly, the way the book is written is an artistic experience in itself. Also, the characters are really likeable and there is a noticable amount of inspiration by East-Asian popculture, which makes the book a perfect candidate for an anime/manga adaptation. Think Cowboy Bebop meets Ghost in the Shell. It also reminds me of Galaxy Quest a bit, probably because of it's dry humour and being a straight example of a genre and it's deconstruction at the same time.
TL;DR: Excellent science-fiction novel with a unique style, world and premise, absolutely worth reading.
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