I’ve had this book for ages, heard it was good and that it basically put Stephenson on the map, but I could not make it through to the end. I got to page 186 and stopped. It’s not that there was anything wrong with page 186; that was just where I’d finally had enough. Why? Because I cannot tell you what this book is about. I know what it’s supposed to be about, from reading the blurb on the back and other people’s reviews, but Stephenson spends so much time world-building and introducing characters and concepts that by page 186 a coherent plot still hadn’t formed and I was kind of bored.
This sci-fi novel starts out by introducing Hiro Protagonist, who is trying to deliver a pizza in 30 minutes or less or Uncle Enzo, who owns the pizza franchise (which is part of the Mafia), will be very upset. Hiro crashes his car, and a skateboarding courier (called Kouriers in the book) by the name of Y.T. (for Yours Truly) helps him out and they decide to team up. Team up doing what? I’m not entirely sure. Ostensibly it’s to gather information that can be sold to an intelligence-gathering agency, but by the time I stopped reading, they’d only had a few interactions, at least that the reader saw.
The writing itself isn’t bad. Stephenson can turn an interesting phrase, right from page 1 where he’s describing Hiro’s uniform: “A bullet will bounce off its arachnofiber weave like a wren hitting a patio door, but excess perspiration wafts through it like a breeze through a freshly napalmed forest.” He’s also clearly put a lot of thought into building a futuristic U.S., but while I can appreciate that, the novel just meandered too much for me and ultimately didn’t keep my interest.