#TechnicolorRainbow: "Afterwar" and "Snow Crash"

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Afterwar. Lilith Saintcrow, Orbit, 373pp., 2018.

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Snow Crash. Neal Stephenson, Del Ray, 563pp., 1992.

Lilith Saintcrow's Afterwar is a remarkably gritty and satisfying
read, but is not for the faint of heart. Although the plot is a
revenge-style chase, it's mostly a terrifyingly tantalizing look at
what isn't all that far from possible in the United States these days.

It takes place at the tail end of an American civil war with two sides
that will be very familiar to anyone who has followed US politics for
the last five years. The details of the backstory are never clearly
revealed, which works well for the reader with a wild (and vivid)
imagination. A group of Raiders are on a mission with a rescued
prisoner and, well, I don't want to reveal more.

I enjoyed the dialogue and descriptions quite a bit. There is a lot
of dark humour at work here, as well as straight-up horrible things.
Maybe it's a bit much at times, but having some military background in
my life I found I could connect with it. The first third of the book
is a bit confusing to follow with respect to the characters, though.
It has a purpose, but be prepared.

Snow Crash is a book I've been told I've had to read for a long time
now. I found it to be a great action story and very entertaining, and
not something I would take very seriously.

It's an action mystery set in an alternative "now" of the 90s with
wonderful world building and just plain fun at every turn. If you're
read some of Stephenson's other stuff, you can tell there was more
editing at work here. The language is as amusing as ever and while I
didn't find the characters to be all that deep, I did care about them.
A name like "Hiro Protagonist" for the protagonist kind of tells you
all you need to know.

I found the hacker ethic a bit comical and simplistic. That's not a
bad thing, mind you, but I would not model my life on what I read
here. The crux of the story is rather complicated and it worked for
me, despite being utterly impractical. It was a blast to read,
though.