_Snow Crash_, a novel by Neal Stephenson, takes place in the near future. Things are run by the franchises and Burbclaves, the latter having their own citizens, constitutions, laws, and cops. In this new society, Stephenson writes:There are only four things we do better than anyone else: music, movies, microcode (software), and high-speed pizza delivery.
Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosaNostra Pizza, which "has no competition in getting you a 'za in less than 30 minutes (or else)": he grips the wheel stuck in traffic his eyes get big, he can feel the pressure driving them back into his skull or caught behind a mobile home his bladder is very full and deliver the pizza Oh, God oh, God late 22:06 hangs on the windshield; all he can see, all he can think about is 30:01.
Our hero's business card reads: Last of the freelance hackers - Greatest sword fighter in the world - Stringer, Central Intelligence Corporation - Specializing in software-related intel (music, movies & microcode).
And he's all of those. Our heroine, Y.T., is a skateboarding Kourier who gets around by "pooning" onto the fastest vehicle going her way. She and the skateboard carry enough techno-assist to make this all seem plausible.
Much of the action takes place in the Metaverse, a virtual reality universe in which the coolest have the best rendered avatars. A founding programmer of The Black Sun, an exclusive Metaverse club, Hiro sold his stock too early, so now shares a spacious 20-by-30-foot U-Stor-It near LAX.
Snow Crash is a drug, a virus - who knows what - targeted at the neuro- linguistic pathways in programmers' minds. The sample let loose in the Black Sun came from the Raven, a biker who can take care of himself but carries around an H-bomb as insurance.
You now have enough detail to imagine possibilities, but not how much fun you'll have exploring them. While you're at it, you might look for Stephenson's previous book Zodiac, an entertaining eco-thriller about an activist fighting Boston Harbor polluters.
_Snow Crash_, by Neal Stephenson, $5.99, Bantam Books:+1 (212) 354 6500.
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