I’m an avid reader of fantasy and sci-fi. Books of all flavors sit on my bookshelf and get sucked into the occasional week of use (I had a little C.S. Lewis kick last month and read pretty much everything he’s ever had published). But my true passion is delving into the detailed creations of masters like Robert Jordan, Orson Scott Card, George R.R. Martin, Ursula K Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, and J.K. Rowling.

However, up until very recently (as in, the last couple of days) there has been a gaping hole in my literary experience. Especially being a PC-focused gamer who has previously claimed MMOs as my gaming specialty and anthropological niche, it’s fairly shameful that I’ve neglected this part of my education. Actually, I kind of blame my friends and influences for not forcing this down my throat earlier, but nonetheless, I am finally making amends to my sci-fi fandom: I’m reading Snow Crash for the first time.

At first, I’ll admit I thought Neal Stephenson’s writing style was pretentious. Trying to capture the rhythm of casual, colloquial speech is a hard thing and usually comes off wrong. But once I adjusted (which only took until around page 9) his writing style was merely the story’s interface and I’ve been hard-pressed to but the book down.

Now I’m on page 164 and I’m prepared to tell anyone who is at all interested in cyber worlds, MMO’s, or internet cultures that this book is a crucial read. For anyone who has been Snow Crash initiated, they’ll of course say “duh” to that statement. But nobody ever told ME this (maybe because they assumed that anyone claiming to be a specialist in MMO’s couldn’t have possibly NOT read it) so I feel it’s worth emphasizing.

Now I’m curious how this will change my perspective about online gaming in general. Will I ever see Xbox Live in the same light? How close are we to something like a Metaverse? I need to check out Second Life… Pardon my enthusiasm; I get excited about this stuff.