Miller in Episode 487 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). Listen to the complete interview with Anthony Ha, Lisa Yaszek, and Sam J. “Everybody else is like, they’ve got three pairs of sunglasses on they’re so cool.” “In a lot of ways I think that Rat Thing might be the character who comes the closest to having heart, and an emotional arc, and who made me really feel things,” Miller says. Miller notes that the characters in Snow Crash also feel a bit thin, to the extent that a robotic guard dog named Rat Thing stands out as one of the book’s most sympathetic characters. “It’s the moment before cyberpunk really becomes a global storytelling mode, where all kinds of people-authors of color, LGBTQ+ authors-are really going to start using it.” “If you’re someone who wants to learn a lot about the history and development of cyberpunk, I do still think it’s important to read, because it is an important intervention,” she says. Science fiction professor Lisa Yaszek says that from the vantage of 2021, the book has some weaknesses when it comes to race and gender. Snow Crash is still as fun and stylish as ever, but some aspects of the book have dated poorly. “I started making a list of everyone in Silicon Valley who’s cited this work as inspiring them,” Kirtley says, “and I just kind of stopped at a certain point, because it was basically everyone.” Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy host David Barr Kirtley notes that the novel has inspired countless entrepreneurs and inventors, including John Carmack, Reid Hoffman, and Palmer Luckey. Snow Crash tells the story of Hiro Protagonist, a katana-wielding hacker who jumps back and forth between dystopian Los Angeles and a virtual world called the Metaverse.

Snow crash novelist