Book Review: Snow Crash

Book Review: 'Snow Crash' by Neal Stephenson

2 / 5 Stars

'Snow Crash' first was issued in hardback in 1992; this mass market paperback edition (470 pp.) was released in May, 1993 and features cover art by Bruce Jensen.

The novel is set in the early 2000s, and the lead character is a slacker in his thirties named Hiro Protagonist. Hiro is a sometime hacker, pizza deliveryman, and stringer for the Central Intelligence Corporation (successor agency to the CIA). In the novel's first chapter we are introduced to secondary character 'Y.T,' a 15 year-old girl who works as a courier, riding a super-sophisticated skateboard that gains momentum from temporarily attaching to cars and trucks via a 'smart' harpoon.

The plot of 'Snow Crash' is rather simple; a telecom magnate named L. Bob Rife is attempting to take control of the world, and one means of doing this involves loosing a virus, the eponymous Snow Crash, on the global hacker community. Snow Crash delivers a sort of digital lobotomy when viewed by unsuspecting hackers. 

When not grinding for low wages, Hiro spends most of his time in an online world called the Metaverse, where he is a personality of some stature. The novel oscillates between events in the 'real' world, and those taking place in the Metaverse. Regardless of locale, Hiro and Y.T. are obliged to ally themselves with all manner of quirky personalities in their efforts to thwart the machinations of L. Bob Rife, and purge Snow Crash from the hacker infastructure.

At nearly 500 pages in length, and with dense prose, 'Snow Crash' can't really be synopsized in a concise manner. It is sufficient to say that author Stephenson uses the novel as a platform to launch into all manner of discourses and digressions, with many of these having little relevance with the main plot. 

For example, he devotes more than 10 pages to describing the numbing office routine that Y. T.'s mother, a federal employee, must follow in her job as a programmer. Four of these 10 pages deal with a memorandum from management about the requirement for employees to furnish toilet paper for the office bathrooms. It's a case of satiric overkill, and could have been excised, along with probably another 100 pages of extraneous exposition, without damaging the novel........ 

The final 150-odd pages of 'Snow Crash' do pick up momentum, as Hiro and Y.T. endure all sorts of perils in their final confrontation with L. Bob Rife aboard his 'fifth world,' a massive armada of dilapidated ships and boats constituting an artificial island in the Pacific. But frequent plot contrivances leech the impact from these climactic sequences. To give an example, at one point, someone falls out of a speeding helicopter, and thus faces certain injury and perhaps death. But - ! Their coverall just happens to have a quasi-miraculous, built-in airbag system that cushions their fall at the moment of impact ! So, what could have been a moment of suspense, is cancelled out by a plot gimmick.

I finished 'Snow Crash' thinking that its more engaging sequences were too few and too far between to reward me for the effort I had to put into reading the novel in the first place. As a first-gen cyberpunk novel it's too unfocused and too messy to stand alongside (say) Gibson's 'Bridge' trilogy, Sterling's 'Heavy Weather,' and Effinger's 'Budayeen' trilogy. 

Only Stephenson fans, and those with a degree of patience, are advised to sit down with 'Snow Crash.' 

A Trio by Louis Trimble

Louis Trimble (1917 - 1988) was an American author of more than 70 books, most of these paperbacks in the western and detective / crime genres. In the early 1970s he had three novels published by the nascent DAW Books: 'The Wandering Variables,' 'The Bodelan Way,' and 'The City Machine.'

 

All three are short (they more are novelettes than novels) and likely I'll read all three before the winter ends. 

Book Review: Mondo Macabro

January is Trash Cinema Month at the PorPor Books Blog

Book Review: 'Mondo Macabro' by Pete Tombs

 

'Mondo Macabro' (192 pp.) first was published as a trade paperback in the UK in October, 1997. A U.S. trade paperback edition (below) was released in December 1998. There also is a Kindle edition available.

'Mondo' is one of two volumes on trash / exploitation / cult cinema authored by Tombs, the other being the immortal 'Immoral Tales.' 

 

'Mondo' is affiliated with the 'Mondo Macabro' website, founded by Tombs and Andy Starke, that sells exotic DVDs. 

One thing that stands out: 'Mondo' is not easy on the eyes of the elderly, with a font that must be 4 point at its largest. I needed reading glasses for this book. That's how life is, when you're an old fart........

While 'Immoral Tales' focused on European trash cinema, with an emphasis on horror films, 'Mondo' takes a look at cinema in other continents and hemispheres. So in the pages of 'Mondo' you'll read about films made in South America, South Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific. And while some of the profiled films are horror, there also is coverage of melodramas, comedies, softcore porn, and science fiction.

As with 'Immoral,' Tombs understands he is writing for a 90% male audience, so the pages of 'Mondo' heavily are salted with black-and-white stills designed to appeal to the that demographic.

The films of Japan and Hong Kong get the most plentiful treatment, with three chapters each.

Contributor Giovanni Scognamilla assists Tombs with an overview of strange films from Turkey, while Diego Curubeto contributes a chapter on Argentine cinema, and Mexico is handled by David Wilt. These contributors, and Pete Tombs, recognize that they're writing for trash film fans, not academics, so the book's prose is straightforward and devoid of pretense.

At the time of its publication, 'Mondo' offered insights into films that otherwise were difficult to view. In the ensuing 29 years the internet has corrected this barrier, and now it's possible to see many of the films via YouTube or other portals. For me, this meant that some of the book's contents turn out, with the passage of time, to be a bit underwhelming. This is true of the chapter that Tombs devotes to Brazilian director and actor Jose Mojica Marins, aka 'Coffin Joe,' aka 'Zé do Caixão.' Seeing Marins's films at YouTube reveals that they are low, low budget enterprises, static and talky, and (in my opinion, at least) don't live up to the accolades that Tombs gives them in 'Mondo.' 

And, I can’t say I was all that excited about the chapter on Bollywood films, but if you want to go in that direction, well, ‘Mondo Macabro’ has you covered. 

 

As is the case with 'Immoral Tales,' 'Mondo Macabro' features a color insert of stills and movie posters drawn from the profiled countries.

 

I’ll close with the common question: who will want a copy of ‘Mondo Macabro’ ? If you’re a dedicated fan of trash and exploitation cinema, then having a copy of the trade paperback (asking prices for which start at $30 on eBay) may be warranted. But all others likely can get by with the Kindle edition, which at $3 (last time I checked) is much more affordable. 

 

(A lengthy video review of 'Mondo Macabro' is available here) 

Robocop Vs The Terminator

Robocop Vs The Terminator

by Frank Miller (story) and Walter Simonson (art)

Dark Horse Comics, 1992

One of the best comic book series of the 1990s was the four-issue series 'Robocop Vs The Terminator,' published by Dark Horse Comics, from September 1992 to December 1992. I remember collecting these comics when they first were published, and hanging on to them for more than 30 years now.

At that time Dark Horse owned the licensing rights to both franchises, and while much of those early 1990s iterations of both the Terminator and Robocop titles were mediocre, with 'Robocop Vs The Terminator,' the company produced an exceptional series.

 

 

It helped that Dark Horse editor Randy Stradley (or maybe it was publisher Mike Richardson ?) recruited Frank Miller to write the series. Miller had participated in writing the script for the Robocop 2 film, and understood the nature of both franchises. With 'Robocop Vs The Terminator' he avoided making the plot too complicated, and came up with an energetic storyline that delivered action and mayhem, while avoiding contrivance. 

And Miller being Miller, there are notes of sarcastic humor throughout the series:

Walter Simonson, at that time one of the foremost artists in comics, undoubtedly had more work than he could handle in terms of his assignments for various publishers, but his pencils for Robocop Vs. Terminator display care and imagination and really bring Miller's conceptions to fruition. Lots of that early 1990s flavor for superheroes and big guns, explosions, and set-piece battles. Lots of violent deaths, too ! Even little kids and the blind are not spared death at the hands of the robots !

 

 

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that the initial issues of the series tread familiar ground, with Terminators dispatched via time machine to Detroit, there to shape the future by selected intervention in the timeline. Of course, a resistance fighter (in this case, a young woman named Flo, sporting a bowl-cut hairdo) from the future also travels back in time to try and thwart the Terminators.

 

It turns out that for the 'Terminator future' to be realized, a cyborg policeman named Alex Murphy, aka Robocop, must merge with Skynet and precipitate Judgment Day and the triumph of the machines.

In the latter issues of the series, Miller takes things in a 'cosmic' direction, outside the normal boundaries of either franchise, and I've not seen such an imaginative treatment of the franchises since 'Robocop Vs The Terminator.'

As 1990s comics, 'Robocop Vs The Terminator' had to have some gimmicks, and in this case, it's cardboard cutouts stapled into the midsection of each issue:

Unfortunately, here in 2025, getting copies of 'Robocop Vs The Terminator' is not easy. The individual issues still are available, but are a bit pricey ($12+ each). 

 

  

In 1992 Dark Horse issued a trade paperback, copies of which are quite rare. In 2014 Dark Horse reissued the series as a hardcover edition, but being out of print for over a decade now, that hardcover has exorbitant asking prices ($121 on up for copies in 'acceptable' or 'good' condition, with one speculator at amazon asking $274 for a 'good' condition copy).
 

If you want to get your hands on 'Robocop Vs The Terminator,' your best approach is to try and get the four individual issues. Either that, or hope that at some point in the future Dark Horse decides to make a second printing of the 2014 compilation.......

'Fruitman' by Kool and the Gang

This is a groovy track from the 1974 album Light of the Worlds. 

 

It didn't get as much attention as 'Summer Madness,' another track on the same album, but it's a great song and deserves a wider appreciation. Much as Billy Preston did in the same era with many of his recordings, it relies on a booogie-woogie piano rhythm to propel the song...... 

Sleazoid Express: A Mind-Twisting Tour Through the Grindhouse Cinema of Times Square

December is Trash Cinema Month at the PorPor Books Blog

Book Review: 'Sleazoid Express: A Mind-Twisting Tour Through the Grindhouse Cinema of Times Square'

by Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford

 

In 1999 Bill Landis and his wife Michelle Clifford returned to zine publishing with the stapled, 8 x 11 inch zine Metasex. 

 

Landis had by that time attained a quasi-mythological status both among trash film fiends and highbrow culture, no mean feat. That momentum led to the publication in 2002 of the trade paperback 'Sleazoid Express: A Mind-Twisting Tour Through the Grindhouse Cinema of Times Square.'

'Sleazoid' (Fireside / Simon and Schuster, New York) is 315 pages in length and a well-produced book, with a large, easy-on-the-eye font. There are full- and half-page black-and-white stills, and scans of old advertisements, scattered throughout the text. 

 

The book's chapters are organized around theaters made famous in the 42nd street grindhouses during the 'Deuce' days of the 1970s and 1980s. Each theater is associated with reviews and reminiscences concerning a particular genre of exploitation films; thus it is that (for example) the Rialto is the home base for memorable horror films like Blood Feast, I Drink Your Blood, Last House on the Left, etc.

One thing about the Landis & Clifford exposition on the grindhouse features: they disclose spoilers ! Readers may want to keep this in mind.......... 

Save for occasional quirks (the use of the Latin noun 'ipsissimis,'which apparently means someone who is at the peak of their profession) the prose in 'Sleazoid Express' is straightforward and intended for a generalist audience. But then, Landis never was reverential towards the highbrow / academic style of film criticism.

The text of the book adheres to the mixture of ironic humor and insight that exemplifies Landis's approach to film commentary:

 

New Line Cinema got accustomed to bad taste through distributing John Waters's work, so it didn't balk at releasing the freak-exploitation movie The Crippled Masters (1981) starring grown-up Thalidomide babies who were born with flippers instead of arms.

 

(A trailer for the film can be seen here.)

Reading this 2002 book leads to all manner of revelations about trash cinema; don't be at all surprised if you finish a chapter with a list of far-out films that you need to look up. And frequently, I found myself laughing out loud at Landis's remarks about trash films and the places where he saw them. That's Sleazoid, for you.....!

It's hard to finish reading 'Sleazoid Express' without feeling some regret over Landis's early demise. But 'Express' does stand as the keystone of a career that brought a new level of appreciation and expertise to the cavalcade of underground and exploitation cinema. This book is a must-have for all aficionados of trash cinema, especially with copies in good condition available for only $22 at your most prominent online book retailer.

At Wonder Book and Video December 2025

Traveling to my hometown for the Christmas holiday, I passed through Frederick, and decided to stop in at Wonder Book and Video. The last time I'd been there was something like 4 or 5 years ago.

They had a sizeable shelf of new vintage paperbacks, but these were priced at $10 to $15 each, a little too high for my budget, so I refrained.

Their section for comics and graphic novels remains impressive, but the same phenomenon: higher prices than I remember, also was operating for this media. Although I must point out that they had a large selection of bandes dessinees for about $4 each:

I wound up paying $10 for a Very Good copy of a Charles Beaumont sci-fi anthology, along with getting some $5 vintage paperbacks, and a hardcover John Christopher novel.

Wonder Book and Video remains a destination for Paperback Fanatics but this must be tempered with an awareness that prices have jumped quite a bit......

Empire by Delany and Chaykin

'Empire' by Samuel R. Delany and Howard Chaykin

Berkley Windhover, 1978

 

'Empire' (112 pp.) was published by Berkley Windhover under the Byron Preiss Visual Publications imprint. This was one of the more high-profile entries in the Preiss catalog, designed to take advantage of the burst of popularity in sci-fi following the release of Star Wars in May 1977.

 

I first learned of this new 'visual novel' when 'Empire' was excerpted in the December, 1978 issue of Heavy Metal magazine. But I didn't pick up a copy of 'Empire' until some twenty years ago. 

 

One thing that immediately is apparent is that illustrator Howard Chaykin did a tremendous amount of work for this graphic novel, at a time when digital artwork and desktop publishing and drawing tablets still were some 15 years (or more) in the future. The pencils and coloring all had to be done by hand, on paper.

It's also apparent that the printing technology of the late 1970s was not up to the task when it came to the process color separations in 'Empire.'  Even when making allowances for the fact that the book is nearly 50 years old, the printing is disappointingly murky and underexposed. In too many panels, the text barely is legible......

Contrasting the graphic novel image obtained by my scanner (top) with that appearing in the excerpt in the November Heavy Metal, printed using spot color on 'slick' paper (bottom), clearly we see that the magazine treatment best represents the artwork.

 

 

As for Delany's writing, well, as a New Wave author heavily invested in figurative narratives and prose, perhaps he was not the ideal choice to pen a space opera aimed at the readership of Star Wars. But he does seem to understand that he is writing for the space opera audience.

 

Delany incorporates motifs from that film, such as the 'brash young man' counterpart for Luke Skywalker: in this case, archeology student 'Wryn.' Serving as a combination of Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi is the alluring and mysterious Qrelon. The role of Darth Vader is taken by a blonde-haired man named Loiptix. In place of the Millenium Falcon, we get Qrelon's versatile ship Proteus. And standing in for the Empire are the malevolent Kunduke.

 

The plot involves efforts to overthrow the tyranny of the Kunduke by Qrelon and her rebel alliance. A key to this mission is finding a set of six crystal fragments of rare design that, when assembled, form a sculpture with the potential to disrupt the AI that enables the Kunduke to control their far-flung empire.

I won't disclose any spoilers, save to say that Wryn finds himself accompanying a driven Qrelon in her travels throughout the galaxy, searching for the crystal fragments and hoping to acquire them before the pursuing Kunduke catch up. There is plenty of action and the storyline climaxes in a suitably apocalyptic confrontation between the forces of freedom, and those of tyranny.

Should you get a copy of 'Empire' ? Well, with copies in 'good' condition starting at $34 at amazon, and one speculator asking for $646 (!!), this is no small purchase. Unless you're  a hardcore Delany fan, I would counsel waiting to see if at some point in the future arrangements are made to reissue this graphic novel in an 'enhanced' version, one that benefits from modern techniques for improving the coloration and resolution of the artwork. Hopefully this overview will guide you in your decision-making.