In 1992, Snow Crash arrived on the science fiction scene like a thunderclap. The Washington Post called it a Thomas Pynchon novel with the brakes removed . William Gibson proclaimed it fast-forward free-style mall mythology for the 21st century . Neal Stephenson wove virtual reality, Sumerian myth, and just about everything in between with a cool, hip cyber-sensibility to bring us the definitive novel of the information age.