Neal Stephenson
Definitely one of the top 5 books I have read this year (see The Windup Girl, Divergent, and The Years of Rice and Salt for the others). How can you not appreciate a cyberpunk, political thriller with a strong metaphysical thread running throughout? The setting is presumably in the future, but perhaps not too far into the future. The world has been franchised out (MegaCops, General Jim's Defense Systems, The Mafia, CosaNostra Pizza, Mr. Lee's Greater Hong Kong, etc.). That is, there are no laws anywhere and the entire globe has been balkanized into for profit enterprises. There is also the MetaVerse (an online virtual world a la Second Life) where people can create avatars and conduct both business and pleasure. Hiro Protagonist is the main character here. He is a hacker, sword fighter and band promoter. As a hacker, he gets involved with a nefarious plot to distribute a virus that can not only crash computers, but can also crash brains. This is where it gets fun. Stephenson treats us to long discourses that describe how language and religion and ancient Sumerians have all contributed to the development of human civilization and how each individual religion is either a virus leading to monoculture and human destruction or an anti-virus and maintaining civilization. Encased in the clothes of a futuristic thriller, we get to think about the meaning and role of religion and belief systems. What exactly is this thing I believe, why do I believe it and how does it interact with the world around me.
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