STEPHENSON, Neal

(1959-)

   US writer whose first 2 novels- The Big U (1984) and Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller (1988)-both convey a strong sense that sf turns are just around the next page, but neither of which can justly be read as sf. The first is a gonzo college caper, told rather in the style of John Landis's film, National Lampoon's Animal House (1978); the second, much more controlled but still shaggy, carries a cast of slightly older but similar characters through a complicated story involving pollution in the waters around Boston, Massachusetts. Neither book adequately signalled the bravura attack and fine control of NS's first sf novel, SNOW CRASH (1992), in which-as it were-the sf content seems to have sopped up the excesses that marred the earlier efforts. Set in a NEAR FUTURE Los Angeles and elsewhere, and infusing its CYBERPUNK ambience with a cornucopia of data and references to American cultural icons, it depicts a land exorbitantly devolved into private-enterprise enclaves. The plot, whose protagonists are armed skateboard "Deliverators" of pizza and other substnaces, soon moves into VIRTUAL REALITY territory, where the eponymous computer virus turns out not only to affect human brains, but also, perhaps, historically to have been instrumental in the creation of humanity's early religions. It might be illuminating to compare SNOW CRASH with Leo PERUTZ's SanctPetri-Schnee (1933; new trans Eric Mosbacher as Saint Peter's Snow 1990 UK), the eponymous virus of which novel engenders religion in humans. The novel then slides into chase sequences. l Interface (1994), with NS and J. Frederick George writing together as Stephen Bury, is an energeticnear-future thriller, somewhat reminiscent of Zodiac, centring on a presidential candidate under the control of a bio-chip, which is connected to online polling software, so that-unless things go wrong-he can instantly spin-doctor his behaviour. The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer (1995) awaits a full response, but its examination ofNANOTECHNOLOGY seems likely to have as much effect on the field as SNOW CRASH's explosive rendering of Cyberpunk.

   JC