I read this the summer before college, when I was reading every college-related book I could get my hands on. That ended up being mostly Big U (giddy, dark, ridiculous, and hilarious) and Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons (his disdain for his own characters dripped off every word).

Both very useful in my college life. Definitely. ( )

In the future, when an author thinks that his book isn't worth reading, I'm going to take his word for it. The Big U is too over the top to be an enjoyable, subtle satire of the large university life, although it had that potential in the beginning. On the other hand, the melodrama and large scale events are too trivial for the novel to be epic. The overall effect is pretty "meh."
The detail and fact finding that Stephenson is known for is all but absent in this book. The only signature Stephenson move that the Big U contains is the litany of story lines and multiple character narratives, but with uncharacteristic brevity and lack of details, the constant storyline switching is irritating and makes the novel shallower rather than deeper.
Also, Stephenson should know that his fans are the physics majors, hackers and LARPers of the universe and be a little more careful with the negative stereotyping ( )

28

He should have called it The Big Red Go Fan. That is what this book will always be to me. Like Snowcrash, I will never forget it. Unlike Snowcrash, I did not like it. I LOVED Snowcrash. There was little character development. Then, I want action. There was action, but it was very strange action, which is what one can expect from a Neal Stephenson novel. I don't even remember the end. I should read it again. But I just can't make myself read the last few pages so that I can finish this review. Then why did I give it four stars? Was it well written? Yes. Did it tell the story of a year in the big university? Yes. Four stars. Did it do everything a four-star book does and bring that something extra that makes this book stand out as great? No.
It was very clever. However, it was lost in too many characters and subplots, which were never resolved. ( )

um. What did I just read? ( )