Cult Status with Snow Crash
Stephenson began writing in college and moved to the Pacific Northwest area in 1984, the same year his first novel was published. That work, The Big U, revolves around American Megaversity, a huge, modern university which is funded by a radioactive waste dump and whose students arm themselves with machine guns. The satirical book is loaded with student pranks reminiscent of those in the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House and was deemed "a lot of fun" by Alan Cheuse in the New York Times Book Review. Cheuse added that The Big U would appeal greatly to "alert and inquisitive students with a taste for campus comedy." Despite positive reviews, The Big U did not find a readership. Stephenson's second outing, Zodiac: The Eco-Thriller, was described by Steven Levy of Newsweek as "a tale of ecoactivism that won the hearts of tree huggers but didn't sell, either."
Stephenson's third novel, the widely acclaimed Snow Crash, was his breakthrough book, granting him cult status as one of the major cyberpunk novelists. According to Entertainment Weekly writer Chris Nashawaty, "The young and wired have turned .
