Big yes on Neal Stephenson though I thought Cryptonomicon was much better than Snow Crash. William Gibson is another. However, despite my technical questions, the story is not primarily about hacking. Our group will get embroiled in a mystery that plays out in large part online (indeed, they think it is just an alternate reality game) but I want to show that whoever is behind this mystery is technically very sophisticated. I don't want to say a whole lot more than that about the plot though.
I don't know what the odds are of my getting published, but evilzone will be in the acknowledgments if that is acceptable.
