What was Raven's fate at the end of Snow Crash?

Question

Uncle Enzo threatened him with a straight razor, but are we to infer something from that? Also,

where was Raven's nuke at that point?

Answer 1

Enzo kills Raven and the nuke was still on the Raft. When Raven dies, the nuke destroys the Raft. It's off-screen so I can't exactly call this a canon interpretation, but it's always seemed reasonable to me.

I looked up the quote for Enzo killing Raven and checked to see if there was any mention of the nuke. I couldn't find one, but it seems like Raven was probably not in a position to move his nuke when he was escaping the Raft.

"There is no need for one," Uncle Enzo says, and punches the button on the skateboard labeled "RadiKS Narrow Cone Tuned Shock Wave Projector." The concussion nearly blows his head off. Uncle Enzo, if he survives, will never hear well again. But it does wake him up a little bit. He lifts his head off the board to see Raven standing there stunned, empty-handed, a thousand tiny splinters of broken glass raining down out of his jacket.

Uncle Enzo rolls over on his back and waves his straight razor in the air. "I prefer steel myself," he says. "Would you like a shave?"

Answer 2

You're overthinking this. Snow Crash is 100% happy endings - the only innocent casualty is the Rat Thing, and he goes out in a blaze of glory. Otherwise, everybody we like lives and everybody we hate dies.

Enzo didn't die - Raven messed him up pretty bad, but then he used YT's board to break the glass knives and waved his razor to discourage Raven from pressing the matter. At the end we see doctors rushing in with blood bags, just in case we were worried that Enzo might have been fatally injured beforehand.

Raven didn't die - sure, he's disarmed, but he's also the world's biggest badass. He steals a pizza delivery car (which we know from Chapter 1 is the fastest, toughest vehicle on the road) and takes off. And if you were in any doubt about Raven's survival, no author would miss the chance to at least MENTION the nuclear blast that would have ensued if Raven actually died.

Answer 3

It seems straight forward Raven lives. He is stunned and his knives are broken, but he is still on his feet...make that foot when the skateboard blast hits him. Enzo, though, still packing his razor, is barley holding on to consciousness.

No one is going to steal the delivery car except Raven. And as was previously mentioned this explains what the mafia types were looking for and then chased after. So it seems solid to me Raven, the bad ass that he is escapes.

This means the nuke does not detonate...also side note, I do not think we know where the nuke is at this point...I doubt he takes his motorcycle to the raft since we say him arrive in the kayak and even more so that any of the folks on the raft would let him take his nuke on the raft and jeopardize their mission.

What is less certain is the fate of Enzo. I wouldn't care if he died accept for how he held his own against Raven which no other character outside of the metaverse could even come close to doing. ...And Enzo does it with a razor and a skateboard...along with being the head of the maffia, has me questioning just who is the bigger bad ass Enzo or Raven? Either way, just the fact that this question comes out of their confrontation makes me hope Enzo did fend of Raven, but I guess we'll never know for certain unless there is a sequel.

Answer 4

"She stays for a while and watches the aftermath: Mafia choppers coming in, doctors jumping out with doc boxes and blood bags and stretchers, Mafia soldiers scurrying between the private jets, apparently looking for someone. A pizza delivery car takes off from one of the private parking areas, tires squealing, and a Mafia car peels out after it in hot pursuit."

I think it's pretty clear that Raven killed Enzo and the Mafia soldiers ran around looking for him. He got back in the pizza delivery car for an escape and one or more of the soldiers chased him. What happens after that is anyone's guess, though I like to think Raven escaped and eventually, maybe even years later, had the final IRL showdown with Hiro. Raven had surgery to repair his tendon (maybe he even got some sort of cybernetic prosthetic) but he was never quite as athletic as he used to be. Meanwhile Hiro was as quick as ever and spent a great deal of time figuring out a way to subvert the EEG trodes embedded in Raven's skull. Perhaps with help from Juanita's neurolinguistic wizardry. Or maybe while Hiro is fighting Raven, Y.T. hijacks the warhead and takes it to a place where it can't do any damage.

Answer 5

Uncle Enzo would not have been in a position to cut anybodys throat in his state and he would definitely would not risk going close to Raven after his almost suicidal attempt to stop him from cutting him open. He was merely pointing his razor to Raven while lying half dead on the ground. I would not even call that threatening. For all we know Uncle Enzo died moments after this event. Raven on the other hand, was still on his feet without any lethal wounds. So in the best case scenario for Uncle Enzo Raven just decides that he had enough for one day and takes off.

Answer 6

I guess he was killed because then there was an explosion somewhere far away, maybe he was killed by the glass shattering feature of the skateboard.
And Enzo cut his Achilles tendon (he was hopping around on one leg afterwards).