Perfect, I can finally ask him what _really_ happens at the end of his books! /s But really, I did wish Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash had a bit more of an epilogue. I know it may not be needed but it would be more satisfying.
The scene was not a scene from a book, but a scene from a movie.
The whole river-of-gold thing is a striking visual, and doesn't work that well as the end of a book because in a book we just don't care about visuals, we care about characters.
In a film, it's where the titles should start scrolling up and followed by a slow fade to black. Finishing a film on a striking image, that works. A book: not so much.
I still deeply love that book, and remember fondly buying it at a train-station at about 5.30pm and then suddenly it was 5AM I was at home, and I finished the book.
I just remember getting very close to the end and thinking I had some copy with tons of missing pages or something because there was no way to have some conclusion with the remaining pages haha.
With this in mind, it will probably make much more sense.
I agree with you, though. His world building and stories pull me in unlike almost any other author - the more the better IMO.
LOL, if that's not the truth!
I'm a sucker for expansive world building, lore and details, so it actually works for me but I can 100% agree with the critique.