Customer Reviews

Neuromancer

5 star:		(204)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

For those of you out there under the age of 30, it may be hard to fathom the impact of Neuromancer and the stories that preceded it (collected in "Burning Chrome"). I really am NOT exaggerating when I tell you they changed the world.

When "Neuromancer" was published, SF was a genre whose time had passed. While some good writers & old masters were laboring in the trenches & publishing to the same fans they always had, there was really no mass market conciousness of SF except as the source of bad 50's monster movies. "Neuromancer" changed that. "Neuromancer" caused an entire generation to look at computers as something cool rather than nerdy. "Neuromancer" created the concept of "cyberspace" (without which you would not currently be accessing Amazon). "Neuromancer" even gave Bill Gates the name for his fledging operating systems company. Yup, folks, this is THE book!

I very clearly remember first reading this. It was about 1 year after it was published, & I had the vaguest of notions concerning the subject. If I'd read the short stories that preceded it, they had somehow not registered in my conciousness. Page one: CHIBA CITY BLUES what a cool title! Then that famous opening paragraph "The sky was the color of a TV tuned to a blank channel." I thought I'd died & gone to literary heaven! I was convinced this was the reason I'd learned to read 15 years prior, I had been waiting all this time for "Neuromancer"!

I could sum the plot up for you. I could tell you why Gibson's writing is so technically brilliant. I could quote page after page. But why? I feel sorry for the readers who haven't experienced "Neuromancer" because you lost the opportunity to watch a book change the world. Now it's 20 years later. Don't get me wrong: THIS IS A GREAT BOOK! But you'll never experience the mind-bending rush of possibilities now that the future in the book has become a reality.

With Necromancer William Gibson virtually invented cyberpunk, his imaginative vision of a matrix of interconnected computer systems is a true a landmark of Sci-Fi; the tale of a data thief who risks everything to re-establish his lost connection with the drug that is cyberspace.

Case has lost his ability to jack in; a vengeful employer has ravaged his body's nerves system, effectively locking him out of the net. New employment presents itself in the form of a strangely cold new employer and a deal is struck; rebuild his body in exchange for his expertise within the network. His new assignment places him in the company of Molly, a beautiful technologically enhanced assassin, her body transformed by nano-surgical augmentation. Thrust into a dangerous game together, she provides the muscle and he the technological link to the world of the matrix. Making a play against a powerful rouge AI, they find themselves face to face with authoritative corporations, and violent warring programs with in the code. They are aided by a human construct, a former hacker whose entire conciseness's has been captured and imbedded in silicon.

A journey into a mad world, a drug addled populace feeding on the excesses of human desire and rampant uncontrolled technology. Ceaseless body modification and augmentation blur the line between young and old, man and cyborg; A terrifying vision of a morally bankrupt society living on the edges of insanity.

The matrix is a vivid electronic forest, an endless neon light of raw data. Case jacks in and escapes the realities of flesh, existing only in the lucid realm of the code. The drug of cyberspace is rendered in incredibility vibrant detail, mesmerising in its descriptions and intricacy I became lost in the twisting words and began to wonder where the dream ended and the real began. The fine line separated fantasy and reality is distorted, my mind struggled to maintain direction in the optical kaleidoscope of color and texture.

It is not a world I wish to escape into, but to escape form. Full of depravity, and selfishness, the people of this dark future have given up any illusion of ethics, given in to the lusts of technological pleasures.

William Gibson has crafted a true masterpiece of speculative fiction, and delivered it in exquisite detail. His writing has an incredible visual quality to it; the mess of electronics comes alive and dances around any thoughts of sanity. I did not enjoy the read as much as was seriously impressed by it. Its complexities and mind-bending descriptions left me in a state of constant bewilderment.

Beautiful and terrifying at the same time, Necromancer is unlike anything ever imagined. Its vivid imagery is beyond my talent for description. It towers above me, mocking my inability to fully appreciate its magnitude. I did not fall in love with Necromancer, but I was left in awe and utterly shocked.

Those who denounce Gibson's prototypical cyberpunk masterpiece as "unreadable" need an examination. Thoroughly imaginative and filled with intrigue, it's the story of Case, an antihero who, deprived of his cybernetic modifications, sets out to reclaim his powers by working for a shady outfit. Accompanied by Molly, a "Razorgirl" with modifications of her own, Case sets out to pull off the ultimate hack. Can he trust his employer, Armitage, a flesh-and-byte construct? Will Molly betray him? How does he complete his mission? Neuromancer is well-paced, interlaces imagery with creative concepts, and traces a bleak vision of the technology-addled future...but colours it with the possibility of redemption.
Many of the ideas from later works, such as Stephenson's "Snow Crash" or the Wachowski brothers' "Matrix" trilogy...uh..."borrow" liberally from what stands as the gold standard of the cyberpunk genre.

I get the feeling that Neuromancer won the awards and the popularity it did more because of the ideas it presents and its overladen prose than because of a good story or deep characters. Yes, it 'started cyberpunk', and the gritty yet slick setting does have a sense of depth and life.

Unfortunately, it's heavily burdened by prose that has a tendency to blur your eyes and make you shake your head in an effort to pay attention to what you're reading.

Most of the novel, in fact, suffers from an inability to make the reader care about what's happening. Gibson seems more committed to using three adjectives in a row and spewing simile after simile than capturing the reader's interest. I suppose you could call this "film noir" style, but for me, it just didn't work.

Coupled with a severe lack of information about what's going on and a numb, detached approach to its limited third person point of view, it's really hard to turn the next page and reach the end of this short novel that feels like it's three times longer than some of the monstrous tomes I've read.

The story itself is difficult to care about. It revolves around the machinations of a powerful artificial intelligence, but it's hard to understand what the point of the whole thing is, even after you've reached the last dissatisfying sentence. Sure, I understood the story, I just didn't understand why I was supposed to care.

Part of this apathy comes from a fundamental lack of characterization. The point of view is very 'cold'--that is, you don't get much inside the head of Case, and when you do, his thoughts are almost always analytical. When the sole viewpoint character doesn't feel any emotion for 90% of the story, it's kind of hard to feel emotion yourself. It's especially irritating that the novel is structured as a character story about Case's loss of his ability to 'jack in' and his death wish, and yet he never seems to care about much of anything (or Gibson fails to tell us about it if he does).

It seems to me that the appeal of this book is more for those who want to experience a well-developed milieu and pretty surface coating, as it has little power or significance as a story.

If you're looking for a detailed and skillfully constructed world, packaged in wordy description, or you want to see the roots of the cyberpunk genre, this novel is for you. If you're looking for an interesting, powerful story with deep characters, you won't find it here.

A fantastic read from cover to cover. Pretty much every trope of cyberpunk started here, and it's clear to see why. Gibson masterfully creates a universe chocked full of interesting places, characters and situations. Even thou this book is more than 30 years old it still manages to feel relevant and futuristic. Its one hell of a ride and when it comes to it's inevitable end you'll be wishing for more. Thank god William Gibson obliged and wrote a whole series.

"The sky above the port was the color of a television tuned to a dead station." I have a simple rule about shopping for books in a store: if the opening line grabs me and I want to find out more, I buy it.

I have re-read this classic and the two sequels (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) countless times and I enjoy them every time. It should be noted that his book was published before the movie, The Matrix, was released.

It is my understanding that Gibson coined the term "cyberspace"-and very beautifully. When I dream of cyberspace realities, I can not help but invoke fragments of William Gibson's vast, jacked-in hallucination-what you might call "virtual reality".

There was one more component to William Gibson's cyberspace-that of the spiritual-and these segments are quite beautiful.

I'm giving this book 4 "Amazon" stars because I think Gibson's "Count Zero" is even better--especially the references surrounding the artist Joseph Cornell. One can't nitpick a classic such as this--too much--although some aspects of the adolescent "cyberpunk" content are difficult to reconcile in maturity--regardless, I can acknowledge the need for these significant concepts to be made available via an accessible pubescent perspective.

This book left me craving more Gibson "cyberpunk"--and there's not much to be found. I've read Gibon's short stories--not bad. I couldn't get into "The Difference Engine" or "All Tomorrow's Parties"... I'm not feeling "Pattern Recognition" in the store either, but his blog has piqued my curiousity. I want Gibson to bring the world to its knees, in tears. Pretty please?

To discuss the book--if it's allowed by Amazon, hit me up on AIM/Yahoo "yesiliveinaustin"

I have read this masterpiece (together with the other two of the Sprawl series: COUNT ZERO and MONA LISA OVERDRIVE) during my university years, about a decade ago. Since then I have re-read it countless times. Even reading only some pages brings up powerful imagery, dark poetic language, unforgettable prose...

The strength of William Gibson, demonstrated here in full colors, is his ability to create the atmosphere and placing the reader in the middle of things. After reading these books of his, one has the feeling of actually having lived in the Sprawl in a past life!

Start with this one. Then COUNT ZERO. And finally MONA LISA OVERDRIVE.

A Masterpiece Trilogy!!! Own them all!!!

I remember reading this for the first time in '86 or '87, and it changed my worldview. Now I just re-read it for the first time in years and was once again blown away. This is simply magnificent sci-fi and magnificent writing. There are occasional dated references, but on the whole it still stands. The sad thing is that we're not even close to realizing the world he describes. In fact it felt closer in the mid-80's than it does now. Anyway, this is a great book, truly a great book, and a must read for any sci-fi enthusiast.

This is a good book that has the feel of dark eighties SF movies, Akira or Metal Gear Solid. It's all here (AI, street samurai, the matrix, hackers, neon city, drugs, arcades, army type lunatics,...) and Gibson does it better than everybody else.
Gibson is very good in bringing to life strange and exotic (sub)cultures, like the cowboys and razor girls in this novel or the footageheads in 'Pattern Recognition'. The story's no slouch either.
If you're in for a dark SF thriller, you needn't look any further.