Not worth the hype, but worth the read.

books:


	• Neuromancer William Gibson Ace Hardcover, 2004 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 447 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not worth the hype, but worth the read.

While I did enjoy the book, it wasn't anywhere the world's greatest novel that many seem to say it is. The plot was shallow, the characters were decent but also a little shallow. The world was an ok futuristic setting, defiantly fits as a cyberpunk genre.

The book is a little confusing, many of the aspects are never really explained. And the ending was a build to something great and then just fizzled out. But even with that being said I defiantly would recommend reading it because it's a ok novel.

yea its good

While many would say that this is a classic, those same many would go on to qualify that it is a "turbo nerd" classic. I'm going to have to disagree with that assessment: it's just plain ole classic. Gibson has really tuned into something here and has realized it on levels which transcend mere genre classifications. Yes this is a genre work: quote unquote: cyberpunk. But this is just a buzzword (and people only make buzzwords for the good stuff right?), this work has literary resonance as a restatement of fundamental themes. Just because it is futuristic and has a dash of kitsch doesn't relegate it to the sci-fi scrap heap (which is just left of the pop scrap heap)--- there is poetry in this work and it is a poetry justified and accentuated by the framing element of the narrative. Gibson is really "using language" here in the literary sense; he's bending and fiddling around with the content aspect of descriptive language, trying to ask the question: "how does one describe what has never been seen so that it is real?" Essentially, a sci fi question performed literarily.

An interesting question is: how does one create a genre? I think it's a question which this book answers (and yes maybe there were others who started 'cyberpunking' earlier, but this is the one that snapped that genre 'into place' so to speak). Making a (in this case: sub)genre is essentially a linguistic task; trope-tweaking, working with content in such a way as to anchor something new (a dual action, making a place and then filling it). This book has a richness and reality to it which a lot of sci-fi does not have, while at the same time delivering full throttle nerd-pleasure. So pretty much, to sum it up: "yes."

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Know your tastes before picking it up.

The book is an enjoyable, quick read. It is not very fulfilling and sometimes even visually confusing. The sci-fi environment leaves many details to your own imagination. I'm not saying this is good or bad because it will vary depending on your tastes, but I prefer environments to be immediately recognizable and richly detailed.

I would not recommend this book as your first sci-fi novel, and be particularly careful if you do not know much about computers or technical jargon.

Case Meets the Matrix [T]

Neuromancer bends your thoughts and concepts with its theme of man integrating self with computerized Artificial Intelligence - what we commonly dub as AI.

Written in a style reminiscent to James Cain, Micky Spillane, Dashiell Hammett and other authors of that 19th century mystery genre, the book keeps you on your toes about what will happen when the mainframe's "matrix" ghosts collide - will their be a pulse eliminating computer use for a period of time, or will things improve?

The writing revolves around an antihero - not a guy who does this for the "good." He is a washed up hacker who abuses his system with drugs. He became washed up when "He'd made the classic mistake, the one he'd sworn he'd never make. He stole from his employers. . . They damaged his nervous system with a wartime Russian mycotoxin."And, so the protagonist Case is offered a second chance in this book, by a man named Armitage and a woman named Molly.

By now, you may have guessed that some thing of this book are familiar - a rebellious young man melding with a computer: sounds like Neal in the blockbuster trilogy of "The Matrix." Wikipedia hints of this being the story which influenced the same. There definitely is a similarity. In the end, when Case is as confused as the "Matrix" audiences, he asks the computer generated human form, "So what are you." The computer responds, "I'm the matrix, Case."

Case's entry into the computer - jacking up - brings on communications with the dead - Linda and Flatline. Reminiscent to Phil Dick's "Ubik." And like the Phil Dick novel, "Neuromancer" entails a David versus Goliath International Corporation - against the conglomerate which created and sponsored the hardware which intentionally or unintentionally creates the AI which confronts mankind.

This book also reminds me of Dan Brown's "Digital Fortress" - a geek's equivalent to "The Da Vinci Code" as the chase is not about church relics, but about computer software. The complexities and intricacies of the computer are more described in Brown's book, but conceptually there are many parallels.

Gibson won the science-fiction "triple crown" for this novel --the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award in 1984 (could there be a better year to win?). Interestingly, having read it today, I could grasp some concepts - LED, pixels, RAM, ROM, firewalls - which I probably would not have understood in 1984. In many ways, it still is too descriptive of the computer concepts for this reader. But, the accuracy of the same astounds me and proves that he was a knowledgeable "computer person" who also is a gifted fiction writer.

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enjoyacble

gibson does an excellent job at creating and transporting us to a world and culture which is very much unlike and like the world we currently reside. as always there is a strangeness to the tone and i find myself very much stuck in whatever mood gibson desires the reader to feel. and then he makes you laugh with delight at the sheer imagination he exhibits. in other words, i really wish he was one of those really prolific authors so instead of an occasional treat we would receive a glutton's feast.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION --
THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE PAST TWO DECADES

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene--it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.

Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society. Neuromancer's virtual reality has become real. And yet, William Gibson's gritty, sophisticated vision still manages to inspire the minds that lead mankind ever further into the future.

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