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alixelix's review against another edition
4.0
Although I had never really delved into the genre, I’d always felt that when I eventually did get around to it, me and cyberpunk would come together like peanut butter and jelly. The entire genre seemed made for me, and it’s only because I insist on reading everything that crosses my path that I’d never really got around to reading any of the cyberpunk classics. I put Neuromancer on this year’s reading list to make myself finally take the time to read something that I thought could really resonate with me.
I may have set myself up for a fall, placing Neuromancer on such a high pedestal. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did. I just should have read it a decade ago.
When you open the book you’re immediately thrown into the world. There’s no information dump, it’s sink or swim. It took me a while to get my bearings and I think I lost a bit along the way. I’ll have to reread it again in a year or so. That way I’ll be coming in already warmed up and I’ll be able to take in a lot more of the scenery.
The descriptive passages of what it’s like in the Matrix are so alien, that I feel like I only scratched the surface with the initial reading. It will take multiple reads to actually feel like it’s a landscape that I can picture. Part of the problem may be that I kept trying to interpret it through a modern technological lens of how we currently view data structures and networks and the general idea of cyberspace. I had trouble letting go of my existing preconceptions and I kept trying to relate it back to other points of reference, like Tron or The Matrix. You need to take away those preconceptions and read it on its own merit. I didn’t do that, and I hope I’ll be able to do so upon rereading it.
I struggle to relate to most female characters, and although I initially didn’t like Molly, she grew on me. At first, I thought she was just going to be there for a bit of titillation, but she turned out to be her own independent character. I find that too often as soon as you put a strong female character into a relationship they become submissive and their ability to make rational decisions goes out the window in favour of their new boyfriend. This wasn’t the case with Molly and I appreciated that. It’s hard to make a character tough and formidable but also retain their femininity without straight up throwing their sexuality in your face. I’m not saying Molly achieved all of that, but she hit a few marks and was a decent female character when she could have easily have been a one-dimensional cardboard cut out in tight pants with a lot of cleavage.
I think the struggles I had with this novel were all bourne of my own limitations and preconceptions coming into it. Even though I feel like I need to reread again, it was still a gripping story. The events and the characters drove the story on through landscapes I couldn’t always get my head around, but they were strong enough that it didn’t matter.
I may have set myself up for a fall, placing Neuromancer on such a high pedestal. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it, I did. I just should have read it a decade ago.
When you open the book you’re immediately thrown into the world. There’s no information dump, it’s sink or swim. It took me a while to get my bearings and I think I lost a bit along the way. I’ll have to reread it again in a year or so. That way I’ll be coming in already warmed up and I’ll be able to take in a lot more of the scenery.
The descriptive passages of what it’s like in the Matrix are so alien, that I feel like I only scratched the surface with the initial reading. It will take multiple reads to actually feel like it’s a landscape that I can picture. Part of the problem may be that I kept trying to interpret it through a modern technological lens of how we currently view data structures and networks and the general idea of cyberspace. I had trouble letting go of my existing preconceptions and I kept trying to relate it back to other points of reference, like Tron or The Matrix. You need to take away those preconceptions and read it on its own merit. I didn’t do that, and I hope I’ll be able to do so upon rereading it.
I struggle to relate to most female characters, and although I initially didn’t like Molly, she grew on me. At first, I thought she was just going to be there for a bit of titillation, but she turned out to be her own independent character. I find that too often as soon as you put a strong female character into a relationship they become submissive and their ability to make rational decisions goes out the window in favour of their new boyfriend. This wasn’t the case with Molly and I appreciated that. It’s hard to make a character tough and formidable but also retain their femininity without straight up throwing their sexuality in your face. I’m not saying Molly achieved all of that, but she hit a few marks and was a decent female character when she could have easily have been a one-dimensional cardboard cut out in tight pants with a lot of cleavage.
I think the struggles I had with this novel were all bourne of my own limitations and preconceptions coming into it. Even though I feel like I need to reread again, it was still a gripping story. The events and the characters drove the story on through landscapes I couldn’t always get my head around, but they were strong enough that it didn’t matter.
stephlq's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
jordanrc's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
5.0
Instant favorite.
merfy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.75
apathetic_teapot's review against another edition
5.0
Interesting book with some themes that seem ahead of their time considering when it was written.
drdolphinphd's review
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
linwin's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the concept, the atmosphere, and the wonderful wonderful world building. I really enjoyed the plot and the outline of the characters although I thought them perhaps a bit flat at times. It was a difficult read and I struggled to understand parts of the dialogue (cut off, spoken in slang etc) and the context so definitely be prepared to re-read sections if you're like me.
Amazing read and a great lasting contribution to the science fiction genre.
Amazing read and a great lasting contribution to the science fiction genre.
meowkeyes's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
daja57's review
3.0
The novel that introduced the word 'cyberspace' and is credited with launching the cyberpunk genre.
It's science fiction and does a phenomenal job of world-building, creating a dystopian future in which the characters move between the Sprawl, a mega-city-sized red light district on Earth, and a multiple-zone orbiting space station. But the hero character, Case, also moves through cyberspace, using electrodes to log his consciousness into a variety of different computer systems (and other consciousnesses in an IT mediated form of telepathy), experiencing their information processing as sensory data and as thoughts, and holding conversations with other entities (who manifest themselves as people, some being people he knows or knew) travelling through this Matrix.
In many ways this is a thriller of the old order in which a washed-up lowlife, usually an ex-cop or a down-on-his-luck private eye but in this case a cowboy computer hacker, is recruited by a mysterious and potentially treacherous boss (in this case a rehabilitated soldier with a bad case of PTSD that threatens to send him mad) to carry out a mission whose purpose he doesn't fully understand. On the way he picks up companions: a female assassin whose mind he can enter and with whom he has sex (this too is described in information technology terms, considering DNA as a line of code: "Then he was in her, effecting the transmission of the old message."; Ch 20); a dead hacker whose consciousness exists on a ROM (a modern uptake on a spirit guide, or the voice of a ghost); a cliched Rastafarian; and an illusion-creating magician. At least one of these will betray the mission. This novel is Raymond Chandler updated for the internet generation.
The plot itself is a classic action plot, consisting mostly of a number of exciting fight sequences interspersed with moments of relaxation. In essence, it's a heist. Predictably, the true reason why Case has been recruited doesn't emerge till later in the story.
Needless to say, there is no character development and the back stories did not make three-dimensional credible characters.
On the positive side, Gibson has a gift of original description: "The alley was an old place, too old, the walls cut from blocks of dark stone. The pavement was uneven and smelled of a century's dripping gasoline, absorbed by ancient limestone." (Ch 7)
In one way, this is an unusual book in that the hero doesn't risk life and limb, others do that for him. There were moments when I needed why Case was important to the team: his role seemed to be mostly that of observer. But I'm not sure. I found some of the writing so confusing that (a) I wasn't sure what was going on and (b) I didn't really care what was going on. I was surprised, when I read the wikipedia plot summary afterwards, that I had actually known what was happening.
I think the reason why I found some of the writing difficult was that Gibson is a purist when it comes to world-building: he doesn't stop and explain what he is talking about, he describes things using terms that the characters would use and assumes the reader will come to understand in time (a bit like the slang language invented for A Clockwork Orange). For example: "Cowboys didn't get into simstim, he thought, because it was basically a meat toy. He knew that the trodes he used and the little plastic tiara dangling from a simstim deck were basically the same, and that the cyberspace matrix was actually a drastic simplification of the human sensorium, at least in terms of presentation, but simstim itself struck him as a gratuitous multiplication of flesh input." (Ch 4) These two sentences contain six words that have particular meanings within the novel (cowboys, simstim, meat, trodes, cyberspace, matrix) and their arrival so early in the book means that one hasn't yet had time to understand them. This makes for slow reading. Nevertheless, one cannot deny to incredible power of the world Gibson has built, which spawned the cyberpunk genre.
It's science fiction and does a phenomenal job of world-building, creating a dystopian future in which the characters move between the Sprawl, a mega-city-sized red light district on Earth, and a multiple-zone orbiting space station. But the hero character, Case, also moves through cyberspace, using electrodes to log his consciousness into a variety of different computer systems (and other consciousnesses in an IT mediated form of telepathy), experiencing their information processing as sensory data and as thoughts, and holding conversations with other entities (who manifest themselves as people, some being people he knows or knew) travelling through this Matrix.
In many ways this is a thriller of the old order in which a washed-up lowlife, usually an ex-cop or a down-on-his-luck private eye but in this case a cowboy computer hacker, is recruited by a mysterious and potentially treacherous boss (in this case a rehabilitated soldier with a bad case of PTSD that threatens to send him mad) to carry out a mission whose purpose he doesn't fully understand. On the way he picks up companions: a female assassin whose mind he can enter and with whom he has sex (this too is described in information technology terms, considering DNA as a line of code: "Then he was in her, effecting the transmission of the old message."; Ch 20); a dead hacker whose consciousness exists on a ROM (a modern uptake on a spirit guide, or the voice of a ghost); a cliched Rastafarian; and an illusion-creating magician. At least one of these will betray the mission. This novel is Raymond Chandler updated for the internet generation.
The plot itself is a classic action plot, consisting mostly of a number of exciting fight sequences interspersed with moments of relaxation. In essence, it's a heist. Predictably, the true reason why Case has been recruited doesn't emerge till later in the story.
Needless to say, there is no character development and the back stories did not make three-dimensional credible characters.
On the positive side, Gibson has a gift of original description: "The alley was an old place, too old, the walls cut from blocks of dark stone. The pavement was uneven and smelled of a century's dripping gasoline, absorbed by ancient limestone." (Ch 7)
In one way, this is an unusual book in that the hero doesn't risk life and limb, others do that for him. There were moments when I needed why Case was important to the team: his role seemed to be mostly that of observer. But I'm not sure. I found some of the writing so confusing that (a) I wasn't sure what was going on and (b) I didn't really care what was going on. I was surprised, when I read the wikipedia plot summary afterwards, that I had actually known what was happening.
I think the reason why I found some of the writing difficult was that Gibson is a purist when it comes to world-building: he doesn't stop and explain what he is talking about, he describes things using terms that the characters would use and assumes the reader will come to understand in time (a bit like the slang language invented for A Clockwork Orange). For example: "Cowboys didn't get into simstim, he thought, because it was basically a meat toy. He knew that the trodes he used and the little plastic tiara dangling from a simstim deck were basically the same, and that the cyberspace matrix was actually a drastic simplification of the human sensorium, at least in terms of presentation, but simstim itself struck him as a gratuitous multiplication of flesh input." (Ch 4) These two sentences contain six words that have particular meanings within the novel (cowboys, simstim, meat, trodes, cyberspace, matrix) and their arrival so early in the book means that one hasn't yet had time to understand them. This makes for slow reading. Nevertheless, one cannot deny to incredible power of the world Gibson has built, which spawned the cyberpunk genre.
tregina's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes I wonder what someone reading this book for the first time now would think. Would it look more like it was derivative of a hundred sources than father of a hundred children? The world has changed a lot since I first read this. Hell, I had no internet the first time I read this. And every time I read it, it just gets better.