Neuromancer (1984)

didn't like this novel, while it is very creative written, I felt lost the whole time never understood what or why ( )

This book was interesting. It was engrossing, it kept my attention for an hour at a time, and it talks about computers, hacking, and cyberspace in ways that were not conceived of at the time. I can see Keanu Reeves stumbling through this book and being totally confused.

I kept getting yanked out of the text every time I recognized a reference The Matrix made to this book. The computer matrices, the descriptions of cyberspace, the Rastafarian Army floating down from Zion. I thought Zion was just a Biblical reference, but apparently not.

I love that a good portion of the muscle in the book was a mirror-eyed samurai chick with knives under her fingernails. The knives yanked me out as well, actually, because I kept thinking of Lady Deathstrike.

I don't know what to say about this book. I got it. It was diverting. I read it a few days ago, though, and I'm still not entirely sure that I liked it. Steampunk may be more up my alley than cyberpunk. ( )

I just tried to re-read this, along with a few other cyberpunk novels that meant a lot to me when they first came out, and I tell you what... it didn't hold up for me. I'm sad. ( )

When I saw the movie Matrix, it initially struck me that it had something to do with the Matrix in this book. But, for better or for worse, the Wachowski brothers took that movie trilogy somewhere else and I was left to wondering what a movie version of [b:Neuromancer|22328|Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)|William Gibson|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1285017005s/22328.jpg|909457]'s Matrix would be like. (Here's a link to some of the failed attempts at bringing this book to film: link). It's a credit to [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1282769227p2/9226.jpg]'s particular genius that the images he painted in this seminal book remain in the popular consciousness this far removed from its original publication. Well, at least, they have remained in mine --- the landscape of the datasphere, the geek hacker jacking into his rack of hardware, mirrorshades, virtual reality indistinguishable from reality, and of course, the lost and bedraggled cyberpunk. Comparing this book to his more recent efforts, such as the Blue Ant series, I can still see the traces of the early Gibson, keenly nuanced prose that borders on flash while promising more meaty energies running unseen. But you can feel it. And it is this sense of emergent tension that drives Neuromancer, hurtles it forward on a narrative trip that, alas, does not resolve well. This book is more about the ride, and the scenery on the way, rather than the destination. Vintage Gibson. ( )

Imagine you're reading this book, only it ends up that you're watching it as a movie on television and standing in front of the screen is the author blocking your view of what's happening in the movie (in the book). He's narrating every so often what's going on in the movie, but he won't get out of your way so you only get bits and pieces of what's going on in the movie.

That's what reading this book is like. You understand what's going on but you feel disconnected from it in big ways, through a lack of adequate visual descriptions of the scenes and character development, ending in a total lack of empathy for any of the characters. The plot suggests suspense and thrills, but delivers neither.

I can't believe this book won awards, it's certainly not because it stands the test of time (which is what I believe an award-worthy book *should* achieve). ( )