It's not often that a book kick-starts an entire genre, but this one did; it is
the original (and quintessential) cyberpunk novel. I first read it a few years
after it came out, loved it, and just recently reread it. Usually, when you
reread a book you loved from your youth, you find that it isn't nearly as good
as you remembered, but that was not the case here - if anything, it was better
the second time. One of the main reasons for this is that Gibson is not just a
great science fiction writer - he's a great writer, period. His prose is
flowing and lyrical, filled with beautiful turns of phrase which never sound
affected or pretentious. His world-building is so authentic you can almost feel
and smell the environments the characters find themselves in. The characters
aren't the one-dimensional cardboard cutouts so often found in SF; they are
real, they have feelings, they love, they hate, they screw up constantly, they
sometimes do amazing things, and you care about them. And the story is
incredible!
The main science-fiction element of the book is that in this world, people can
"jack in" to computers, putting their consciousness directly inside of
"cyberspace", a kind of artificial reality. (This was The Matrix before The
Matrix existed.) Cyberspace is mainly seen in the book as a way for "console
cowboys" to steal secrets from corporations for profit, though different kinds
of cyberspace occur in the book, and form a major part of the plot.
The plot owes more than a little to noir detective fiction; most of the
characters are low-lifes trying to scam their way out of the hell-holes they
live in, or super-rich people who are begging to be taken advantage of. The
book is also full of almost nonstop action from beginning to end, and the
climax is suitably spectacular. Gibson was heavily influenced by Alfred Bester
and Samuel R. Delany (two of the greatest SF authors); if you've read them,
you'll immediately see the connection. Despite that, he has a voice all his
own.
Now that I've raved about the book, I'll give a few caveats. It's definitely
not for the squeamish. There is a lot of graphic violence, and an incredible
amount of drug use too. Most of the characters have very little in the way of
moral scruples. The world is very dystopian; it's as if Gibson extrapolated
everything that is wrong with society to its logical extreme, with only
technology as the one thing that is continually improving (far beyond our
ability to deal with it). The book goes fairly heavy on the jargon it creates,
so it's not a particularly easy read either.
But really, none of this matters, because the writing is so good that you get
swept along for the ride. Everyone who loves science fiction needs to read this
book, and the two sequels (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) are also both
great. Gibson is a living legend of SF, and Neuromancer is a great introduction
to his work.
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Reviews with images
Beautiful edition of a modern classic, but damaged by its own sticker
I bought this edition as a gift, thinking that the hard cover would last longer than a paperback. The copy that arrived was gorgeous despite some slight shipping damage on the corners, but the binding is essentially matte cardstock, making it feel flimsy for a hard cover.The bigger problem was the big price tag sticker on the back, which obviously had to be removed before gifting the book. But since the cover is essentially paper the society could not be easily removed and tore the binding while I was peeling it off.Overall, this edition was an excellent idea, but terrible execution.
