Neuromancer

Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate work of Post-Modern Science Fiction
Review: Neuomacer is the kind of novel that speaks the truth about its author's time period by projecting it into the future. Gibson's scary yet colorful and oddly alluring future is one domiated by commerce, ego, and the persuit of stimulation for its own sake. It is a fast paced and enormous Darwinian world that constantly threatens the individual; forcing eveyone to try their best to be bigger, better and faster. Yesterday's hot shot wastes away in the gutters tomorrow. Mistakes can be irrevocable, but success is always fleeting. There is no stable sense of self--personality can be programmed, or faked through technology (or even stored on a disk). Everyone is just a flash of light on the vast world screen. The plot line follows Case, a doomed, burned out thief, on his desparate quest for just one more taste of his former glory. We meet "street samurai"--tecnologically enhanced soldiers of fortune who have sacrificed their humanity for superhuman prowess in combat. There are "panther moderns"; members of an absurd, violent youth culture and a highly advanced AI wanting equal rights with humans. Average people get plastic surgery and implants like we buy new clothes. Civilized governments scarcely exist except as corrupt facades. Monopoly corporations and crime lords rule in their place. Part of the story unfolds on the streets of a giant city in which places like New York, Boston and Atlanta are merely local neighborhoods. It is the world we may be in the process of becoming and 99% of it is still as relevant ( or more so ) today as it was in 1984 when the book was first printed. Forget the minor anachronisms like St. Petersburg still being called 'Leningrad.' This is more realistic than science fiction can be expected to get.

Rating:
Summary: Engrossing Look
Review: Written it seems so many years ago with some technology actually beginning to enter the book's time frame i.e., nanotechnology and bioengineering and you have a fun ride.

I especially enjoyed the characters' development which is often secondary in SF. Gibson has descriptive elegance in his views of places in the future and the people that live their. Oh, the cities of the future...

I would not call this the ultimate SF but I would say it did start some new ideas especially in our new Internet world today.

Ride that computer cowboy.

Rating:
Summary: Wow! A kicker of a story. In a world you won't forget!
Review: Rarely do you pick up a book and know within the first few pages that you've found something extraordinary. Its a special treat to discover an author who can flat-out write and does so in a genre that tickles your fancy or in this case, your spine. In Nueromancer, William Gibson portrays a world painted by a master artist. Realistic, yet so other-worldly that you instantly know your not in Kansas anymore. And happy not to be. A world that is decadent and delightful. That thrills and terrifies. A nitty-gritty, down and dirty futuristic marvel of a book. Genetics, robotics and computers fulfilling their potential in a world that could be coming. And with Neuromancer, you can't wait for it to arrive!

Rating:
Summary: Literate, stylish, visceral, prophetic
Review: I can't say enough nice things about this book. Gibson is a rareanimal-- a literate sci-fi writer. Most sci-fi writers have bad ideasand can't write their way out of a paper bag. A select few have greatideas but are mediocre writers at best (Philip K. Dick). Gibson is atthe pinnacle of the genre, combining great writing with veryimaginative, and astoundingly accurate ideas. I would put him in thecompany of Stanislaw Lem and Ursula LeGuin (and I wouldn't give anyother sci-fi writers that status). Neuromancer paints a"mid-future" picture of society's relationship withcomputing machines which is stylish, compelling and probably right onthe money.... The author clearly has too much respect for computers,and...his powerful cyberspace vision has been enthusiastically adoptedby real hackers and net surfers ever sense. So, it is a must-read....It's a delicious page-turner, a good read for the literate, but ahard, difficult read for those who "ain't." Unfortunately,he almost mined-out the cyberspace concept in one book, when he wastrying to create a new genre. That just makes the book all the morevaluable and unique.

Rating:
Summary: Classic! Put it in your sci-fi primer file.
Review: Neuromancer was one of the first classics I read once I became a heavy sci-fi reader, and I was simply astounded by the book.

What's most fascinating about Neuromancer is that this gritty universe is made utterly believable by Gibson's intense descriptions. (More believable, I think, than the universe of Virtual Light and Idoru, though I enjoy those as well.) Reading through the beginning, you can almost feel the hum of the Biz and see the rows upon rows of neon signs decorating Ninsei under that television-colored sky. The imagery is breathtaking.

The sequels are so-so but still interesting. Far better are the stories in Burning Chrome; "Johnny Mnemonic", far better than the infamous movie, is a sort of prequel to this story that actually gets mentioned in Neuromancer. I have my suspicions that some of the other stories follow Molly as well.

There's really nothing I don't like about this book. Every time someone asks me for a good sci-fi reading list, I recommend Neuromancer.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson's work didn't cease to improve, but...
Review: ...this book breathes stylistic fire into a genre coasting on assumed scientific literacy. If the characters speak extensively in jargon adapted to technologies that don't yet exist, that's OK - in the present, shop talk not understood by general readership is a fact of any technical field, e.g. my mom browsing the magazine rack and struggling through paragraphs in _Wired_.

Besides, Gibson coined the term, "cyberspace," in this novel; most authors, even ones of talent, do not create words used commonly thereafter. To all the people who criticized him for using unique terminology, there's this great thing called context. Try using it.

One thing I have enjoyed about Gibson is his tendency to use protagonists and not heroes to view the events contained within his stories. I do not have any particular sympathy for the men and women who interact with Henry Dorsett Case in the course of his assigned task.

In the tradition of great noir fiction and film, there is no sense of resolution about anything. The characters who did not die return to their separate paths and continue about life in a world controlled through an invisible hand of corporate and technological pressures against traditional structures of power like government and organized crime. No great truths were revealed, and none were promised.

Have no doubt, Gibson is an original whether you enjoy his style or not. For an understanding of current trends in science fiction best reflected in the success of _The Matrix_, you can begin here and work your way through the other books.

Rating:
Summary: Over-rated
Review: I couldn't help but think that Mr Gibson was hiding behind the futuristic mumbo-jumbo to prevent describing stuff that would actually make sense. While the overall theme made sense, too many details did not. Constantly using undefined terminology, and referring to things without describing them, might make the book "mystical", but doesn't make it particularly enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Important Book
Review: This is one of the most important books written in the past century. If you've never read it, RUN to the bookstore! With imagination, fun, big ideas, and a poet's love of language, Gibson's novel started a revolution.

Rating:
Summary: A true original
Review: This book is like nothing I have read. Neuromancer is set in a future full of mind-boggling technologies and odd surgical procedures. The main character Case's health is failing, and he must embark on a series of elusive missions in order to survive. This plot is extremely interesting, as is the concept. With most novels about technology, the characters are lifeless and two-dimensional, but not with Neuromancer. William Gibson has created characters that stand out, and are hard to forget. As great as the concepts in this book may be, I found a lot of the technology hard to understand, and at some points in the novel, the words become nothing but techno-babble. However, this book is a true original, and its fast pace is absolutely addictive. A must-read.

Rating:
Summary: The source of all that is Shadowrun
Review: For those who have played the role playing game Shadowrun, buy this book immediately. Within its covers lies the origin of all that is Shadowrun. This book is highly original and reads very fast. Although Gibson gets into some details that would be confusing for a cyber-future first timer, they are easily understood for anyone who has read a book or two in the genre. I recommend this book to any who have delved into cyberpunk already but have yet to read this classic, as well as to those who are willing to start into the genre -- provided they are able to be happy without understanding every quip made in a book they are reading.