Neuromancer

Rating:
Summary: wonderfuuul , marvelouus.....
Review: This book and burning chrome are the books that got me reading again. Although I read all the time when I was younger I had stopped reading entirely by the time I became a teenager. Until, in 1986, a friend gave me Burning chrome and then Neuromancer. After that I was hooked on reading again. Gibsons poetic and extremely visual style of writing reminded me that a book can be so much more than a movie can. Unfortunatley William Gibson could never write again after these initial novas of creativity. If you've read any of his other books first, before these two, put them out of your mind because its apparently not the same William Gibson, or mabey he got hit in the head or something? If the impact of neuromancer's concepts has been dulled and seems passe now, Gibson is as much to blame for it as anyone. He has made a career out of re-hacking the ideas from his first novel all through the nineties, and he has never been poetic again. My parents loved heinlin and tolkien, And people younger than me swear that snow crash is the last word ( which i tried and despised, go figure!). But to me and many people who read this for the first time in the mid-eighties, the decade of all those great one hit wonders, nothing was finer. And even today these two books are my most cherished and favorite stories ever told.

Rating:
Summary: Freefall Future
Review: Neuromancer, a dystopian cyperpunk genre masterpiece has had and will continue to have great appeal to post-modern sensibilities. A multinational entity, secreted and sinister, mysteriously agrees to re-endow a radically dissaffected, functionally disabled cyberpunk cowboy with the nervous system he needs to act in their interest, as only he can, to outfox a shape-shifting, omni-ambitious transhuman in the quicksilver cyber-realm where reality and dream meld. Sound intriguing? You bet it is! This baby birthed "The Matrix"! The crafting of it is superb. Seductive, racy, mind-boggling, suggestive, and visionary, the mercurial plot redefines the term imaginative. Still, anyone enamored of the "long split sandwich roll containing a variety of fillings" will find their "hero" entirely checked out of the grim future world author William Gibson masterfully conjures; checked out, apparently, with no intention of ever returning. Instead, we get Case, the amoral protagonist, a thief, a drug addict, a murderer, a talented survivor - and a loser. Moreover, the future he inhabits is a deeply dark, fully blown cultural wasteland dominated by an ever-evolving artificial intelligence that is recondite, impersonal, archly sinister, morally bankrupt, staggeringly powerful, and intent on absolute hegemony through the development and implementation of a breathtakingly advanced cybertechnology. It is a world whose internal logic compels as normative the responses personified by the anti-hero Case.

Now, a vision of the future that justifies nihilism may not alarm or distract from your pursuit. Or, perhaps you've noted how the best science fiction proves time and again to be uncannily prophetic, and you may hope to insure your future survival by procuring a peek into one possible future. In either case, this is a must read. But if you are enamored of literature that extols classical values then you must needs seek gratification elsewhere, in the wrought language of a minority of the current singer songwriters, in the fireworks of a few modern day poets, in the "sprezzatura" of a handful of modern day wordsmiths, or in the numerous non-fiction genres that abound, like biography, philosophy, or scripture. The triumph of good over evil, the exaltation of the love of truth, or strategies and suggestions as to how one may attain to a genuinely ecstatic immortality, all are themes highlighted here only by their exclusion.

Rating:
Summary: Contrasts
Review: Gibson admits this is not his best by far, and indeed the language of the future he creates is at times impenetrable. The revolutionary idea of a physical cyberspace now seems familiar and less shocking. However the corrupted, down and dirty feel of the text, and the contrasts of flesh and technology, perfection and decay, are still powerful and compelling.

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre.
Review: Gibson as a problem: he knows lots of adjectives, and likes to use them. All of them. In one sentence. This causes the reader to skip pages and pages of useless description in order to get to the story, which is extremely frustrating at best, and causes one to lose focus on the story completely. Argh. Listening to this on tape while on the road was even more of a nightmare; you can't really fastforward through it that way. (Besides, he reads with a monotone.)

Rating:
Summary: I'm unsure what to add.
Review: So much has been said about Neuromancer that there is very nearly nothing left to say. So I will say only this-- it's worth the hyperbole. Definitely one of the best science fiction reads going.

Rating:
Summary: Seminal, extremely influential, the first "cyberpunk" book
Review: I had first read Gibson in the short stories he sold to _Omni_ magazine, lo these many years ago, and when _Neuromancer_ came out, I leaped on it---I've still got the first PB edition in my library. Gibson shows us a world where high technology has been taken over by the "street," and takes us into the underworld of Chiba City in Japan, and the mighty Sprawl of cities that covers most of the Eastern United States---although he's careful to never, ever say whether the United States itself, as a nation, is still in business. His protagonist, Case, is not as vividly drawn as he could be---I felt I knew his partner Molly Millions a lot better, and frankly, liked her more. Still and all, this book was hugely influential, and anybody wanting to know where the SF field has gone can't afford to miss it, even if they hate "cyberpunk" cliches. This is where a lot of those cliches were started, back when it was all brand-new and full of life.

Rating:
Summary: ...Read this book...Um, How about No.
Review: First of all, let me state that I have never been a fan of science fiction. So, when I began reading this book I was probably bias in many ways. However, when I actually got into this novel, I realized that it was not my bias that was the problem; it was the book. The only way you can enjoy this story is if you are a computer techy, or if you happen to know the japanese language. I spent half of my time online looking for a freaking japanese dictionary so I could understand what the author was talking about. And, by the time I actually got back to the book, I had forgotten what I had previously read. If the author had provided a glossary of terms for incomprehensible language he used, then perhaps the story would have been easier to follow. But, he failed to do this and in the process lost much of his audience. Do not read this book if you do not have time to spend with it. Do not read this book if you value your sanity. In fact...just don't read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Neuromancer: Worth its weight in Potato Chips
Review: After reading Gibson's Neuromancer, I will thoroughly disappointed with it. Although relativley well written, the novel jumps around a lot, and tends to lack focus in certain places. The character development is decent, although in a book that has been dubbed by some as "one of the greatest novels ever written," it leaves a lot to be desired. For those of us who are not versed in cyberspace or such technology, we are alientated, and have trouble enjoying the book.

The book's few redeeming qualities comes from its imaginitive story line. I think though, that it would take a true knowlege of the material dicussed (cyberspace, etc.) to truly enjoy it.

This book is worth its weight in potato chips. However, you are interested, and i mean REALLY interested in the science fiction genre, this book may be for you. If you are not, don't waste your time.

Rating:
Summary: Superlative
Review: Without a doubt, Gibson's best work, and the most entertaining SF novel I've read. Could not put it down once I started.

Rating:
Summary: I don't get it. BUT, it's still a hell of a good read.
Review: This is a fun, action-packed, yet it is a very confusing read. It's a book that you need to read at least twice in order to understand fully, but if you want a fun, lean read that doesn't insult your intelligence, and is filled with great dialogue,it is highly recommended.