Neuromancer

Rating:
Summary: They say you want to start a revolution!
Review: The birth of Cyberpunk. Gibson's visionary look at the future is the inspiration to a whole new generation of writers. Without Neuromancer, there would be no Matrix movie. Maybe the Watchowski brothers needed to read it again before they made Matrix 2 and 3. Gibson is a true visionary in that he saw where the internet was going before it got there. He saw the underground hacker community evolving into elite information agents. Gibson's futer is not pretty or nice but can be both. Human enhancement by computer seems gross, but can produce a seductive character such as Molly. The Characters are all very well written and you can see where they are coming from. Case is not a hero, but rather a selfish survivalist. Case, in other words, is a real person. The plot, once it starts, is paced well enough that you rip through the second half of the book very quickly. The story is not suprising in its conclusion, but the character relationships is the real driving force behind this novel. This is a must read for any Cyberpunk fan and most Science Fiction fans. Recommended High school and up. There are some sexual references but nothing you can't get off of daytime TV.

Rating:
Summary: Mundane at best....
Review: This is one of William Gibson's first works and it shows. Drugs, page after page of gaudy details, drugs, lots of made-up words, drugs, weapons nobody in their right mind would use, drugs, characters you could never care for, drugs, leather pants, drugs, Ninja, blades in the fingers and wise-ass AIs. So 80s. Frankly, I prefer the novels of Victor Milan or the newer works of Neal Stephenson. Those are fun. This is just so bland.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson left me wanting more...
Review: Wanting more quality. This book is sub-par at best. It's style may have had an important lasting effect on the scifi genre. On the other hand, maybe not. To me it seemed like I was reading something by Phil Dick AFTER he fried his brain, which is to say poorly put together with lots of weird stuff wedged into the story just because.

I didn't have any trouble following the story. It seemed relatively clear what has happening and to whom it was happening, at least after a page or two. However, I did have alot of trouble believing any of it. That these teenage punks they 'recruited' could be of any use at all is questionable. I think this book gets such rave reviews because of page after page of self congradulatory image-masturbation these neuromancer-wannabe-punks derive from it.

This book might be a fun read if you are about 14, not too bright, and see yourself as a 'noncomformist'. Others who would enjoy this book are the manga crowd (that is to say 19, not too bright, sees self as nonconformist, japan fetish), goths (style self as nonconformist, not too bright, very ugly/fat, exibitionist), anyone who 'LARP's. The key seems to be wearing black jeans, coincidently mentioned about 20 times in the book as the only thing the main character wears.