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Summary: Neuromancer invented its own genre.
Review: Neuromancer is the epitome and the antecedent of all cyberpunk fiction. In fact, with this book Gibson, seemingly quite accidentally, actually coined the term "cyberspace" (not to mention providing the original "matrix"). The characters are vivid and interesting, and the world that they inhabit is just as colorful, in its urbanized, futuristic way. Neuromancer is relatively brief, laudably free of some science fiction writers' tendency to expound verbosely on their philosophy of the future. Even so, Gibson's vision comes out in the writing, perhaps even more effectively. You will finish this book quickly. When you do, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are just as well paced, continue in the same vein without becoming philosophical, and are refreshingly self-contained for science fiction sequels.
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Summary: takes its sweet time to get going
Review: Thing with NEUROMANCER is that there's a lot of cool stuff to think about and imagine in here, but some parts are a chore to read through, because the characters aren't really interesting in and of themselves, but for what they represent. For what they are rather than who they are, get it? And the lack of anything really human in here detracts. Maybe that's the point, that the AIs are more sympathetic than the humans in this world. But its 280 pages to get to that point, and occasionally it doesn't seem worth it. Definitely deserves the attempt, and it's always interesting, but not really *compelling* until the last 130 pages or so.
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Summary: Amazing, baffling, futuristic, brilliantly crafted book
Review: I'm amazed by the polarity of opinion about this book, which I read in the early 90s and have not re-read yet, although I probably will. I'm not a techie, and did not always know what Gibson was talking about (especially at the end, which I have to admit completely lost me). But who cares? When you're in the hands of a writer with that kind of imagination and high-octane prose style, you can be reading about almost anything and it will still be riveting. Neuromancer may come across as a bit dated now, but as other reviewers have noted, that's probably because it created the cliches it now seems to reflect. I don't know where he gets his ideas, but I think Gibson is a stone solid genius.
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Summary: Amazing
Review: What an amazing book. Gibson creates a realistic future world. Incredibly well-written. It takes two or three reads to fully grasp everything, which is why I didn't rate this with 5-stars.
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Summary: A complete mind F*%#
Review: Gibson is a messiah writing his gospel belevable plot, story, and cystal clear settings. The book is a testament to a future so real and just around the corner. But no real review can grasp the full meanings of the novel. All I can really say is... get this and see what "The Matrix" is like on drugs. Can't wait for the movie
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Summary: Razor edged, crystalline, deliberately overdone prose...
Review: I can assure anyone who hates this book that there is no conspiracy, this is a book that I am still in awe of, several months after reading it. I can, however, understand people not comprehending what the hell's going on. I'd read half the novel before realising what was going on...but that's not the point. It's very difficult to describe why this book is so great. Strictly speaking, it's not "poetry" or suchlike, it's not the "originality" of his writing style.... I suppose it could be described as a sort of Japanese minimalism and American mass consumerism blend society, which is Gibson's unique vision. Here we don't have "x flew in spaceship to y, defeats z empire", but we have the world we know today, pushed to absolute overdrive. No pristine environment, or moving descriptions of the peace of space travel - here we have the dirty, hedonistic, consumerist, urban society we have today, driven by brandnames, bright lights, and no future; in essence, the Gen X-er's future. It's not quite like Blade Runner, where it's a more Film Noir type city. Here we have technology used, not to benefit mankind but to sell to consumers - people who live out their lives as the pawns of corporations. There is of course the wonderful descriptions of Virtual Reality/Internet, where mankind has created a sort of spirit-world, where depressed outcasts of this society can escape from the "world of meat". I suppose this is why I think Neuromancer is great.
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Summary: 99% style, 1% story.
Review: While I happen to think Gibson is vastly talented writer, he has this annoying tendency to keep re-writing the same story. I've read most of Gibson's work hoping to like him but find myself falling asleep. His style almost borders on the vindictive, though I find myself re-reading passages over and over again because he is a good writer. Gibson is a bit of a show off and a good one. I recommend his short stories. If you prefer the 'invisible' styles of Orson Scott Card and Philip K. Dick, I suggest you avoid this one.
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Summary: Neither hard to read, nor cliched... A modern masterpiece.
Review: I have heard a lot of things being said about Gibson's classic 'Neuromancer', but to discover messages stating that 'it is very difficult to read' or indeed 'impossible to understand' borders on the surreal. Have literacy rates fallen with the rise of the internet, or something? Gibson's technoprose - highly stylized though it may be - is very well structured, equaly precise and supremely readable - a joy to read in fact. If anyone still wishes to argue that Neuromancer is hard to read, I would personally encourage them to order either a copy of Immanuel Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason', or better (more relevant to the topic), Jean Baudrillard's brilliant 'Simulacra and Simulation' (upon which, incidentally, 'The Matrix' was based). Do this, and we'll talk again.
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Summary: Stranger of himself.
Review: Okay. If you love language as I love it, the very start of the book could not leave you flat : "The sky was the color of television tuned on a dead channel". Did you ever read a book of Raymond Chandler ? I love them, and Gibson owes a lot to him. Lot of people claims not to understand the story. They will not understand Platone philosophy too, The "Noumeno" ,the "Avatar" the understanding paradigm of the relations Mind/World. The Mythologic world was separated by an absolute distance from man, but nevertheless Mythos was the paradigm man used to understand the world. So is Virtual Reality, Computer connections and all the ways the Mind is arranging things to understand the World. And the language Gibson uses is so evocative. As a stranger of himself. Okay. I can't write so good in english, but I must tell this to you all outside : The book is beautiful. I have it in italian, and I'll have it in english. Nicola Cudemo
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Summary: A CyberPunk Thriller that will twist your mind!
Review: For all those hapless techno weanie morons that hated this book I have one explination. Your small minds can't fathom pure techno-poetry in motion! Any one who has bothered to actually read this book knows what I speak of. I highly recomend this book as one that will twist your mind. Read all three or you will not get the full brunt of his story. By the way. THE MOVIE IS BEING MADE! Look for the .org web site set up for it! YES! Matrix eat CyberDust!
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