Neuromancer

Rating:
Summary: a really cool book
Review: I really liked this book. A lot of the plot flew over my head, but I got most of it. And Gibson is a totally amzing writer. People who have said he is more of a poet are right. His descriptions of the world Case lives in are beautiful. The characters are actually uncommonly realistic. The way they act and what they say seeps into you, giving you a picture of living human beings. They are devoid of "noble" aspects. They have no great character, they simply react and think and act and feel. They act like human beings. There are no "white-light" insights into them, just gradual understanding of who they are. It is beuatiful dystopia. A lot of people say that they wouldn't want to live in Gibson's future. I would love to. I would love to be a Panther Modern with pink hair, implanted software, and a mood trench coat, wandering through a decaying, insane city with technology swirling at the speed of light around me, downing stimulants as I feel myself go insane. I would love to dive through the matrix, dodging preying viruses, punching through ICE like a sledgehammer, driving a virus the size of a building into a corporation matrix, and spending hours, days, hurtling through a world beyond human comprhension.

Rating:
Summary: Dated
Review: At the time it was written, it was probably a visionary book, but alot was lost on me reading it in 1998. Still a good book, but too splintered to be really satisfying.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful read, whether or not you're into computers.
Review: I read this book in 1990. I was browsing a book store with my boyfriend, who picked up the book and exclaimed ``Wow, listen to this!'' upon reading the first sentence. ("The sky was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.")

He bought the book, loan it to me the next week and I never returned it. Gibson's lyric writing, his intricate plotting, his discomfort with corporate omnipresense are all worth savoring...you'll read the novel once for story, then again (and again) for text and texture.

He's also a master at capturing the way a city feels, how it crowds you and isolates you at the same time. (Manhattanites will definitely get it.)

In any event, I'm not at all involved in computers or high technology of any kind. Gibson may be the father of cyberpunk and the coiner of the word "cyberspace," but you don't need to know or care what that means to enjoy his books, particularly Neuromancer.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson Is Great, But He Can Learn More If ...?
Review: William Gibson is a great visionary and story teller. I love all his cyberpunk novels. But if he reads a book called "Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in Virtual Reality," he will become an even greater thinker and writer and story teller. The stories (called "thought experiments" by the author) in that book are far more mind- streatching, exciting, and enlightening than any stories I have ever read. Better yet, those stories are leading us to a deeper understanding of the nature of reality and the mind like nothing else. The author demonstrates why and how virtual reality combined with teleoperation can literally replace the entirely physical world, and by making that happen we become co-creators of a new universe: "Gods R' Us". A convincing psychological and conceptual shaker!

Rating:
Summary: Hype vs. Critics
Review: After reading through some of the reviews, I felt I just had to say something. I've read this book four times, and it is one of my favorites. Of course anyone who claims he is the greatest writer of the 20th centuary needs a head-check. The style is kind of strange, but I think one should view this book as free verse poetry. Its a style of reading that is better visualized and experienced rather than "read" like a typical book. No, its not the best book in the world. But its a damn good one.

Rating:
Summary: Gibson is an amazing visionary. Neuromancer is incredible.
Review: Even at the end of 1998, Neuromancer is a visionary masterpiece. Most who criticize fail to appreciate this book was written in the mid 80's. If you like this book, check out Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash and The Diamond Age.

Rating:
Summary: I like it
Review: This book is basically the cornerstone of the "gibsonian" science-fiction archetype, extending into most areas of media (movies, other books, video games, and heck, even a role-playing game). Despite the relative complexity (to the average joe) the ideas stuck and the gritty, high-tech world that Gibson created, did, like the book reviews loudly proclaim, revolutionize modern science fiction. (IMHO, the characters should be explored in more depth)

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, and hypnotic surrealism - original and clever
Review: I recommend first reading "Burning Chrome" to get a little background on Gibsons world before trying to tackle this epic novel

Rating:
Summary: Gibson is the Greatest
Review: Gibson has a finger up to the winds of change and has seen the future. This novel will grasp your imagination from the first page and lead you through its distorted reflection of coexistence with technology as we know it. Attempts to holywoodize his vision (Jonny Mnemonic) fail horribly at their attempt to bring his visions to the masses and do not do his work justice. Neuromancer is by far the best of the Gibson books that I have yet read.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Cyber-Thriller
Review: A fast paced intelligent book that I enjoyed reading.