Rating: 
Summary: I Finish All of Gibson's Book
Review:
That may not sound like a huge compliment, but it is. Probably %75 of what I start will not compel me to finish it. I finish his books, and I finish them in no more than a few days.
I found it initially a bit overwhelming when I realized that the narrative would be split four ways between protagonists. Usually this means reading through the adventures of characters I don't care for while waiting to get to those of the one I like. Fortunately here, though, I actually liked three of the four. They would be:
Slick Henry. The guy who builds robots out in a winter wasteland. He did some time, and in a new treatment was performed on him that causes chronic short term memory loss. That way years in prison just fly by. Upon his release, the treatment was supposedly reversed, but its effects can still be triggered under stress. I found this idea to be interesting, even if unlikely. I mean, the whole point of jail is to painfully aware of the passage of time. But anyway.
Kumiko - she's the daughter of a Yakuza crime lord, and she's been sent to England for safety while he attends to some sort of gang conflict. She is endearingly humorLESS, and while fluent in English, she doesn't understand many Western idioms.
It's inside her narrative that we are reintroduced to Molly from Neuromancer.
Molly is one of my favorite characters from any book. Gibson keeps her character consistent here with the original story, and she's just as cool as ever. Quite frankly, she's too cool for a nerd like Gibson to have devised her - which makes her all the more impressive. She's the ultimate foxface violent chick, and Gibson is really in the zone when he's writing her dialogue. She's in a nude scene too. Keep an eye out for that.
The third narrative follows a 16-year-old drug addict streetwalker named Mona. She's another quite likable character. Gibson also doesn't try to give her a heart of gold or anything silly like that. She isn't really the lynchpin of the story or anything, even though her name is in the title. But as far as I can tell, the title doesn't really mean anything. The phrase is never used within the story and the meaning can't be inferred from anything. Anyway, Mona is cool, and for some reason one of her lines will be the only one I remember in six months: "I heard they got crabs".
The fourth and final narrative - and yes four separate narratives is one too many - follows a stim star named Angie. This is the one I didn't care for. There's a lot of exposition dumped into her storyline, and it bored me to tears. She was always thinking about something called the legba, or the loa, or something. Honestly, I have no idea. It just made my mind wander. She has a black, gay assistant of some sort named Porphyre who has had a ton of cosmetic enhancements, and refers to everyone as either missy or mistah. He made things a little more interesting, but his work was cut out for him.
All four narratives come together as the book winds down. And I must say that it was extremely well done. It's difficult to weave together that many stories, but Gibson pulled it off, and the story actually gets pretty exciting. It's fun to see who will run into who and in what combination.
Gibson has definitely gotten better as a writer. The whole book is effectively written and streamlined for easy reading. The inevitable comparison with this story and the rest of the Sprawl trilogy must be made.
Overall, I would say that this was the best of the trilogy on a technical level, if not exactly my favorite.
My favorite is still Neuromancer, but not for the entire book. The truth is that I only liked the first half of that one. When it took place on a street level, and the story was very simple. Case is a great character in that Gibson doesn't try to make him much of a character at all. He is not a hero or an anti-hero. He's just sort of there. He asks questions to drive the plot and he has no real characteristics. I like that. He's not a pretentious character. And of course Molly had a more central role in that book.
Also, the first book had the kind of style that Gibson has still never recaptured. A sort of watered down Naked Lunch vibe and a real enthusiasm for experimentation with words. The first book really seemed like a whole new dystopian world, whereas the rest of the series seemed more familiar and only shades away from the world we know. Advances in computer technology has a lot to do with this perhaps, but I digress.
But after the thrill of the first matrix run being pulled off in Neuromancer the story lost my interest. It became too complicated, and it tried to get on a scale so large that I couldn't relate to it anymore. Not to mention that it was confusing in places. So. It would have made a great novella, but as it stands it's a good book.
I have barely anything to say about Count Zero other than it was the weakest of the series while still being a quick and entertaining read. It neither offered the excitement of Mona nor the style of Neuromancer.
That'll about do it. Mona Lisa Overdrive is a good book, finish it in a couple days (see its influence is making me clip my sentences now). Hell. I'm gonna go ahead and give it five stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Splendid End to William Gibson's "Cyberspace" Trilogy
Review: "Mona Lisa Overdrive" is an insightful look into the meaning of celebrity as it is shaped and distorted in Gibson's cyberspace future. Characters from "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero" return, showing new facets to their already complex personalities. Those who haven't read the previous two books in the "Cyberspace" trilogy should read them first, in sequence, before delving again into richly textured landscapes which Gibson evokes through his sparse, lyrical prose. Yet I can assure you that "Mona Lisa Overdrive" is well worth waiting for. The plot moves along at a more leisurely pace here than before, allowing Gibson time to delve more deeply into his character's minds. Anyone wishing to read a great work of literature that is also classic cyberpunk science fiction won't be disappointed with "Mona Lisa Overdrive".
Rating:
Summary: Gibson is the Godfather of Cyberpunk!
Review: And no one can really do it better, but there are other non-Gibson cyberpunk books out there at least worth mentioning such as "Snow Crash", "Cryptonomicon", "Prey", "Metaplanetary", "Cyber Hunter" and so forth. But William Gibson still holds the First Place mention in this category which he invented with his first books such as "Neuromancer".
Rating:
Summary: The ghost was a gift from her father...
Review: As usual, Gibson opens with an intriguing line then proceeds to send the reader on a wild ride in a beautifully imagined world. This is the third in the Neuromancer trilogy and would be confusing to those who haven't read Neuromancer or Count Zero. Of course if you've read either of the first two books you probably can't wait to read this one. Well, it's worth the wait. These stories will be hallmarks of 20th century literature and that's no mere hyperbole.
Rating: 
Summary: Maybe I should have read Count Zero first...
Review: But who cares? Molly was there. I love that razorgirl. Makes me want glass eyes.
Rating:
Summary: A HALF_RESOLUTION OF MOLLY'S FATE
Review: BY the time I read this one I had read Neuromancer. By now I was used to the jargon-ridden, erotic, chic and mysterious narrative. The Neuromancer finale had left me asking for more as far as the character of Molly and her relationship with Case were concerned. Molly, being the futuristic, sexy, bionically enhanced, "razor-girl" assassin who was also referred to as a "street samurai". Although there was a resolution to an extent, I was left deeply unsatisfied because she the most fascinating character in the Sprawl series. I was deeply affected by the very last sentence of Neuromancer and this is what made me read Mona Lisa. Excellent cberpunk, very Bladerunner. I could also argue that Molly is the inspiration of many superheroines today. Superheroines of the type Trinity (the Matrix), Nikita (La Femme Nikita) and probably many others. Superb effort...I can only hope for another which follows Molly's charcter development even further. Her reappearance in Mona Lisa was quite a surprise too.
Rating:
Summary: Brain cells in hyperdrive
Review: Dark, mysterious and visionary, this work takes you to the extremes of imagination and intrigue.Pop references merge with sci-fi thrills to produce a riveting joyride of a book. One must hang on tight to the thoughts of William Gibson, for they are at the truly cutting edge. Powerful fiction!
Rating:
Summary: Yep. That's where it went.
Review: Definately part of a series. In short, don't go near this unless you have read Neuromancer at the very least. Although this is #3, you can get by without reading Count Zero, even if you miss some of the subtle details. Neuromancer was the intro, and this is the application. (By the way, Chiba ain't all that bad a place... yet)
Rating:
Summary: Wanting More Of Gibson, "OVERDRIVE" was Underdriven
Review: Don't get me wrong, this is a great book. The book ends a great triligy on this future tale of the Sprawl, Chiba, and the Console Cowboys for hire. However, What made this a great tale was the densley packed Story. Like Blade Runner, the DUNE series, and the Original series of Max Headroom on TV, the novel's visionary feel is gritty and hard edged. OVERDRIVE becomes less detailed like the HEADROOM series after the first seaon on TV.Apparently, too many people found it too complex to follow. Personally, I feel Gibson was softening the edges to be more mass appealing, make the book easier to swallow. The problem is the book wasn't as rich as the first two novels, NEUROMANCER & COUNT ZERO. The show Max Headroom became quite boring. Dumbing down the book a notch shouldn't be the price, those who pay attention closely, should have to pay. I want to get involved with the books I read. Still, the novel gives the reader another peak into this web of Hightech adventure and futuristic age. Perhaps, Gibson was just cooling our processers before dumping the program, with this softer Neuromancer vision.
Rating:
Summary: You must read this book!!!
Review: First I read Neuromancer. Wow. It was by far the coolest Cyberpunk book I have ever read. Then I read Mona Lisa Overdrive... If you never read another book, READ THIS! Gibson brings 4 unrelated sets of characters, mixes in some Neuromancer and swirls them together in the twisted schemes of a madwoman.
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