Neuromancer
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Case was the best interface cowboy who ever ran in Earth's computer matrix. Then he double- crossed the wrong people.… Winner of the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Review
‘A masterpiece that moves faster than the speed of thought and is chilling in its implications’
New York Times
‘Case is the Marlowe of the mainframe age’
Vox
‘The pessimistic vision of Neuromancer has inspired technologists from Silicon Valley to Wall Street and a global network of computer hackers who have committed countless nefarious deeds in the book’s honour… Neuromancer was a literary Big Bang’
The Sunday Times
‘Set for brainstun… on of the most unuusal and involving narratives to be read in many an artificially blue moon’
The Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful book - original, packed with ideas and simply crackling with energy and wit. Gibson has documented incredible, wild vision of the (near) future. It is a world of high technology and low life, a world where designer drugs and surgical enhancements are ubiquitous. In writing this book, he created (or at least popularised) a new genre: cyberpunk.
Neuromancer is not perfect. The characterisation is patchy (at best), some of the dialogue is stilted and the plot occasionally meanders but it is a still tremendous piece of work that has stood the test of time quite well.
Note that this is the first part of a trilogy and as such leaves a number of questions hanging. The other parts of the trilogy Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are also very good and complete the story nicely.
48 of 52 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Like a bullet to the head, Neuromancer (and Gibson) arrived in 1984 to almost universal acclaim and allegedly kick-started the Cyberpunk movement which has influenced certain branches of SF ever since. Whether or not they choose to call their work cyberpunk or not is immaterial. The work of Simon Ings, Grimwood, Chris Moriarty, Michael Swanwick and dozens of others would arguably not have been the same had this novel not been as successful as it was.
The prose is fast, clever, snappy, set against a background of half-working neon in streets where disposable computer equipment is strewn like empty fast food cartons.
Our hero, Case, is a cyber-freelancer, able to jack himself into computer-systems and experience cyberspace as a three dimensional reality. Case, however, tried to steal from one of his more dubious clients who subsequently infected him with a Russian mycotoxin, effectively rendering him incapable of cyberspace work and therefore unemployable. We therefore meet him, down on his luck, and mixing with some rather eccentric characters in a downtown bar in Japan.
For me, it reads like `The Maltese Falcon in Space'. There is a pervasive noir element, since Case - like many a Nineteen-Forties gumshoe - is forced to take on a job, the full details of which he is not fully aware. There's a beautiful and dangerous woman (by the name of Molly) and a mysterious benefactor, as well as a supporting cast of neon-lit lowlife.
Like any classic noir novel, the action and the protagonists move between street level and the crazy billionaire family who are literally `above the clouds', since they live within their own Las Vegas style space station.
It's exciting, challenging, dense with atmosphere, and very much deserves its cult status as a modern classic.
The prose is fast, clever, snappy, set against a background of half-working neon in streets where disposable computer equipment is strewn like empty fast food cartons.
Our hero, Case, is a cyber-freelancer, able to jack himself into computer-systems and experience cyberspace as a three dimensional reality. Case, however, tried to steal from one of his more dubious clients who subsequently infected him with a Russian mycotoxin, effectively rendering him incapable of cyberspace work and therefore unemployable. We therefore meet him, down on his luck, and mixing with some rather eccentric characters in a downtown bar in Japan.
For me, it reads like `The Maltese Falcon in Space'. There is a pervasive noir element, since Case - like many a Nineteen-Forties gumshoe - is forced to take on a job, the full details of which he is not fully aware. There's a beautiful and dangerous woman (by the name of Molly) and a mysterious benefactor, as well as a supporting cast of neon-lit lowlife.
Like any classic noir novel, the action and the protagonists move between street level and the crazy billionaire family who are literally `above the clouds', since they live within their own Las Vegas style space station.
It's exciting, challenging, dense with atmosphere, and very much deserves its cult status as a modern classic.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I don't often foray into sci-fi and certainly not cyberpunk, but I found this fascinating. Not great, definitely not perfect, but intriguing and challenging.
The challenge comes mostly in the jargon-loaded language, but that wasn't half as tough to penetrate as I expected. Simultaneously it also provided the greatest reward - bearing in mind when this book was conceived it displays some fascinating insights and prophecies around the future of technology.
Beyond that, I have a suspicion that the book is not quite as deep as it makes out! Case and Molly are the sort of protagonists that a good book needs; special but flawed. I certainly think an opportunity was missed to deliver more richness to these and other characters, but this will hopefully develop through the trilogy. The story itself is also subservient to the technological vision, but again it does set up the following books.
The challenge comes mostly in the jargon-loaded language, but that wasn't half as tough to penetrate as I expected. Simultaneously it also provided the greatest reward - bearing in mind when this book was conceived it displays some fascinating insights and prophecies around the future of technology.
Beyond that, I have a suspicion that the book is not quite as deep as it makes out! Case and Molly are the sort of protagonists that a good book needs; special but flawed. I certainly think an opportunity was missed to deliver more richness to these and other characters, but this will hopefully develop through the trilogy. The story itself is also subservient to the technological vision, but again it does set up the following books.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
fascinating
fascinating to read this book in 2012. this guy was so prescient in how computing would takeover our lives. Read more
Published 19 days ago by William Ralph
great service
A Fast and efficient book buying experience. I particually liked the recycled packaging. It Does not get better than this.
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. Caroline P. Wookey
Considered Definitive for a reason
Neuromancer is a high tech cyberpunk novel.
The problem I had with it when I first read it, was that it strayed a bit too far from what was 'known' and understood, of the... Read more
The problem I had with it when I first read it, was that it strayed a bit too far from what was 'known' and understood, of the... Read more
Published 3 months ago by E. Rolison
As good as the hype!
A super, super, super novel. I was not initially taken with the plot description, and purchased this novel because of the high esteem it is held in within the Sci-fi genre. Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Doyle
A spectacular books by a visionary writer
After 25 years, Neuromancer's predictions about culture and technology remain largely accurate. Private militaries wage war for profit and corporations manipulate governments to... Read more
Published 4 months ago by P. Mcconnell
Simply a masterpiece
This book is a literary juggernaut.
I am an avid fantasy fan and have not delved into sci-fi until a friend begged me to read Neuromancer. Read more
I am an avid fantasy fan and have not delved into sci-fi until a friend begged me to read Neuromancer. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Bob Goats
Crackles with static electricity
Cyberpunk is a lucky genre. The book that is said to have started it all off is actually an brilliant publication. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Balor of the Evil Eye
Okay but not great
The plot and characters have been described elsewhere, so I'll just leave my impressions.
I liked the fast pace, evocative and imaginatively constructed scenes, and a... Read more
I liked the fast pace, evocative and imaginatively constructed scenes, and a... Read more
Published 7 months ago by A. K. Sparrow
Complicated, but not deep
I chose to read "Neuromancer" based on its seemingly interesting plot; being a bit of a philosopher myself I thought this idea of cyberspace and alternative realities was very... Read more
Published 7 months ago by The Electronic Listener
Seminal cyberpunk
There's not much needed to be said about this book. Gibson predicted the future. In the early 80s he saw a time when information was the key commodity, where people networked over... Read more
Published 14 months ago by R. Davidson
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