Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dated? Maybe, but a book to read before you die!, 12 Sep 2006
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 (who turns out to be a rogue Artificial Intelligence, intent on freeing itself from its security programmes) 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.
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21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A brilliant, groundbreaking book., 29 Mar 2005
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.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Science Fiction at it's best - ruff, rugged, and raw..., 2 May 2001
I came out of "No Maps For These Territories" (the new William Gibson documentary) yesterday and felt the need to buy this book again. I first read "Neuromancer" in 1996 and thought this is totally wild. I later watched "Blade Runner" and "Ghost in the shell" and thought this dude is definitely up there in this sci-fi ish - the future. The characters are real and varied (can you imagine rastas roaming the atmosphere?) - how about a cloned ninja bodyguard for size? It's the realness that grabs you, these are characters you can relate to - the greed, anxiety, hopes, dreams - all in the mix of mind boggling technology. I've always found sci-fi books that deals with alien civilization and other worlds a bit to tedious and this guy's books are like a breath of fresh air - how are we all coping in the face of this technological onslaught? Do we still go wow? Or do we wish for augumented body shells? Blue tooth enabled? I've spent today reading the book and the whole plot remains relevant.
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