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unfoundation's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
One of my favourite books. Just finished a reread.
The world is chaotic and entrancing. The plot hurtles through it at speed, twisting this way and that, but never getting lost.
It’s incredible to realize that Gibson came up with so many of these ideas and imagery in 1984. The foundational text of cyberpunk. You can see so many themes and ideas stemming from this.
Case is a complex main character but ultimately you root for him. Like seeing a friend make some bad decisions. Molly is a tragic terminator, both intimidating and sympathetic. Armitage, Wintermute and Peter are all ominous antagonists. There are a host of other amazing characters who make the world rich and leave lasting impressions.
The world is chaotic and entrancing. The plot hurtles through it at speed, twisting this way and that, but never getting lost.
It’s incredible to realize that Gibson came up with so many of these ideas and imagery in 1984. The foundational text of cyberpunk. You can see so many themes and ideas stemming from this.
Case is a complex main character but ultimately you root for him. Like seeing a friend make some bad decisions. Molly is a tragic terminator, both intimidating and sympathetic. Armitage, Wintermute and Peter are all ominous antagonists. There are a host of other amazing characters who make the world rich and leave lasting impressions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Gore, Addiction, and Alcohol
Minor: Grief, Rape, and Torture
serenspace's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Drug use
totallyglitched's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Drug use, Violence, Sexual content, Torture, Gun violence, Medical content, Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts
ninepillars's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Violence
binghebun's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
getting the ugly out of the way first — this book is racist. east asian people are used as set pieces, the turkish character and depiction of istanbul reek of islamophobia, and the zionites are just walking stereotypes of rastafarians. exploring cultures and countries beyond the vaguely-japanese-america of the typical cyberpunk world would have been great to read, but unfortunately gibson handles it all so stereotypically that it loses any interest or style. this book was written fourty years ago, and usually reading any classical or seminal work means you have to wade through this kind of bullshit, and i get that, but it still sucks. there is also a lot of objectification of women, a lot of talk about breasts, which unfortunately, again, i can’t say i’m surprised by considering the genre and time period. but, also again, it sucks.
onto the good — gibson writes with so much style it’s such a pleasure to read. one of my favourite lines is ‘’i’m doing just fine,’ case said, and grinned like a skull.’ i can picture in my mind exactly what that smile looks like, what case himself looks like, it’s such simple wording but evokes so much. i spent a lot of the narrative completely engrossed but also equally completely lost on what was going on, and i’m not ashamed to say i listened to a podcast outlining the plot of the book upon finishing to really understand what i read. i think part of it is gibson’s writing, but also just the conventions of older sci-fi which i am not accustomed to reading. i still had a lot of fun with this book and found myself always wanting to read more. it’s so fast paced and snappy that you can just keep reading and lose yourself to the world.
i really loved molly, and i’m so glad that gibson utilised the technique of having case being able to see through molly’s eyes to add her pov into the book. while i did say women are objectified in this book, the female characters are fortunately on their own absolutely fantastic — molly and 3jane are as interesting and fucked up as the male characters. case is a great protagonist, the antagonist is truly vile and so hateable, and the depiction of AI is unfortunately as topical as ever. the fact this was written in the 80s is honestly insane.
i found myself a little wanting on the descriptions of everything — a lot of cyberpunk to me is the aesthetic and i found that lacking, but i’m also coming at it with the 2024 perspective with 40 years of visual cyberpunk works, so i think that was an unfair expectation in the first place. the longer out from finishing this book, the more i like it. it was truly so unlike anything i’ve read before and i really enjoyed the shakeup from my usual reading. i definitely want to check out gibson’s other works and more works in the cyberpunk genre.
tw drug use, violence, sexual violence, thoughts of suicide
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, and Drug abuse
josemoya's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Lo leí a través del sintetizador de voz y probablemente no sea la mejor manera de hacerlo. Tampoco lo leí en el momento adecuado de mi vida. Por ello me pareció confuso, más que algunas obras de P. K. Dick.
Sin embargo, el mundo reflejado en el libro (aparte los anacronismos que el propio autor menciona en una introducción escrita una década después) es muy interesante.
Volveré a Gibson más tarde, pero ahora creo que no es el momento.
Sin embargo, el mundo reflejado en el libro (aparte los anacronismos que el propio autor menciona en una introducción escrita una década después) es muy interesante.
Volveré a Gibson más tarde, pero ahora creo que no es el momento.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Drug use, and Sexual violence
teainthelibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, and Violence
quiteawful's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The og Cyberpunk 2077 inspo. Hard to read, hard to imagine a lot of it, not really sure I liked any of the characters. Lots of crimes and violence. I recommend.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, and Addiction
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Murder
Minor: Mental illness and Suicide
The og Cyberpunk 2077 inspo. Hard to read, hard to imagine a lot of it, not really sure I liked any of the characters. Lots of crimes and violence. I recommend.missmansanas's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Addiction, Sexual assault, Cursing, Drug abuse, and Medical trauma
Minor: Incest and Suicidal thoughts
cdc95's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Violence, Medical trauma, Gun violence, and Drug use
Minor: Stalking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual content