Reviews - Rare Neuromancer by William Gibson & Introduced by Neil Gaiman New Deluxe Hardcover [Hardcover] William Gibson

5.47k reviews for:

Rare Neuromancer by William Gibson & Introduced by Neil Gaiman New Deluxe Hardcover [Hardcover] William Gibson

William Gibson

3.69 AVERAGE

ganyreads's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous challenging medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

jenkt's review against another edition

3.75

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

supitslois's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

wiimanic's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

runitsthepopo's review against another edition

3.0

Really couldn’t get into it even if it was well-written. Felt more like catching an episode of a pulpy detective procedural show than being introduced to a fully-fleshed out cyberpunk world. Might have been a pioneer but it’s clearly been done better since then. Maybe I just like cyberpunk in visual media better.

giosilva's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

raelovestoread's review against another edition

2.0

PopSugar Reading Challenge 2020: A book published in the 20th century

I hated this book for the first 140 or so pages. Yes, it's influential, yes, it's edgy and yes, it was ground-breaking... Be that as it may I spent the whole first half wishing I was reading something else.

I still haven't learned how to DNF books and in this case, if I had quit, I would have forever remained baffled as to why so many people rate Neuromancer. Having persevered, I can say that it did improve as it went along.

It's still only getting 2 stars from me. The characters lacked substance, for a start. It was very difficult to root for anyone.

Also, it must win the prize for most weapons NOT used in any book. People keep pulling out weapons and putting them back again. Shuriken / Cobra / Razor claws / Shotgun. What is the point of having a main character modified with finger knives if they don't see any action?

Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that if they had a load of cheesy action sequences it would have improved things - but every time another weapon DIDN'T get used, it gave me much amusement.

Calling Neuromancer inaccessible is a polite way of saying impenetrable. It is not at all clear what is happening or what I was meant to be visualising a lot of the time. Although I could more or less tell what was going on (I read it without resorting to a Wikipedia Walkthrough), it simply didn't resonate with me. The visual descriptions, emotional descriptions and auditory descriptions gave me a vague impression, but it didn't conjure the world for me.

There were nuggets of genius scattered throughout and moments of aesthetic that I enjoyed. The occasional tidy description or evocative conversation. Obviously the Cyberpunk genre owes a lot to William Gibson. Still... I found the jargon to be an obstacle and felt that the mental imagery summoned up was unsatisfactory.