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agrajag's review against another edition
5.0
Reread Neuromancer, must be 20 years since I first read it. It's dense, action-packed, deep and complicated. I think it's one of those books you can read once a decade, and find new aspects each time.
emmanuel's review against another edition
1.0
C'est un livre que j'aurais voulu aimer. Parce qu'il était précurseur, parce que son histoire se tient et promet. Mais l'écriture ! Bon sang, comme c'est pédant. Monsieur a voulu faire du beau et il a fait du lourdingue. Un exemple ou deux :
«Ici, le bruissement des affaires créait un bourdonnement subliminal constant et la mort était la punition acceptée pour cause de paresse, négligence, manque de grâce, inaptitude à se conformer aux exigences d'un protocole complexe.» Et bla bla bla... C'est juste du bruit, il n'y a pas de sens.
«Il sentait une force qui courait en elle, une force qu'il avait déjà connue dans la Cité de la nuit quand il la tenait, et qu'elle le tenait, pour retenir l'espace d'un instant le temps et la mort, retenir la Rue infatiguable qui les traquait tous.»
Ça ne veut rien dire. Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette Rue ? Que signifient ces majuscules ? Si encore c'était beau, ce serait de la poésie, mais la, c'est juste de la foutaise. Pffff
«Ici, le bruissement des affaires créait un bourdonnement subliminal constant et la mort était la punition acceptée pour cause de paresse, négligence, manque de grâce, inaptitude à se conformer aux exigences d'un protocole complexe.» Et bla bla bla... C'est juste du bruit, il n'y a pas de sens.
«Il sentait une force qui courait en elle, une force qu'il avait déjà connue dans la Cité de la nuit quand il la tenait, et qu'elle le tenait, pour retenir l'espace d'un instant le temps et la mort, retenir la Rue infatiguable qui les traquait tous.»
Ça ne veut rien dire. Qu'est-ce que c'est que cette Rue ? Que signifient ces majuscules ? Si encore c'était beau, ce serait de la poésie, mais la, c'est juste de la foutaise. Pffff
matteottt's review against another edition
4.0
Il capostipite della letteratura cyberpunk offre a chi si avvicina molte più qualità di quelle che potrebbero essere immaginate leggendo soltanto epigoni di questo libro, a volte bloccati in una riproduzione pedissequa degli aspetti più superficiali e per questo meno interessanti di Neuromante (tra cui, ovviamente, il reimpiego dell'ambientazione, così suggestiva perché lo scrittore ha saputo renderla affascinante modellandola con i suoi strumenti linguistici e stilistici, e non perché lo sia intrinsecamente).
Gibson sa scrivere e non ha paura di fare uso di una prosa affascinante, talvolta ambigua e incline a deviazioni nel poetico; il tutto al servizio di una storia basilare sulla carta ma giocata con astuzia e dai risvolti non scontati, soprattutto nel finale. Un grande atto di nascita del genere e un'ottima prova di bravura.
Gibson sa scrivere e non ha paura di fare uso di una prosa affascinante, talvolta ambigua e incline a deviazioni nel poetico; il tutto al servizio di una storia basilare sulla carta ma giocata con astuzia e dai risvolti non scontati, soprattutto nel finale. Un grande atto di nascita del genere e un'ottima prova di bravura.
davybaby's review against another edition
3.0
A game I play sometimes with friends is cleverly titled, "The Book Game." We read the jacket copy of various books aloud, then come up with our own first lines for them. My wife's opening line for Neuromancer: "I didn't always want to be an internet cowboy."
The silliness of that false first line captures what turned me off about both Neuromancer and its colleague in cyberpunk influence, [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385214698s/830.jpg|493634]. They both have major aspects of the plot that seem so saturday-morning-cartoon silly that it’s hard to take them seriously. Snow Crash's world is traversed by couriers who grapple onto hover cars with their hover boards and X-game around. Case, the "internet cowboy" protagonist of Neuromancer, drifts out of a drug-fugue to perform heists and begin an implausible affair with a bug-eyed "street samurai." Cyberpunk, in my experience, is as much defined by its unabashed teenage wish-fulfillment as anything more cerebral.
If you’re interested in a more cerebral breakdown of cyberpunk, Here is a blog post that excellently breaks down both the sub-genre and its relation to Blade Runner. If you’re not familiar, Blade Runner is probably the most famous non-book example of cyberpunk.
Neuromancer is famous for exploring cyberspace (a term coined by Gibson) in a tactile and atmospheric way. As explained by Gibson, he took a romantic and open view of the internet specifically because of his ignorance:
“It wasn’t until I could finally afford a computer of my own that I found out there’s a drive mechanism inside — this little thing that spins around. I’d been expecting an exotic crystalline thing, a cyberspace deck or something, and what I got was a little piece of a Victorian engine that made noises like a scratchy old record player. That noise took away some of the mystique for me; it made computers less sexy. My ignorance had allowed me to romanticize them.”
– William Gibson
His romantic view is very interesting. It’s definitely more about atmosphere than accuracy, and Gibson’s descriptions are tactile and dreamlike: “Headlong motion through walls of emerald green, milky jade, the sensation beyond anything he’d known before in cyberspace… The Tessier-Ashpool ice shattered, peeling away from the Chinese program’s thrust, a worrying impression of solid fluidity, as though the shards of a broken mirror bent and elongated as they fell—“
Atmospheric and intriguing, Neuromancer is interesting as influential literature, but I wouldn’t expect too much of the story itself.
I’ll close with this passage that’s a beautifully-written commentary on American culture. The rampant consumerism, the continents of stuff drifting through our lives:
“They stood in a clearing, dense tangles of junk rising on either side to walls lined with shelves of crumbling paperbacks. The junk looked like something that had grown there, a fungus of twisted metal and plastic. He could pick out individual objects, but they seemed to blur back into the mass… An enormous pile of old magazines had cascaded into the open area, flesh of lost summers staring blindly up as he followed her back through a narrow canyon of impacted scrap. He heard the door close behind them. He didn’t look back.”
The silliness of that false first line captures what turned me off about both Neuromancer and its colleague in cyberpunk influence, [b:Snow Crash|830|Snow Crash|Neal Stephenson|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385214698s/830.jpg|493634]. They both have major aspects of the plot that seem so saturday-morning-cartoon silly that it’s hard to take them seriously. Snow Crash's world is traversed by couriers who grapple onto hover cars with their hover boards and X-game around. Case, the "internet cowboy" protagonist of Neuromancer, drifts out of a drug-fugue to perform heists and begin an implausible affair with a bug-eyed "street samurai." Cyberpunk, in my experience, is as much defined by its unabashed teenage wish-fulfillment as anything more cerebral.
If you’re interested in a more cerebral breakdown of cyberpunk, Here is a blog post that excellently breaks down both the sub-genre and its relation to Blade Runner. If you’re not familiar, Blade Runner is probably the most famous non-book example of cyberpunk.
Neuromancer is famous for exploring cyberspace (a term coined by Gibson) in a tactile and atmospheric way. As explained by Gibson, he took a romantic and open view of the internet specifically because of his ignorance:
“It wasn’t until I could finally afford a computer of my own that I found out there’s a drive mechanism inside — this little thing that spins around. I’d been expecting an exotic crystalline thing, a cyberspace deck or something, and what I got was a little piece of a Victorian engine that made noises like a scratchy old record player. That noise took away some of the mystique for me; it made computers less sexy. My ignorance had allowed me to romanticize them.”
– William Gibson
His romantic view is very interesting. It’s definitely more about atmosphere than accuracy, and Gibson’s descriptions are tactile and dreamlike: “Headlong motion through walls of emerald green, milky jade, the sensation beyond anything he’d known before in cyberspace… The Tessier-Ashpool ice shattered, peeling away from the Chinese program’s thrust, a worrying impression of solid fluidity, as though the shards of a broken mirror bent and elongated as they fell—“
Atmospheric and intriguing, Neuromancer is interesting as influential literature, but I wouldn’t expect too much of the story itself.
I’ll close with this passage that’s a beautifully-written commentary on American culture. The rampant consumerism, the continents of stuff drifting through our lives:
“They stood in a clearing, dense tangles of junk rising on either side to walls lined with shelves of crumbling paperbacks. The junk looked like something that had grown there, a fungus of twisted metal and plastic. He could pick out individual objects, but they seemed to blur back into the mass… An enormous pile of old magazines had cascaded into the open area, flesh of lost summers staring blindly up as he followed her back through a narrow canyon of impacted scrap. He heard the door close behind them. He didn’t look back.”
kokoro's review against another edition
3.0
Debo decir que suelo leer antes de dormir, no me sentía muy bien, estaba frustrada con lo que leía con otra novela, no fue una buena combinación. Además, leí la novela en español. Todo lo cual no ayudó, puede que eso influyera en mi impresión general y calificación.
Es en ocasiones fácil olvidar que esta novela fue el inicio del ciberpunk, que los términos usados que ahora nos parecen muy cotidianos fue algo avanzado en 1984. Aunado a la trama, más de una vez pensé era algo aburrido para al memento recordar fue la novela pionera del subgénero. Puede ser algo difícil calificarla como se merece.
Case es un hacker que es contactado por una vieja conocida, Molly, para bajo las ordenes de Armitage la pareja se encargue de un trabajito que conforme avanza la trama quedara claro no será algo sencillo, pues dos bandos siguen los pasos del equipo, uno para evitarlo y el otro para asegurarse del éxito, ambos harán lo que sea necesario para llevar a cabo sus planes.
Tuve problemas con los primeros capítulos, y algunas partes del resto de estos. No entendía lo que leía. En un momento el protagonista esta en un sitio, de un párrafo a otro esta en diferente lugar, o esta alucinando/soñando/algún otro estado y se mezcla con la realidad. Y para ser sincera, más de una vez me preguntaba que estaba leyendo y de que se trataba la novela.
Pero, poco a poco fui comprendiendo y me enganchó para saber si se lograba el objetivo, pero quedan algunas dudas en relación con algún personaje o situación. Me llamó la atención algunas Inteligencias Artificiales parecen tener conciencia, fue para mi más interesante que los personajes humanos, quienes me parecen están llenos de faltas, supongo eso acorde al mundo en el cual viven, pero dicho mundo en su totalidad no es mostrado salvo partes, aun así, es oscuro, pobre, lleno de maleantes, drogas y cirugías clandestinas de todo tipo, con las multinacionales erigiéndose sobre el resto.
Para ser su primera novela, creo el señor Gibson lo hizo muy bien y nos brindó temas en relación persona - tecnología que diversos autores, mangaka o cineastas han usado, desarrollado, o degradado.
Ya para finalizar, ¿Molly fue inspirada en Wolverine?
Es en ocasiones fácil olvidar que esta novela fue el inicio del ciberpunk, que los términos usados que ahora nos parecen muy cotidianos fue algo avanzado en 1984. Aunado a la trama, más de una vez pensé era algo aburrido para al memento recordar fue la novela pionera del subgénero. Puede ser algo difícil calificarla como se merece.
Case es un hacker que es contactado por una vieja conocida, Molly, para bajo las ordenes de Armitage la pareja se encargue de un trabajito que conforme avanza la trama quedara claro no será algo sencillo, pues dos bandos siguen los pasos del equipo, uno para evitarlo y el otro para asegurarse del éxito, ambos harán lo que sea necesario para llevar a cabo sus planes.
Tuve problemas con los primeros capítulos, y algunas partes del resto de estos. No entendía lo que leía. En un momento el protagonista esta en un sitio, de un párrafo a otro esta en diferente lugar, o esta alucinando/soñando/algún otro estado y se mezcla con la realidad. Y para ser sincera, más de una vez me preguntaba que estaba leyendo y de que se trataba la novela.
Pero, poco a poco fui comprendiendo y me enganchó para saber si se lograba el objetivo, pero quedan algunas dudas en relación con algún personaje o situación. Me llamó la atención algunas Inteligencias Artificiales parecen tener conciencia, fue para mi más interesante que los personajes humanos, quienes me parecen están llenos de faltas, supongo eso acorde al mundo en el cual viven, pero dicho mundo en su totalidad no es mostrado salvo partes, aun así, es oscuro, pobre, lleno de maleantes, drogas y cirugías clandestinas de todo tipo, con las multinacionales erigiéndose sobre el resto.
Para ser su primera novela, creo el señor Gibson lo hizo muy bien y nos brindó temas en relación persona - tecnología que diversos autores, mangaka o cineastas han usado, desarrollado, o degradado.
Ya para finalizar, ¿Molly fue inspirada en Wolverine?
john_nygma's review against another edition
2.0
Even though I had to read this book for a uni class, I was quite curious to read it, because I like the genre of cyperpunk. However, while I do appreciate and acknowledge what this book has brought to said genre and laid down the basis for many ideas that works like The Matrix, Ghost In The Shell etc. would later pick up, I just couldn't really get into this book. Gibson's writing style is - despite being imaginative - confusing as hell! After the first chapters I had no idea what was going, where the characters were or what they were up to. How come that an entire page is filled with prose and still nothing of substance or sense is said?! The characters also fell quite flat for me, being as well-rounded as a piece of paper. Having specific body modifications is not a character trait! So yeah... I liked the ideas and creativity behind the story, but as a *book* Neuromancer just isn't very entertaining.
bangel_ds's review against another edition
3.0
ITA-ENG
Il cyberpunk non è un genere che leggo di solito. Non mi fa schifo, è solo che non mi attira particolarmente. Neuromante è un grande libro (nel suo genere) per essere stato pubblicato all'inizio degli anni '80. Sono convinta che avrei dovuto leggerlo in lingua originale. La traduzione italiana della mia versione era vecchia e decisamente troppo letterale. Ha tolto molto al gusto della lettura. Una lettura abbastanza complessa. La trama, però, e i personaggi mi hanno spinta a proseguire e alla fine ne sono stata contenta.
Cyberpunk is not a genre I usually read. I don't hate it, it just doesn't appeal to me. Neuromancer is a great book (for its genre) if we think it was published at the beginning of the 80's. I definitely should've read it in English, though. The Italian translation of my edition was old and way too literal. It took away most of the pleasure of reading. And it was quite a complex read. Nevertheless, the plot and the characters pushed me further into the book and in the end I am pretty happy I read Neuromancer.
Il cyberpunk non è un genere che leggo di solito. Non mi fa schifo, è solo che non mi attira particolarmente. Neuromante è un grande libro (nel suo genere) per essere stato pubblicato all'inizio degli anni '80. Sono convinta che avrei dovuto leggerlo in lingua originale. La traduzione italiana della mia versione era vecchia e decisamente troppo letterale. Ha tolto molto al gusto della lettura. Una lettura abbastanza complessa. La trama, però, e i personaggi mi hanno spinta a proseguire e alla fine ne sono stata contenta.
Cyberpunk is not a genre I usually read. I don't hate it, it just doesn't appeal to me. Neuromancer is a great book (for its genre) if we think it was published at the beginning of the 80's. I definitely should've read it in English, though. The Italian translation of my edition was old and way too literal. It took away most of the pleasure of reading. And it was quite a complex read. Nevertheless, the plot and the characters pushed me further into the book and in the end I am pretty happy I read Neuromancer.
iretrtr's review against another edition
5.0
Adoro. Amo. Gibson ti butta dentro questo mondo senza avvisi e senza spiegazioni, ti stordisce e ti confonde, sì, ma allo stesso tempo ti afferra così forte che il viaggio allucinante finisci per farlo. Neuromante è pieno di immagini, flash, input, input, input infiniti. Normalissimo essere confusi durante la maggior parte della lettura, non mi è mai capitato di amare un libro così tanto pur capendolo così poco. Personaggi. Dialoghi. Wow. Amo.
geenween's review against another edition
3.0
Romanzo 'difficile' che dovrò probabilmente rileggere per rivedere alcuni passaggi se vorrò continuare nella trilogia. Si tratta di una fantascienza ostica perché ambientata in mondo molto diverso dal nostro, che più che esserci spiegato ci viene mostrato mano a mano, e per cui aluni aspetti restano misteriosi e alienanti.
Non so se consiglierei di leggerlo se non si è già familiari con il genere e comunque abituati a letture un po' impegnative.
Il Club del Libro / DRS
Libro del mese Dicembre 2019
Tema del mese
Attualità/Cronaca. Il più votato: [b:Becoming|38746485|Becoming|Michelle Obama|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528206996l/38746485._SY75_.jpg|60334006]
Non so se consiglierei di leggerlo se non si è già familiari con il genere e comunque abituati a letture un po' impegnative.
Il Club del Libro / DRS
Libro del mese Dicembre 2019
Tema del mese
Attualità/Cronaca. Il più votato: [b:Becoming|38746485|Becoming|Michelle Obama|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1528206996l/38746485._SY75_.jpg|60334006]