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codergrl's review against another edition
2.0
I really tried. This is my third attempt at reading this book and I just can't. DNF :(
azureyoshi's review against another edition
1.0
DNF. Nobody in my book club enjoyed this book, so we quit reading it. Unless you enjoy analogies comparing a woman's body to a war plane and absurd amounts of technobabble, I do not recommend this.
gearyofbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Checked this out as an audio book, taken from the old cassette recordings. It's a great story and a must for anyone who is into cyberpunk and the like. By all accounts the book reads just as well.
gearyofbooks's review against another edition
5.0
There is a very good reason this book is given such praise. It is a classic. Its fast paced, tense, funny and everything in between. You can picture the settings, appreciate the urgency. It's all there. A heist story with a twist.
guppyur's review against another edition
4.0
Where cyberpunk got started. Even knowing that, you'll be shocked by how much other cyberpunk steals wholesale from Gibson.
spanks_mackenzie's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
5.0
mandalor3960's review against another edition
2.0
I'm not as glad as I had expected I would be when I finished this book. I had stopped reading this book a few years ago (2014, 2015, or 2016) after trudging through about a hundred pages. I'd left the book on my shelf since then. After watching a Blade Runner music video with Noir Deco's "Sentient Love" song, I was entranced again with the cyberpunk genre and wanted to indulge in it. Remember this book, I started reading this book.
I feel that a lot of concepts praised in this book are harder to visual than from a visual form like Blade Runner. The cyberspace of this novel is abstract and never fully explained at times. The computer actions and interfaces are hard to follow. Gibson's style is also not explanative at times. This was probably one of the most difficult fiction books I have read and listed on Goodreads.
The plot was decent for the most part and I actually enjoyed the first half of the book (with Case suiting up and teaming up with Molly and following Armitage's orders. It slowed down in the second half with the run and introduction of Peter Rivera. See notes for more details). What I enjoyed most from this book were the urban settings in the first half of the book (before Freeside, the artificial space beach resort, began) and certain characters, mainly Armitage, Maelcum, and Molly (in that order of most liked to least liked). Armitage and the urban settings receive a four star rating. I was enthralled with them.
I couldn't enjoy Case. He appeared to me as a selfish drug addict with no care for his life at times. The ending finalized him as a man that will probably continue his ways, without Molly now.
The parts I mentioned enjoying help this book maintain a low two star-rating. The novel's lengthiness and main focus on Case hamper this novel severely, but I still respect the parts I enjoy to give this book a neutral stance of "OK". Surprisingly I'm fine with reading the sequel and optimistic about it.
Notes
First Chapter: Dissapointed by Molly as the back cover illustrated her as a rough samurai chick. Instead she comes off as this beady nimble assasin.
I started reading this book years ago but probably stopped a hundred pages in. The language is still hard to follow.
Second chapter: Atleast Molly has made the book somewhat exciting.
Third chapter: I am still finding this book hard to follow.
Fourth chapter: It was hard to follow the heist done on Sense/Net.
Sixth chapter: I like the background that Case has found on Armitage.
Seventh chapter: The diction of the dialogue and the events is seriously annoying me. I can understand why I stopped reading this book shortly after this chapter. An example of the confusing dialogue: "Black iron deer rusted in the gardens of Seraglio. Case walked beside her, watching the toes of her boots crunch unkept grass made stiff by an early frost" (Gibson 94). Who is "her"? Is it Molly or the deer? Gibson uses many pronouns without context and nouns that are unique to this book. It is hard to understand this book and I have become impatient and irritated with it.
Chapter Eight: Thank you Gibson for introducing a Jamaican dialect to several characters. I don't understand anything.
Chapter Nine: I don't understand Deane's role with Wintermute. I'm hoping that everything is explained in the end because I'm currently annoyed with this book.
Chapter Fourteen: The story has become mundane and my interest and previous desire to keep reading this book has died. It is probably because the shift from urban areas to Freeside, a beach resort.
Chapter Seventeen: I like Armitage now that he has lost his personality and become Corte, the schizophrenic military veteran.
And thanks to Gibson's terminology, I didn't understand until reading the next chapter's dialogue that Armitage died because a hatch was open on the lifeboat. This book infuriates me.
I liked Peter Rivera's hologram of Armitage; "Beside her. Armitage stood rigidly at attention in a threadbare khaki uniform. His eyes, Case saw, as Molly stepped carefully forward, were tiny monitor screens, each one displaying the blue-gray image of a howling waste of snow, the stripped black trunks of evergreens bending in silent winds" (Gibson 209).
I also liked the urban hologram on page 210, despite not understanding what's going on with the soldier and children.
Chapter Twenty: I liked the fake dark beach that Case is at.
Chapter Twenty-One: The character Neuromancer is introduced and I don't understand who he is. Nor do I understand how Case escaped the fake reality.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Now its revealed on page 248 that the children were cannibals. I couldn't figure that out which is annoying since this novel is hard to follow and I had previously liked that novel and no longer like it.
I've enjoyed that Maelcum wasn't severely injured and he along with Molly are safe.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Lame Ending. Case sounds like he's gone back to being a junkie and spends his earnings a new pancreas and liver. Molly leaves him and now he's probably with a new woman of the night. Case also had to use his anger to preform the final act, something that furthers his portrayal as a selfish person that I can't stand.
I also thought that Wintermute and Neuromancer combining felt contrived.
January 12, 2020
Update
This is most definitely a two star-rated book. Despite the four star-rated content I mentioned, there is one star-rated content in Gibson's style, and the dull second half of the book. To even describe one half as three star-rated and the other half as two star-rated is incorrect. My urges of rating this book at three stars, and my urges to continue reading the book, stopped after page 101, when the Freeside portion of the novel began (Freeside being the beach resort heist). My desire to rate this volume at three stars is continuously ignoring the negative portions and neutral portions.
Also, when I wrote in the review that I was fine with "reading the sequel and optimistic about it", this is because the good parts of this novel have urged me to continue, and in hopes that the bad will cease.
I feel that a lot of concepts praised in this book are harder to visual than from a visual form like Blade Runner. The cyberspace of this novel is abstract and never fully explained at times. The computer actions and interfaces are hard to follow. Gibson's style is also not explanative at times. This was probably one of the most difficult fiction books I have read and listed on Goodreads.
The plot was decent for the most part and I actually enjoyed the first half of the book (with Case suiting up and teaming up with Molly and following Armitage's orders. It slowed down in the second half with the run and introduction of Peter Rivera. See notes for more details). What I enjoyed most from this book were the urban settings in the first half of the book (before Freeside, the artificial space beach resort, began) and certain characters, mainly Armitage, Maelcum, and Molly (in that order of most liked to least liked). Armitage and the urban settings receive a four star rating. I was enthralled with them.
I couldn't enjoy Case. He appeared to me as a selfish drug addict with no care for his life at times. The ending finalized him as a man that will probably continue his ways, without Molly now.
The parts I mentioned enjoying help this book maintain a low two star-rating. The novel's lengthiness and main focus on Case hamper this novel severely, but I still respect the parts I enjoy to give this book a neutral stance of "OK". Surprisingly I'm fine with reading the sequel and optimistic about it.
Notes
First Chapter: Dissapointed by Molly as the back cover illustrated her as a rough samurai chick. Instead she comes off as this beady nimble assasin.
I started reading this book years ago but probably stopped a hundred pages in. The language is still hard to follow.
Second chapter: Atleast Molly has made the book somewhat exciting.
Third chapter: I am still finding this book hard to follow.
Fourth chapter: It was hard to follow the heist done on Sense/Net.
Sixth chapter: I like the background that Case has found on Armitage.
Seventh chapter: The diction of the dialogue and the events is seriously annoying me. I can understand why I stopped reading this book shortly after this chapter. An example of the confusing dialogue: "Black iron deer rusted in the gardens of Seraglio. Case walked beside her, watching the toes of her boots crunch unkept grass made stiff by an early frost" (Gibson 94). Who is "her"? Is it Molly or the deer? Gibson uses many pronouns without context and nouns that are unique to this book. It is hard to understand this book and I have become impatient and irritated with it.
Chapter Eight: Thank you Gibson for introducing a Jamaican dialect to several characters. I don't understand anything.
Chapter Nine: I don't understand Deane's role with Wintermute. I'm hoping that everything is explained in the end because I'm currently annoyed with this book.
Chapter Fourteen: The story has become mundane and my interest and previous desire to keep reading this book has died. It is probably because the shift from urban areas to Freeside, a beach resort.
Chapter Seventeen: I like Armitage now that he has lost his personality and become Corte, the schizophrenic military veteran.
And thanks to Gibson's terminology, I didn't understand until reading the next chapter's dialogue that Armitage died because a hatch was open on the lifeboat. This book infuriates me.
I liked Peter Rivera's hologram of Armitage; "Beside her. Armitage stood rigidly at attention in a threadbare khaki uniform. His eyes, Case saw, as Molly stepped carefully forward, were tiny monitor screens, each one displaying the blue-gray image of a howling waste of snow, the stripped black trunks of evergreens bending in silent winds" (Gibson 209).
I also liked the urban hologram on page 210, despite not understanding what's going on with the soldier and children.
Chapter Twenty: I liked the fake dark beach that Case is at.
Chapter Twenty-One: The character Neuromancer is introduced and I don't understand who he is. Nor do I understand how Case escaped the fake reality.
Chapter Twenty-Two: Now its revealed on page 248 that the children were cannibals. I couldn't figure that out which is annoying since this novel is hard to follow and I had previously liked that novel and no longer like it.
I've enjoyed that Maelcum wasn't severely injured and he along with Molly are safe.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Lame Ending. Case sounds like he's gone back to being a junkie and spends his earnings a new pancreas and liver. Molly leaves him and now he's probably with a new woman of the night. Case also had to use his anger to preform the final act, something that furthers his portrayal as a selfish person that I can't stand.
I also thought that Wintermute and Neuromancer combining felt contrived.
January 12, 2020
Update
This is most definitely a two star-rated book. Despite the four star-rated content I mentioned, there is one star-rated content in Gibson's style, and the dull second half of the book. To even describe one half as three star-rated and the other half as two star-rated is incorrect. My urges of rating this book at three stars, and my urges to continue reading the book, stopped after page 101, when the Freeside portion of the novel began (Freeside being the beach resort heist). My desire to rate this volume at three stars is continuously ignoring the negative portions and neutral portions.
Also, when I wrote in the review that I was fine with "reading the sequel and optimistic about it", this is because the good parts of this novel have urged me to continue, and in hopes that the bad will cease.
yasminedc's review against another edition
2.0
It definitely was an interesting book. However, I was quite confused half of the time due to the terminology and the switching between the physical world and the matrix. Once you've lost track of that, it's a bit hard to follow. In the end, it kind of came together for me, so all in all it was interesting as I said before.
wormposting's review against another edition
3.0
i was expecting to like this more but i couldnt follow the details of the plot or any comprehensive character motivations