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snuzzbobble's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
tmook's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
A neat happy ending that wraps it all together, and you finally sort of feel like you maybe know what’s happening then. I read this after watching the Amazon show of same title (season 1, as 2 was canceled due to writer strikes). I enjoyed the Gryff-Lowbeer connection. I wish there had been more closure on Lev, Ash, & Ossian . Flynne is a strong character who is easily likeable, both desirable qualities in a main character. All in all, not bad for a sci-fi, and cyberpunk at that.
jlwilson's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-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
4.75
loont's review
3.0
Slowly, almost, almost, almost- and it's a faceplant.
That was my feeling reading this book reading this book. It's a bit slow to get into, to get going, to understand the characters. I actually stopped reading it once before picking it back up again. But when it does finally come into focus the complex story of a pair of parallel realities stuck in different times and separate histories interacting with each other, and the characters therein slowly having to rely on each other to accomplish a shared set of goals even though electronic communication is their only link, was fascinating.
After some meandering the two main characters are finally decided upon, a young woman with family problems in a quiet and utterly believable near future dystopia where the world is falling apart in slow motion; and a lost and troubled media consultant in a far flung, post dystopian cyberpunk oligarchy future. Slowly the events of the plot bring the two together, the future consultant falls in love with the girl from the past (but not his past), the two have a slowly budding relationship that I was eventually even cheering for as the thriller/crime/sci-fi plot happening around them sails towards a climactic conclusion.
That utterly smashes itself in the face when it tries to stick the landing. It's like an ending was used that Gibson wrote months ago before the story shifted dramatically from where he'd assumed it would go. An ending that was neither climactic nor even appropriate for the story and characters at all anymore, but feels like the due date for the final draft had jumped up on him and he had to throw something at it at the very last second. And it's such a letdown, an unnamed plot twist that was developing gets dropped entirely, the bad guy unceremoniously gets shot in the face in a way that makes you say "wait, couldn't they have just done that a hundred pages back, with other characters?" and in the epilogue the romance between the two main characters never even happened. Instead the girl ends up with the character she was realizing not 50 pages back that she didn't even like, and the guy ends up with a character that was dropped as an unimportant side character back at the beginning of the book and hasn't really shown up to do anything since, but it's treated as if this is some inevitable happy ending for the both of them.
It's such a bizarre letdown that I'm tempted to give this two stars, but somehow this book kept me reading to the end, when I'm the type of person that rarely picks a book back up and has no problem putting one down. What I'm saying is, if the planned TV adaptation goes through I sincerely hope whatever ending Gibson might have had in mind gets put in, instead of this spiraling acrobatics routine that lands so badly it ends up straight on its face.
That was my feeling reading this book reading this book. It's a bit slow to get into, to get going, to understand the characters. I actually stopped reading it once before picking it back up again. But when it does finally come into focus the complex story of a pair of parallel realities stuck in different times and separate histories interacting with each other, and the characters therein slowly having to rely on each other to accomplish a shared set of goals even though electronic communication is their only link, was fascinating.
After some meandering the two main characters are finally decided upon, a young woman with family problems in a quiet and utterly believable near future dystopia where the world is falling apart in slow motion; and a lost and troubled media consultant in a far flung, post dystopian cyberpunk oligarchy future. Slowly the events of the plot bring the two together, the future consultant falls in love with the girl from the past (but not his past), the two have a slowly budding relationship that I was eventually even cheering for as the thriller/crime/sci-fi plot happening around them sails towards a climactic conclusion.
That utterly smashes itself in the face when it tries to stick the landing. It's like an ending was used that Gibson wrote months ago before the story shifted dramatically from where he'd assumed it would go. An ending that was neither climactic nor even appropriate for the story and characters at all anymore, but feels like the due date for the final draft had jumped up on him and he had to throw something at it at the very last second. And it's such a letdown, an unnamed plot twist that was developing gets dropped entirely, the bad guy unceremoniously gets shot in the face in a way that makes you say "wait, couldn't they have just done that a hundred pages back, with other characters?" and in the epilogue the romance between the two main characters never even happened. Instead the girl ends up with the character she was realizing not 50 pages back that she didn't even like, and the guy ends up with a character that was dropped as an unimportant side character back at the beginning of the book and hasn't really shown up to do anything since, but it's treated as if this is some inevitable happy ending for the both of them.
It's such a bizarre letdown that I'm tempted to give this two stars, but somehow this book kept me reading to the end, when I'm the type of person that rarely picks a book back up and has no problem putting one down. What I'm saying is, if the planned TV adaptation goes through I sincerely hope whatever ending Gibson might have had in mind gets put in, instead of this spiraling acrobatics routine that lands so badly it ends up straight on its face.
jackrabbitjb's review against another edition
3.0
Gibson's visions of the future (both eras) are interesting and plausible enough and his characters succeed in being marginally likable.
My difficulty with the book was the sheer number of intertwining personalities and plot lines that were only given passing mention. It's difficult to feel emotionally invested in shallow characters and it's hard to get to excited about moments that are supposed to be suspenseful when you aren't given enough information about what's going on to formulate potential conclusions on your own.
My difficulty with the book was the sheer number of intertwining personalities and plot lines that were only given passing mention. It's difficult to feel emotionally invested in shallow characters and it's hard to get to excited about moments that are supposed to be suspenseful when you aren't given enough information about what's going on to formulate potential conclusions on your own.
hannereads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
shawniebooks's review against another edition
3.0
I didn't really get into the story, felt like I was always waiting to get some understanding of the point, and never got there. I loved the ideas and visuals though. I liked Neuromancer better.
skycrane's review
4.0
I just finished reading this for the first time since it came out. I listened to the audio version back when it came out, and I remember thinking the narration was mediocre. I liked the book then, and I still like it now. As in his other novels, the author draws a very vivid world—or in this case, two worlds—colored by the various cultures that inhabit it. Flynne's world isn't too far from our own, an extrapolation of existing trends in technology and politics. I think what I like most about it is that it's in rural America, a setting largely avoided by the genre, which tends to be almost exclusively urban. Netherton's London is also not quite what you'd expect, since the seedy underworld that's so ubiquitous in cyberpunk is non-existent, since most of the world's population died out over the course of the previous century. The city we see is more like a series of parks, bars, and mansions, with public areas populated mainly by androids to make the few residents feel somewhat less lonely. The split focus perhaps prevents each setting from being more fully developed, but for a mystery/thriller set over the course of week, I feel like I got a very strong impression of the worlds the characters move through. The poverty of Flynne's dying town comes in the form not of hunger or destitution, but an absolute absence of opportunity. You really feel how stuck everyone is there, surviving through disability checks, overworked and underpaid in one of the few remaining businesses, or some kind of hustle. And Netherton's London is a bizarre mix of theme park and sci-fi utopia, except run by the mob.
Characterization comes primarily through their voices. The book is written in close third-person, which chapters alternating between Flynne's and Netherton's POVs. Netherton is glib and incredibly melodramatic. The visual descriptions in his sections are often accompanied by some note implying his judgement about them. In particular, whenever Ash appears, there several lines describing her outfit, her possessions, etc. Netherton's absolute disgust towards her sense of style comes through, and this goes a long way in letting you know who this guy is. The narration in Flynne's sections is more direct and more introspective. When she sees Netherton's world, she doesn't have the knowledge or vocabulary to describe what she's looking at, which is a nice way of explaining things to the audience in a way more familiar to us, as well as telling us more about how she thinks. In this way, everything about the narration reflects the mindset of the characters.
Characterization comes primarily through their voices. The book is written in close third-person, which chapters alternating between Flynne's and Netherton's POVs. Netherton is glib and incredibly melodramatic. The visual descriptions in his sections are often accompanied by some note implying his judgement about them. In particular, whenever Ash appears, there several lines describing her outfit, her possessions, etc. Netherton's absolute disgust towards her sense of style comes through, and this goes a long way in letting you know who this guy is. The narration in Flynne's sections is more direct and more introspective. When she sees Netherton's world, she doesn't have the knowledge or vocabulary to describe what she's looking at, which is a nice way of explaining things to the audience in a way more familiar to us, as well as telling us more about how she thinks. In this way, everything about the narration reflects the mindset of the characters.
Spoiler
One thing I found really weird is the ending. In terms of the overarching plot, it's optimistic, but open-ended. Flynne's world is in the early stages of an ongoing apocalypse, one that cannot be entirely averted despite their knowledge of a possible future. Their course is dangerous and uncertain, and they run the risk of themselves becoming the kind of evil that they're seeking to avoid. That all makes sense. The weird parts are the odd touches of saccharine, like all the characters just pairing up and living in one huge compound. Or Sushi Barn being turned into an international franchise. Tonally, it's just very strange.blvckunxcvrn's review
Starting reading after finishing the series but stopped after a few chapters. Just couldn’t get into it
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing