Reviews

Neuromancer by William Gibson

nancyboy's review against another edition

5.0

Neuromancer is one of the best books I have read in a while, it was weird, bizarre and went in direction I never expected. Sometimes it’s hard to follow, and hard to understand what’s happening but that’s what I love about it (which is probably why some people don’t like it as much as I did, which is understandable). Neuromancer had everything I wanted out a novel amazing and original worldbuilding, thrilling plot and interesting characters. This novel grows on you, so if you read the first 50 pages and think it’s okay(which is what I thought) or didn’t like it, you haven’t seen anything yet! I would love to go into more details but I don’t want to spoiler it for anyone. I recommend Neuromancer to anyone who likes sci-fi or just wants to read it, it’s wild and I hope you like it.

callen1707's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative tense fast-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

nancyboy56's review against another edition

5.0

Neuromancer is one of the best books I have read in a while, it was weird, bizarre and went in direction I never expected. Sometimes it’s hard to follow, and hard to understand what’s happening but that’s what I love about it (which is probably why some people don’t like it as much as I did, which is understandable). Neuromancer had everything I wanted out a novel amazing and original worldbuilding, thrilling plot and interesting characters. This novel grows on you, so if you read the first 50 pages and think it’s okay(which is what I thought) or didn’t like it, you haven’t seen anything yet! I would love to go into more details but I don’t want to spoiler it for anyone. I recommend Neuromancer to anyone who likes sci-fi or just wants to read it, it’s wild and I hope you like it.

aenkmaen's review against another edition

1.0

I don‘t understand the hype at all. Took me pretty exactly one year to read this, and I can‘t even say if it‘s the hollow characters that don‘t seem to have any personality (besides Maelcum, probably. I liked him) or the confusing writing style, including staccato-esque dialogues or just quoted lines thrown in that I couldn’t match with one of the characters of that scene. Also there are so many sudden switches to other sceneries that are barely described, only adding to the confusion. The whole story in itself feels very life-less, dull and not catchy at all.

I finished the book very disappointed and almost angry. I am a big fan of the whole cyberpunk theme + I love technology, but what the heck was that. I finished reading 10 minutes ago and already forgot what was actually happening.

inescore's review against another edition

4.0

I was never so confused with a book, but I ended up feeling strangely attached and comforted by the story. I guess is my sci-fi love talking.

tura's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

peanutallergy95's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective 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

3.0

t0nym3atballs's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

5.0

psychogen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.25

ethorwitz's review against another edition

3.0

I don't like this book, but I respect the hell out of it. Let me explain: on an objective level I admire how it fearlessly plunges you into a different world. I love how it uses the language of electronics to describe ordinary things to indicate how technology has absolutely saturated this setting. I love its prescience on the cultural consequences of the internet (I think it even predicted dubstep!) But it was a slog to read. The cyber-linguo was often so dense that it broke the suspension of disbelief. The characters were uninteresting at best, their motivations seemed contradictory and petty, many of their actions were baffling. Take Case: a bland cipher of a hacker whose only motivation is to get high on space-drugs or whatever, but nevertheless attracts every woman he meets. Eliminate Case and make kickass cyborg ninja Molly Millions the main character and suddenly things are twice as interesting. But no, sorry, she's a chick so the best she can be is the main squeeze. I guess the 80s was before people figured out that a boring male protagonist for the reader to project himself onto is sometimes a detriment to the plot.

It's possible that I'm being way too hard on this book. But I can't deny how frustrating it was get through, how every time you wanted another juicy turn of phrase or tidbit of creative futurology you had to conquer yet another tedious and nonsensical chase or action scene.