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bklassen's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I don’t think it can be overstated enough how brilliant and ahead of its time this book is. Gibson had never seen or used a computer before, and his book came out around the same time as Blade Runner, which means he and Ridley Scott (who based the movie off of Philip K Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep) had parallel ideas about a cyberpunk world and what it would look like.
I will say that Gibson nails the atmosphere – everything described and even the language gave off a dystopian futuristic world full of cybernetic enhancements, computer visualization, unique slang, and so much drug use.
It is such a well thought out world to its detriment, at least for me. The world at times became super vague, the plot became confusing due to its abstractness, and character motivation was confusing because there is little to no character development in this book. Someone pointed out that sci fi is not often known for super well fleshed out characters or deep development, and Neuromancer certainly does just that.
It felt like reading A Clockwork Orange or Dune with its own language that does not slow down or explain things for you, so if you’re willing to put in the effort, you can get a lot out of this book. I personally did not vibe with the book and especially didn’t really connect with the rather flat characters, so I did not feel very motivated to put a ton of effort into grasping the lingo or visualizing cyberspace. Also the women in this book feel not quite like women. It is all very odd.
But Gibson definitely gets points for style, and major points for his legacy. I mean, the dude put words like “cyberspace” and “the matrix” out into the world and inspired pretty much every other piece of Cyberpunk media out there. Also street samurai and console cowboy are objectively cool terms.
I will say that Gibson nails the atmosphere – everything described and even the language gave off a dystopian futuristic world full of cybernetic enhancements, computer visualization, unique slang, and so much drug use.
It is such a well thought out world to its detriment, at least for me. The world at times became super vague, the plot became confusing due to its abstractness, and character motivation was confusing because there is little to no character development in this book. Someone pointed out that sci fi is not often known for super well fleshed out characters or deep development, and Neuromancer certainly does just that.
It felt like reading A Clockwork Orange or Dune with its own language that does not slow down or explain things for you, so if you’re willing to put in the effort, you can get a lot out of this book. I personally did not vibe with the book and especially didn’t really connect with the rather flat characters, so I did not feel very motivated to put a ton of effort into grasping the lingo or visualizing cyberspace. Also the women in this book feel not quite like women. It is all very odd.
But Gibson definitely gets points for style, and major points for his legacy. I mean, the dude put words like “cyberspace” and “the matrix” out into the world and inspired pretty much every other piece of Cyberpunk media out there. Also street samurai and console cowboy are objectively cool terms.
surfinddog's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Just wow. From the fast paced nature to the wonderful descriptive writing. This was my first read by William Gibson and I plan to continue the sprawl series.
This being the grandfather of cyberpunk so to speak was proven on each page. The elegance of the writing made me never stop wanting to read. I could feel the references other series made in the future from this book such as the matrix and the cyberpunk ttrpg.
This being the grandfather of cyberpunk so to speak was proven on each page. The elegance of the writing made me never stop wanting to read. I could feel the references other series made in the future from this book such as the matrix and the cyberpunk ttrpg.
akrajkow87's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.5
aruned's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
youraveragedave's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
As another review said, it's hard to review seminal works years after the fact because you've injested so many works that were inspired by and surpassed the work. If not for Necromancer we wouldn't have The Matrix or Altered Carbon.
This would have been mind-blowing to read this book on the 80s or early 90s. But in the 2020s this seems more like history. The idea of cyberspace or logging into a shared internet or matrix, it interacting with an AI is so commonplace to us now.
The characters are pretty one dimensional. I kinda got bored with the plot, I kept thinking of Altered Carbon's plot and how many stories involve uploading a virus into the computer system to beat the bad guy.
This would have been mind-blowing to read this book on the 80s or early 90s. But in the 2020s this seems more like history. The idea of cyberspace or logging into a shared internet or matrix, it interacting with an AI is so commonplace to us now.
The characters are pretty one dimensional. I kinda got bored with the plot, I kept thinking of Altered Carbon's plot and how many stories involve uploading a virus into the computer system to beat the bad guy.
corpotrash's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
yharon_silva's review against another edition
4.0
One of the classics that started the genre. A very Interesting world filled with descriptive scenes and fleshed out characters. The book uses a lot of technobabble though, but is fine to understand. Overall a worthwhile cyberpunk book.