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A review by kynan
Neuromancer by William Gibson
2.0
I just re-read this book because I keep getting William Gibson and Neal Stephenson mixed up in my head and I couldn't for the life of me remember if the nagging feeling of dislike was associated with the correct book. Unfortunately, it was.
I don't know what it is about the book, whether it's just an early work by Gibson and thus less polished or if I've been spoiled for choice by being born late enough to have a vast catalog of alternatives within the genre. Whatever it is I ended up really wanting the book to end, so I could stop reading it and, when I got to the end, I didn't like that either.
My two main complaints are that I didn't find it to be a smooth read, the story feels disjointed even though, for the most part, it isn't really. Secondly, I didn't particularly care about the characters and what happens to them and the writing style seemed to indicate a similar disinterest, almost apathy, on the part of the author. I'm not saying that all the characters have to be lovable or anything, I can deal with a flawed protagonist (I really enjoyed [a:Joe Abercrombie|276660|Joe Abercrombie|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207149426p2/276660.jpg]s First Law series which is populated entirely with flawed characters) but I just didn't find anyone, except Molly, to be particularly interesting.
The main redeeming feature of this book is that it introduced me to Tom Maddox, whose short story Snake Eyes is something that really stands out to me as an exemplar of the genre and the time I sat down and read it (as part of [b:Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology]), many many years ago, is still seared into my brain.
I don't know what it is about the book, whether it's just an early work by Gibson and thus less polished or if I've been spoiled for choice by being born late enough to have a vast catalog of alternatives within the genre. Whatever it is I ended up really wanting the book to end, so I could stop reading it and, when I got to the end, I didn't like that either.
My two main complaints are that I didn't find it to be a smooth read, the story feels disjointed even though, for the most part, it isn't really. Secondly, I didn't particularly care about the characters and what happens to them and the writing style seemed to indicate a similar disinterest, almost apathy, on the part of the author. I'm not saying that all the characters have to be lovable or anything, I can deal with a flawed protagonist (I really enjoyed [a:Joe Abercrombie|276660|Joe Abercrombie|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1207149426p2/276660.jpg]s First Law series which is populated entirely with flawed characters) but I just didn't find anyone, except Molly, to be particularly interesting.
The main redeeming feature of this book is that it introduced me to Tom Maddox, whose short story Snake Eyes is something that really stands out to me as an exemplar of the genre and the time I sat down and read it (as part of [b:Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology]), many many years ago, is still seared into my brain.