A review by ishcrux
Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson

challenging mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

This was the last of the Sprawl series and I probably liked this the most, purely because I followed it easier. Gibson has a good knack of layering in scenes and characters from nowhere and it can be jarring to collect yourself, while discovering these made-up canonical tech speak and ideologies. Everything aside, the world and characters are interesting, and its awesome to see where big IPs took inspiration or flat out used like Night City amongst many other things from the Cyberpunk world, the internet, stylings, terminology matrixes in The Matrix. Scanner Darkly, Minority Report - some of Gibson's earlier stories became direct movie adaptations. While Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep/Blade Runner), blurs in similarity together with Gibson, the title for Father of Cyberpunk must go to William Gibson with the new wave of Sci Fi that has influenced so many games and movies since the earlier 80s. Before him Sci Fi was a little stuffy, somewhat sterile. By injecting it with band/street culture Gibson gave Sci Fi a personality and edge that somehow makes these settings more believable.  
While the sprawl series I found difficult to read with flow and splintered stories, there is no question in the richness of style, characters, settings and scenes as well as the educated guesswork on practical tech used in the story. All three of these books are really interesting reads
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