Neuromancer by William Gibson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Neuromancer
Book Review: Good, but not great
Summary: 3 Stars
Good read, but a bit hard to follow at times. Interesting and unique story, but lacks the sharp social commentary that makes Science Fiction (especially dystopia genre) so great.
I have been on a mission to read all of the Hugo and Nebula winners... This is one of the weaker books on that list. I am surprised it one both. But again, the idea is quite novel....
Book Review: Good, not great
Summary: 3 Stars
For the most part, I'll pretty much pick up and read any book, although I can usually tell how interested I'll be in it within the first 20 pages. I found a copy of "Neuromancer" by William Gibson at (no joke) the dump, and even though I wasn't mesmerized by the jacket text, I thought I'd give it a shot. After all, I remember seeing the title on various greatest-books lists, realizing later that it had won the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award and the Hugo Award in 1984.
The novel was full of cyberpunk action, although I somehow missed its relevance for the first 150 pages (of the 270-page book). I felt like the story would begin to make sense once I turned the page, only to find more confusion there. Near the end, I finally began to sort out the characters and the plot line, but I think it was too late to enjoy it.
Now, I'm not blaming Gibson for this; I think I subconsciously skimmed the first half of the book without detailing its occurrences. If you aren't into techspeak, you may want to avoid this ... and even if you are into it, make sure you pay attention at the beginning of the book. Hopefully the book was worthy of its awards, and it definitely wasn't bad enough to trash, but I wouldn't rank it as one of my favorites, either.
Book Review: Great read, tore through it
Summary: 4 Stars
My career is a bit science oriented, so I enjoy science fiction of all types. The cyberpunk genre seems a bit silly to me, reaching it's epoch with the movie "Hackers", but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you read it as pure science fiction rather than cyberpunk, then it's a lot easier to swallow, especially in this day and age when computers are ubiquitous.Book Review: Great style
Summary: 4 Stars
This is written in a very poetic style. Gibson is a master at laying the setting and taking the reader on a voyage of discovery. The style of the writing may be difficult for some readers to follow, but it is definitely worth the read. It's very entertaining, and for a first novel, not bad at all. Any fan of SF must read this book. It is impossible to believe that this book was written in 1983. I do feel compelled to read this book again. This book won both the Hugo and Nebula awards.Book Review: I Could Not Follow the Plot
Summary: 3 Stars
Honestly, I could not follow the plot (and wondered if there was a plot at all): is it just me, or is the novel really as incomphrensible as I think?
Of course, I also find Tom Clancy incomphrensible, but for different reasons. Tom Clancy is just not readable (I think he's somewhat illiterate), but it's clear that William Gibson can put words together. There's a style and a polish to his writing, even though his vision is somewhat disorienting: I felt at times reading a lucid madman.
Maybe I didn't focus enough on the book, but I don't think "Neuromancer" is the contemporary version of "Paradise Lost," and there really wasn't that much to discover if I looked deeply. "Neuromaner" is after all a first novel, and it's a work by a young author who could not fully articulate his vision.