Neuromancer by William Gibson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Neuromancer
Book Review: Bored? Tired? Jaded? Read Neromancer and live again
Summary: 5 Stars
Neuromancer is the culmination of free market capitalism
and unlimited technological advances. The world has shifted
from customer service to big business and corporations.
Urban sprawl is a reality. Sound enticing? In this book,
there are some of the most vibrant and endearing characters
for all of the wrong reasons. If you want a book that will
change forever the way you view the world, READ IT TWICE.
You can never again look at emerging technology again without
yearning for the cowboy decks and razorgirls that Gibson describes.
Some books change your life. This one changed the future.Book Review: Brilliant and visionary
Summary: 5 Stars
To the extent Gibson coined the terms "cyberspace" and "the matrix" in an era when personal computers still were about as user-friendly as angry wolverines, testifies to his vision. His writing stays taut, with electric descriptions. The first line alone sets the tone. Like James Ellroy, the king of crime fiction, Gibson pumps his narrative atop an amphetamine backbeat, taking jagged little stutters in its course to reflect a state of mind. But Gibson's writing is much smoother than Ellroy's ultra-hard-boiled telegraph lines. The feel is more like an atmospheric John McDonald, really.Book Review: Brilliant!
Summary: 5 Stars
The reviewer above who gave this book one star is essentially saying that Neuromancer is a bad book because he didn't understand it. How shallow can you get.I read this book twice and each time got an enormous amount out of it. One reading just doesn't do it for this one. What some call Gibson's "confusing" style is actually a carefully calculated and ingenious device to make the reader actually feel as if he has been dropped into Gibson's world. He doesn't introduce aspects of his future like they're just wacky things he made up (whereas Neal Stephenson DOES), but rather like they are actual things whose history he is recording. His vividly imagined world takes on an eerily realistic quality this way. You learn to find your way around his world like a child learning a language- you just have to listen to it and wait.
Gibson has a lot of fun extrapolating social phenomena into the future, in the same way that lesser scifi writers meerly like to dream up new technologies. And he addresses the issue of man's relationship with the machines he creates like nothing else- to what extent are we machines? what is the human mind ultimately capable of, and what are its intrinsic shortcomings?
The bizarre humor of this book is a delight. The characterizations of Ratz and The Finn, for example, are absolutely classic. And the description of Case and Molly's run on Sense/Net near the beginning of the book is one of the most funny, gripping, intense, and fascinating sequences you will ever read.
Like it or not, this book is incredibly real. Neuromancer is exciting, intriguing, beautiful, decadent, surprising, upsetting, and an all-around incredible page-turner.
Book Review: Certainly my favorite book
Summary: 5 Stars
I do not give this review lightly. And unlike other reviewers here, I'm not angry with those who hate it. In fact, I think the reviews are a perfect reflection of what this book was meant to be (or not meant to be). It was not meant to have a broad appeal. As a consequence, it may not be the book for you. However, its uncompromising approach will give those who can appreciate such a work a highly rewarding experience. Some say this book is nothing new. William Gibson himself will say that some of the ideas presented in this book are not entirely original. This is absolute modesty.
"Bad critics judge a work of art by comparing it to preexisting theories. They always go wrong when confronted by a masterpiece because masterpieces make their own rules" -Robert Anton Wilson
The fact is that it doesn't matter what is original and what is not. This book succeeds on a level that every book aspires to. It immerses you in a world that is so richly described that those with a good imagination (and a moderate grasp of the English language) can close their eyes and see the world painted for them in wonderful detail. Each paragraph is written with such meticulous care that it can easily be described as poetic prose. I have never had a book do for me what Neuromancer has done. But you don't have to take my word for it.
Neuromancer has won many prestigious awards: The Hugo Award, The Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award, to name the top three. These awards are consistently given to great works of science fiction. Even if you are not the target audience, a rating of one star clearly indicates a lack of insight.
Any book that has been as influential as Neuromancer must at least be accepted as a work worth checking out. It created a genre. It coined the word "cyberspace". It created a dystopia that is simultaneously appalling and sexy as hell. Certainly not for the squeamish, but definitely recommended for anyone with the patience to tackle it.
Book Review: Classic! Put it in your sci-fi primer file.
Summary: 5 Stars
Neuromancer was one of the first classics I read once I became a heavy sci-fi reader, and I was simply astounded by the book.What's most fascinating about Neuromancer is that this gritty universe is made utterly believable by Gibson's intense descriptions. (More believable, I think, than the universe of Virtual Light and Idoru, though I enjoy those as well.) Reading through the beginning, you can almost feel the hum of the Biz and see the rows upon rows of neon signs decorating Ninsei under that television-colored sky. The imagery is breathtaking.
The sequels are so-so but still interesting. Far better are the stories in Burning Chrome; "Johnny Mnemonic", far better than the infamous movie, is a sort of prequel to this story that actually gets mentioned in Neuromancer. I have my suspicions that some of the other stories follow Molly as well.
There's really nothing I don't like about this book. Every time someone asks me for a good sci-fi reading list, I recommend Neuromancer.