Neuromancer. Is it just me?

Or is this a case of the emperor’s new clothes?

Just finished this alleged sci-fi classic and am completely underwhelmed. OK in it Gibson introduced the concepts of the matrix and cyber space and maybe computer viruses but as a story I thought it was pedestrian. Basically having to break into an orbiting structure to release one artificial intelligence so it could blend with another one and when that happened the result was… nothing much. And another thing, Rastafarians in space- wtf!

My own fault really as I’d previously read Mona Lisa Overdrive and thought much the same but decided to give Gibson a second chance.

Please enlighten me. What am I missing?

Pretty much everything. It was a whole new style of SF writing, only Alfred Bester’s books had covered similar ground.
If you don’t get it, fair enough, but as someone who had grown up with Isaac Asimov, Arthur C Clark, et al, Gibson’s style of writing and descriptions of technology that referenced things familiar but extrapolated into a future that could realistically happen made a huge impression on me. Rather than The Matrix, think Bladerunner.
And you’re reading the books completely out of sequence. You should start with Burning Chrome, which establishes certain principles and characters.
You might be better off reading Virtual Light, then going on to Idoru and All Tomorrow’s Parties, or Pattern Recognition, then Spook Country and Zero History

Perhaps it’s just a matter of perspective – when it was released it was revolutionary. But I agree – its not my favourite book of his either.

What count zero said. Although not to the extent of picking a forum name based on a character from one if his books 😉

I like the way his newer stuff exists in a ‘not quite now’ now, too though.

Re-read it a few months back, and it’s still a classic. Great writing, imagery, and that beautifully dated opening line…

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

Not sure I completely agree with CountZero’s appreciation of the book, Gibson wasn’t the only author doing “cyberpunk” and referencing the familiar (Blade Runner springs to mind), but I do share his love of the work.

OK I get the imagined near future (Gibson has been gracious enough to admit he got lucky with the accuracy of his predictions, although he completely missed wifi) and Bladerunner happens to be my favourite film (didn’t like the book though). I think my main problem with Neuromancer is the poor plot plus I didn’t really feel any empathy with any of the characters. Strangely I like the film Johnny Mnenemonic which I think is the only bit of Gibson’s writing that’s made it to film.

Agree with BenCooper, it can’t have the same impact as it did before half of it became commonplace. Saying that, I prefer his subsequent writing, Pattern Recognition in particular; however I prefer PKD’s books to the films made from them.

I think the simple fact is you’re reading it 25 years too late.

It was pretty groundbreaking at the time, when things that we now take as commonplace (like the iPad I’m writing this on) really were in the realms of science fiction.

It’s a great book, but very much a product of its time now, and should be regarded just like classic Asimov or Heinlein. The present has caught up with, and passed, their future.

How old are you uponthedowns?

I dont think there is any way you can “get it” reading it now, it was published in 1984.

It was amazing then, now its just a good book. Its a question of perspective

You really need to read the series in order. Burning Chrome, (short story), Neuromancer, Count Zero and Monarch Lisa Overdrive.

Together they become more than the sum of it’s parts. Absolute visionary at the time and certainly opened a lot of doors for similar writers.

One of my favourite authors.

I liked Neuromancer but enjoyed Mona Lisa Overdrive more. I also like a chap called John Courtney Grimwood who had a similar style of writing with in Red Robe.

Yeah you have to consider that it was written before “the Internet”.

With that in perspective it it visionary. But these days the themes have been done do many times that they are cliched.

At the time it came out I read it and thought- meh.

Re-read it a year later and couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed it. And couldn’t understand why I didn’t enjoy it first time around.

I return to it infrequently and still rate it among the best. Never mind the concept stuff- that’s dated, concept stuff always does date. What Gibson was good at and got steadily better and better at was showing what humanity becomes, and what it means to be human, in the face of technological change. And is therefore always relevant.

“He never saw Molly again.”

There are certain books which are so seminal that when reading them now they don’t seem in any way remarkable.

Dracula is one, Lord of the Rings is another. LOTR seems so incredibly cheesy now but that’s because it created that genre, so everything else that’s like it is basically derived from it.

I read it a while ago, remember thinking it was ok but don’t really remember a lot of it.

Incidentally last night I finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, another supposed cyber-punk classic. Utterly gorgeous writing, brilliant characters and I love the understated style and leisurely pace and description of events that would be pounded home as thrilling action stuff by anyone else.

However I did feel as if it were just the prelude to a huge story (and it’s a big book in itself) – I really wanted to know what happened after the events in the book set things up.

Incidentally last night I finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson, another supposed cyber-punk classic.

Yeah quite like d that but I know what you mean.

Try Richard K Morgan for a newer take on poetic futurist sci-fi.

The sequel to Cryptonomicon is the Baroque Cycle – though those books are set in the 18th Century so not really a sequel 🙂

Try Snow Crash – it’s the “other” book that invented cyberspace, and unlike Neuromancer it’s also very funny.

Was just about to say the exact same thing Ben…

Although I think my favourite of all the cyber-punk books is The Diamond Age by Stephenson… I can’t remember how many times I have read that.

As for Neuromancer… I read it god knows how many years ago, and loved it. Which reminds me, I really should read it again soon.

Yes, Diamond Age is just wonderful – does anyone else feel that Stephenson is getting a bit conventional? Reamde was okay, but really just a thriller.

Oh, and to make you sick, I picked these up a few years back for about £50:

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Oooh you jammy bugger!!

And yes, while I loved Crypto.. and like, but am still struggling through the Baroque Cycle, I’ve not really been much bothered by the stuff he has done since.

Just to add a weird twist into this, once I finished reading the cyber punk stuff back in the day, while on a quest to find something of a similar ilk, I stumbled across Jeff Noon. He sometimes gets lumped in with the cyber punk crowd, although the I don’t really see the crossover entirely myself, but he is one twisted puppy… I’d suggest Vurt if you haven’t come across him before.

Yeah, that whole thing with the feathers is very odd 🙂

What count zero said. Although not to the extent of picking a forum name based on a character from one if his books

Yeah, well, I chose that back in 2003, when I first signed up to STW! I’d like to change it now, but it’s having to go through various hassles to do it.
I agree with Snow Crash and Diamond Age, I love those two books, and REAMDE as well.
The film of Johnny Mnemonic just doesn’t work for me, wrong actor for the rôle, but I’d like to see Neuromancer done properly, and there’s a film of Snow Crash being done as well.
Gibson himself won’t write fiction like Neuromancer any more, because he says himself that it’s impossible to extrapolate how the future is going to look, and technology moves too fast to keep ahead of, particularly things like wifi, smartphones, etc.
some things, like the polycarbon skin on the jet that can mimic what’s around it, was ahead of its time; I’ve read of a prototype system that uses a camera to cause the skin of an aircraft to alter according to what’s below it, however, his current books are more noir-ish, just extrapolating into the near-future, like iPhone controlled quad-copter drones and flying manta rays.

How old are you uponthedowns?

I dont think there is any way you can “get it” reading it now, it was published in 1984.

It was amazing then, now its just a good book. Its a question of perspective

Disagree. I’m old enough to remember the world without the internet and like I said I get his powerful vision of the imagined future but as a story it just didn’t work for me.

Re-read it recently, still think it’s a good book.

Regarding Jeff Noon, I think he was supposed to have written a script for Vurt. I would love to see that world visualised! Really enjoyed all of his work.

Personally I’ve enjoyed each new William Gibson trilogy more than the previous one. Patter Recognition is probably my favourite of his books. It’s much more contemporary (actually slightly in the past now, as 9/11 is an important element in one character’s background) than the cyberpunk or virtual light trilogies but there’s something about it that really works for me. The feeling of displacement that the main character feels is really well conveyed.

uponthedowns – Member

OK I get the imagined near future (Gibson has been gracious enough to admit he got lucky with the accuracy of his predictions, although he completely missed wifi) and Bladerunner happens to be my favourite film (didn’t like the book though). I think my main problem with Neuromancer is the poor plot plus I didn’t really feel any empathy with any of the characters. Strangely I like the film Johnny Mnenemonic which I think is the only bit of Gibson’s writing that’s made it to film.

I know what you mean about the plot of Neuromancer. It felt to me that the main character was a largely passive observer of the plot, it was something happening around him rather than something he was affecting, and that bugged me.

William Gibson wrote an episode of the X Files. I don’t recall it being particularly great. I have largely concluded that his writing works well on the page but may never translate to the screen very well.

Have to see neuromancer etc in the context of when they were written … he didn’t predict cellphones either …

@bencooper The feathers in Vurt are explained at the end of Nymphomation. Its possibly more bewildering. I have to say I found the stuff he wrote after the vurt/pollen/nymphomation series is pretty unreadable.

he completely missed wifi

ffs

I always thought that early Gibson had brilliant ideas but never really managed to write a good ending. His later stuff, spook county, pattern recognition and zero history are much better.

he completely missed wifi

ffs

I think you’re taking my comment a little too seriously. If you read my posts you can see I do appreciate his vision of the future. I just thought it was amusing that the main protagonist had to look for somewhere to plug his console in everywhere he went.

I still thinks it stands up today. Not as some sort of masterpiece but as an imaginative, quality bit of writing. I’ve not read it for years but I still remember big chunks and the key characters, so that’s good.

But the timing is everything… If Newton’s Principia Mathematica came out today, it wouldn’t be very interesting 😉

Picked it up again to read last night, can’t remember most of the story so enjoying it again. Quite like how its written and the ‘era’ it came from would not be obvious in re-reading