Neuromancer
Neuromancer – William Gibson
The daddy novel of cyberpunk, this sci-fi classic should have been on my to-read list a long time ago, but I only read it recently (thanks Pharren). I wish I had been able to read it when it first came out, actually, considering it started a whole movement and introduced any number of very cool concepts that were then heavily borrowed throughout the following years, but considering I was, like, five at the time, I doubt that would have worked out. Still, cool to see where so many references originated.
The writing is very slick (and how I love to read words well turned), a sexy blend of smoky noir and gritty dystopian sci-fi rendered in streaming sentences and fragile little fragments. You have to be really damn good, in my mind, to get away with using the amount of newly invented slang and turns of phrases that he peppers liberally throughout the novel. Of course, so many of these Gibsonisms are now in common usage (the most obvious example being cyberspace) that it doesn’t matter. It’s the kind of writing that lingers in the back of my mind for days, that I just want to wash up on and roll around in, infectious like a song that gets stuck in my head.
The world is reminiscent of Blade Runner (and really, the writing has a similar feel to Dick); bleak, crumbling, top-heavy with the crushing weight of everything wrong and corrupt in humanity. They move around a lot, so you really get to explore what Gibson has done with the place. It ain’t pretty, but it makes for engrossing reading. I feel like a good world is one you want to dwell in long after the story is over, and while I’m not saying this is the future I’d like to live in or anything, I could read so much more in this universe of his.
So I dug the writing, liked the little details and ideas involved in the world building (in fact, I would love to read some short fiction that explores any of the compelling but minor elements he introduces), the story itself obviously captured me – but omg what about the characters? This book isn’t just about a bunch of cool shit, it’s actually about people that you can really sink your teeth into. (Literally! *bites Molly, breaks tooth – or not!). I certainly have my favorites, but the whole cast really is creatively and intelligently rendered.
Anyway, I know this book has been recommended here before and it’s so well known (especially for its famous opening lines), but we didn’t have a thread to talk about it, so. Here is a thread!
I thought this book was terrible. It was a struggle just to finish it. At first, I thought some of the description was cool, but I had no clue what the fuck was going on. By the end, I thought the description was just a random assortment of words "The sky looked like a toaster with spoons for google chrome butt whore fork men people doing a dance of zebras". Not a quote, but about how I felt about some of the description. Here is an actual quote: "His mouth filled with the aching taste of blue. His eyes eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair fine glass spires" What?
By the end of the book, I still had no clue what the fuck was going on. I liked one character - Molly - and never felt like she was fleshed out more than just typical badass female character.
This was one of the least clear books I've ever read. It wasn't that it was deep or complicated. Imagine the art paintings everyone likes that are really just random colors of paint thrown at the canvas. This book was like that. It was a 100 page novel where the author flung random words at the story and left them wherever they landed. Honestly, if it hadn't won awards and been highly recommended I would have put it down pretty early, and I rarely do that.
Anyway, it's still a fun exercise with the signing and passing on! I mean everyone has enjoyed it but me, so I wouldn't want that to discourage the rest on the list by any means. I'll sign it and pass it on. Krista expressed interest in reading it real quick (she plows through books way faster than I do), but I don't imagine she'll make it more than a day or two. Who would be next?
EDIT: I read some reviews online to see how others felt - it seemed most loved it (though i think many of those are just because it's a classic and they feel they are supposed to love it), but one guy described it as listening to a drunk guy tell you about a movie he watched - I thought that was a great representation.
*****************************SPOILER ALERT*******************************
Did Case ever actually do ANYTHING in the book? His special skills, of which he was one of the best, was just looking at a bunch of colored shapes in cyberspace. He never did anything with them (other than approach them), everything else was automated. What the fuck was his purpose? To look at red triangles and think about how the red triangle was more secure than the white square, and then push a button for a virus that did all the work? I just have no clue what role he served, other than being present throughout the book. He did what he was told, which wasn't anything except traveling, and thought about stuff.
Ah, I thought at some point it would kind of split wide open for you like it did for me. Sadly, these things happen.
From what I understand, Case was meant to be the organizer, but also the midwife... the T-A computer (forget which one) needed someone who could understand the truth of what needed to be done. Not sure why Case was the perfect candidate, but, whatever.
EDIT: "He did what he was told, which wasn't anything except traveling, and thought about stuff." <-- The T-A computers literally couldn't think about certain things. They needed someone else to think those things for them, and then act on it.
I look at that novel as a time capsule. Japan was ascendant, and in the early eighties we were getting a glimmer of what a rapidly accelerating technology would feel like and how if would effect how it feels to be human. That said, this is more of an "idea" book than a " story" book. The characters are more or less two-dimensional vessels for the ideas and images that the author puts forward.
I enjoyed the inventive use of language. It made me step outside of my normal reading mode and actually think and feel what they might mean. That said, it came on so fast and heavy at the end that I found it tough to keep up with the plot. Overall, I found it to be brilliant and prescient in its presentation of the identity- bending qualities of technology.
Vulash, you are horrible scum for not enjoying this book, but I forgive you!
Pharren: But what did he do? He was touted as this top notch space cowboy, but what did he do that any other person in that entire universe couldn't do? All he did was jack in and talk to Flatline and watch Molly do stuff. He never did anything. Even at the end he didn't do anything - the others did, he just strolled along with them.
I actually see where you are coming from Wystro, and I think it's really a personal preference thing. I can't imagine ever enjoying any story where the plot sucks (or maybe it doesn't? It's hard to say since I don't know what the plot was), and the characters don't do anything, and the story never makes me care, but the prose is pretty. I do think his "wordsmithing" was pretty, but it just never made sense to me - I was never able to visualize anything.
Anyway - I'll stop ranting I know you all liked it and I can actually see why you did it just wasn't enough for me to get over my gripes.
Case "did nothing" like a symphony conductor "does nothing", or like a football coach "does nothing". He not only orchestrated the timing, between Molly and Dixie Flatline etc, but he was like the PR man for the whole operation. You think Molly was working for Armitage? Think again.
Nothing to see here; move along, move along.
If you're going by the order in which people posted, Roz is next, and then Blackrabbit.
