A Tiger In Eden

It is not very often that opinion at our "Slim Tomes" Book Club is unanimous.  This book prompted one of those rare occasions.  We all disliked it.  I found the main character annoying, the "transformation" unconvincing and the conclusion fulfilling.  Flynn played with lofty ideas but his superficial treatment of grief, remorse and the desire to start anew was so badly done that it was annoying.  Overall a banal book that did not even redeem itself with the humor promised by the reviews on the cover.  The only good thing - it was a short little book and a quick, easy read, so it did not waste much of my time.  I don't think I will be reaching for a Chris Flynn book again anytime soon.

Neuromancer

We recently joined a new Book Club and Dear Husband suggested Neuromancer for the first book as he had just purchased a copy. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The world of Neuromancer is fantastically imagined and communicated by Gibson.  The characters are fascinating enough to be absorbing, even though I found it hard to feel any empathy for them until nearing the end of the novel.  The plot is fast paced but I did get a bit lost in the action occasionally.  A few times I would read a couple of pages, feel a little hazy about what was going on, and then something would suddenly click and cause an "oh, so that's what just happened" moment. 

It was really interesting reading this and keeping in mind that it was written 28 years ago, in 1984.  Gibson is truly visionary.  He coined the term "cyberspace" in his 1982 short story "Burning Chrome" and popularized it with his novel Neuromancer.  He is also responsible for popularizing the term "matrix" and his work had a big influence on "The Matrix" film trilogy.  He is considered responsible for launching the sub-genres of Cyberpunk and Steampunk.  Honestly, this guy is truly a legend in his own time!  

"Neuromancer became the first novel to win the triple crown - Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick awards - and, in the process, virtually single-handedly launched the cyberpunk movement."   http://project.cyberpunk.ru/idb/gibson_interview.html 

Of course the vegan apprentice in me loved this snippet:
"Jesus," Molly said, her own plate empty, "gimme that.  You know what this costs?" She took his plate.  "They gotta raise a whole animal for years and then they kill it.  This isn't vat stuff." 
I wish that more people would see the meat on their plate in this light.  Could they then realize the absurdness of their dietary choices and the effect on our fragile planet?

For more on William Gibson:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Gibson
For more from the man himself - he is a tweet meister:  https://twitter.com/#!/GreatDismal

I was about half way through Neuromancer when Dear Husband informed me that it is the first book in a trilogy and that he had already ordered a copy of the next two books.  Hooray!  I love a good trilogy.  Can hardly wait to read more Gibson.

The problem is, with all of this fabulous fiction sitting enticingly on the bookshelf, and belonging two Book Clubs which guarantees I will read at least two fiction books per month, how am I going to keep up with reading my Non-fiction quota for this year?