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.htmlOf 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?
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