David.R.Gilson

Book Review: Neuromancer

Sep 28

Book Reviews David 2 Comments
ai, altered, artificial, drugs, gibson, intelligence, matrix, reality, virtual, william

Neuromancer by William Gibson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While not a total stranger to the cyberpunk genre thanks to film, Neuromancer was the first cyberpunk book I have read.

Having only just read it in 2009, the abstract notion of jacking in to the matrix (i.e. internet) does not seem as far fetched to me as it must have done when the book was originally written.

Through many parts of the book I felt as if I was loosing track of what was going on. Although, I think this is partly intentional, as Gibson expertly crafts his words so that you feel as if you are in a dream like state. It is no coincidence seeing as how the main character, Case, often takes drugs, and is the cowboy who jacks his mind into the matrix throughout the book. The descriptions of Case’s experiences while jacked in to the matrix are well described, which is helped by the use of primitive shapes and colours. The most trippy parts of the book are when Case’s time on the matrix are interrupted by a powerful artificial intelligence called Wintermute. These are very much like dream scenes, and they are not always explicitly announced in the text. Therefore, as the reader, you will find yourself trying to discern reality from virtual reality.

Most of the way through the book, besides the futuristic setting, the book looks like it will be about a criminal plot, which is in contrast to the book’s esoteric undertones of virtual and altered realities. However, you’ll find later in the book that something equally abstract is orchestrating all of the real world events. Which in itself I think blurs the conceptual lines between the real world and the on-line world.

Twenty five years after it was written, this is still a relevant and engaging book.

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