Neuromancer by William Gibson
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding… ”
Dark, gritty, and set in a future that at once seems unbelievable and maybe just around the corner is Neuromancer. To truly be impressed by this book, however, you must first look at the publication date, 1984. While the book that very well could have been the first ever to coin the phrase “cyberspace” isn’t a clean read, it is certainly noteworthy for its content.
What do I mean it’s not a clean read? Well, to start it is very choppy. The setting changes at times without preamble, and some scenes just feel a little disjointed. I’m a relatively fast reader, so sometimes I’ll admit to skimming more than reading, but usually that isn’t a problem; I can get the main focus, understand the characters and events, and not feel like I’m missing anything. I might miss small words here or there, but never enough to get confused. Well, with Neuromancer, I found I really had to slow down and read. At the beginning, when you’re still being introduced into the reality that Gibson is painting, it’s a little off-putting, but towards the end it evens out and I could start getting really into it.
In some ways this book was really an eye-opener to me on how much we rely on computers. Even now it can almost be seen as a cautionary tale. Who’s giving the orders, a person or a machine? When Case was practically picked up off the street, where he was a drug addict and a washed up cyber-cowboy, unable to connect to cyberspace because of a mycotoxin, he didn’t think to ask whether his new boss was the one really giving the orders. What this toxin did was essentially fry his central nervous system, and when cyberspace is accessed through “trodes” connected to your brain, having a fried nervous system is a bit of a problem. Case is “healed” with the ultimatum of working for a man he’s never met before, and he finds out that this craziness is only the tip of the iceberg.
If you want a clear example of cyberpunk, this is it. If you want an easy read, this probably isn’t it. The truth is, I would probably only really recommend this to someone who isn’t put off by the jerky nature of the narrative. There were several times when I had to stop and reread portions because of jumps in setting. If you want a cleaner flowing cyberpunk novel go read Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson instead; at least there you’ll also get a history lesson. Neuromancer is interesting to read in the context that it was really probably one of the first cyberpunk novels, but I don’t think it’s one I would keep on my shelf to read again.
