Plot Overview
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’’Neuromancer’’ is a story about a very pessimistic future in which the world is run by massive corporations or ’’megacorps’’. In this future the Internet has metamorphosed into Cyberspace, where millions of legitimate users project their consciousness via a ’’cyberspace deck’’ in order to perceive the world’s computer systems as sprawling landscapes and towering buildings made of light. Among these individuals is a computer hacker named Case, who was considered to be one of the best ’’console cowboys’’ in the business until he double-crossed one of his employers, who crippled his nervous system as pay-back. After spending his accumulated fortune on cures and treatments with no results but a drug addiction, he gains the chance to be fully cured in return for one last mission. If he survives, he stays cured.
Some background
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William Gibson’s ’’Neuromancer’’, first written in 1984, provides an accurate glimpse into a future which might soon become a reality. Gibson, who first coined the term ’’Cyberspace’’ and ’’Virtual Reality’’ in this very-same book, was the first of a long-line of authors, who chose to portray a (possible) future, in which humanity is still struggling with itself and space travel is only for the privileged few. Most traditional science fiction stories in the 80s deal with the challenges of space travel and colonisation of other worlds as well as designing efficient robots with human qualities. Gibson broke this mold and spawned the sub-genre known as ’’cyberpunk’’. Even though this sub-genre is changing constantly, this book shows you that the future doesn’t have to look rosy, mostly since there are some disturbing parallels between details of the book and the changes occurring in the global economy.
The book
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The strength of this book for me lies in the intricate details of backdrops and situations that Gibson provides. For some this can be disorienting, since it is possible to gloss over a sentence, containing a fragment of information, which in turn explains a concept further down the paragraph. Careful reading is the key to understanding Gibson’s unique writing style. He uses technical terms and concepts and uses them in such a way that they do not require a lengthy and boring explanation to understand. Although some of the technical concepts can’t be fully explained since they do not exist yet ;).
The story-line is reasonably fast-paced, although not like the ’’in your face’’ attitude of a Hollywood blockbuster but rather more subtle, requiring you to think.
Conclusion
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This book provides a cynic’s view of the future as seen from the eyes of somebody well-rooted in technology. I would recommend this book to anybody who is tired of traditional Sci-Fi books, which are set so far in the future that they are more fantasy than futuristic (there are exceptions of course, check out traditional sci-fi authors such as Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Heinlein and Ben Bova, to name but a few) And yes, the story-line is quite good, too :). Other books by William Gibson, are ’’Count Zero’’, ’’Mona Lisa Overdrive’’ and ’’Burning Chrome’’, a book of short stories one of which has been turned into a somewhat mediocre film called ’’Johnny Mnemonic’’. So plug in your ’trodes, fire up your deck and ’’download’’ this puppy.