Neuromancer by William Gibson

Hello, Stranger.

Let's talk about William Gibson's Neuromancer.

The Short of It

Plot: A down and out hacker gets in over his head. 

Page Count: 271

Award: 1985 Hugo, 1985 Nebula

Worth a read: Yes.
Primary Driver: (Plot, World, or Character)
Bechdel Test: Fail
Technobabble: Oh sweet saskatoons.
Review: Look, it's great, alright? Does the story jump wildly? Sure. Does it require more than one reading? Probably. And yeah, it's intentionally confusing. But the plotting is superb - truly breakneck speed. And just what a world. It's spectacular. It's work to get into it, but I enjoyed the heck out of this.

The Medium of It

Spoiler Free

Neuromancer is often mentioned as the first true cyberpunk story. It has everything that one thinks of in cyberpunk: corporate-controlled, neon-fueled, grungy dystopia. Sleek and shiny over a coat of grime. On the other hand, this is often how it is damned: it is the prototype more than it is the archetype. Or, more simply put, it's a bit of a mess. Sure, the roots of plenty of things that we like in other culture are here - the Matrix of, well, the Matrix, the different classes of mega-wealthy that exist in the Altered Carbon books, the mega-cities of Robocop. Not that there were no Cyberpunk works before Neuromancer, but it helped make it less niche.

Much of the criticism of Neuromancer is completely fair. The writing is fascinating but frequently opaque.

The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.

What does that mean? Does it mean anything? Yet it's undeniably evocative. As a first sentence, it's a total banger. What a great way to open a book. It's about the vibe, not the meaning. Which is an issue for many. Usually for me, I'll note, but I was feeling it with this one.

This is a rare example of a book with terrible characters but a compelling story. Before I get crucified, a clarification: there are cool characters, but what makes them cool is not who they are, it's what they show us about the world. Most of them don't have character traits exactly, they have a purpose for the story. Or when they do have character traits, they're the shallowest ones. Is the protagonist reluctant? Heck to the yeah! Is he down on his luck? You bet! Is he inexplicably attractive to women? Yes, and also, what? 

The central issue that determines whether or not you will enjoy this book is if you're fine with things not making sense for extended periods of time. I kept reading because I wanted to explore this world and find out what all was happening. But this is not always appealing - you're constantly in the dark, which can be irritating. You need to flip back to check on who or what happened earlier, just to figure out what was going on. This was frustrating at points, and I actually read this one, read a few other books, and then listened to it as an audiobook. And the second round was significantly more enjoyable. Suddenly things clicked.

On the other hand, things are messy enough and there are enough things left up in the air that I was understanding new things the second time around.

All in all, I was happy to read this - and having not read it before, this was an obvious hole in the SF classics list that needed filling. But I understand why someone would dislike it as well.

If this is the dystopia that you'd like to poke your head into, consider using the link below! I'll get a few cents at no additional cost to you.

The Link!

The Long of It
Spoilers Ahead!

“Hey, bro,” said a directionless voice.
“It’s Case, man. Remember?”
“Miami, joeboy, quick study.”
“What’s the last thing you remember before I spoke to you, Dix?”
“Nothin’.”
“Hang on.” He disconnected the construct. The presence was gone. He reconnected it. “Dix? Who am I?”
“You got me hung, Jack. Who the fuck are you?”
“Ca—your buddy. Partner. What’s happening, man?”
“Good question.”
“Remember being here, a second ago?”
“No.”
“Know how a ROM personality matrix works?”
“Sure, bro, it’s a firmware construct.”
“So I jack it into the bank I’m using, I can give it sequential, real time memory?”
“Guess so,” said the construct.
“Okay, Dix. You are a ROM construct. Got me?”
“If you say so,” said the construct. “Who are you?”
“Case.”
“Miami,” said the voice, “joeboy, quick study.”
“Right. And for starts, Dix, you and me, we’re gonna sleaze over to London grid and access a little data. You game for that?”
“You gonna tell me I got a choice, boy?”

There are a lot of cool things to talk about. I'd just like to bring up just one. The Flatline. Dix is dead, unfortunately. But his personality and memory were recorded, and can be accessed. And used, and reused. Wow does he hate it. 

Is he still a person? He's definitely code. But he still has a personality. But his memory is erased whenever someone wants to. Is erasing him murder? Or just deleting a file?

He's also one of the only characters that I actually cared about as a character. What he really wants is to die. He wants to be deleted, removed, and never called back ever again. It's rare that the driving motivation for a character is the desire for death.

When the construct laughed, it came through as something else, not laughter, but a stab of cold down Case’s spine. “Do me a favor, boy.”
“What’s that, Dix?”
“This scam of yours, when it’s over, you erase this goddam thing."

Dang, that's cool as hell.

If you haven't read it, it's worth it. It's short, it's fun, it's confusing, and it's incredibly satisfying.

Don't trust the matrix, Stranger.

And don't forget to read a book!