Neuromancer by William Gibson [1984]
Ace/Berkley
287 pages
Reader Response by Matt H. [v 1.87] from
Reading Odyssey
Rating: Recommended, but not a light read
Story Summary
In the near future humankind has established large, permanent space stations. It’s a time of advanced computer networks, genetic modification and ancient and powerful corporate families that have their lives extended through cryogenics. One such family, the Tessier-Ashpol inhabit their own luxurious and elaborate space station called
Straylight. Computer processing power and cyber-security are the keys to controlling society. At this time it is possible to virtually integrate human perception with the digital universe - the “matrix”, and this is the means to the most consequential crimes and acts of sabotage.
Case, a semi-retired cyber-criminal and sometime hit-man, lives in the dark and dangerous
sprawl of Chiba city. He soon becomes embroiled in a clandestine operation -- a heist of monumental proportions. Cases’ role will be to defeat the cyber security or “ice” of the opponent. For that purpose he will soon enter the matrix and contend with AI’s of almost omnipotent power. But first he must join a team including the mirror-eyed, razor-fingered assassin, Molly. Armitage the leader, is actually just the shell of a man. Riviera, a psychically-enhanced chameleon, can put images of any kind into people’s minds at will.
The Team travels to the Boston-Atlanta
sprawl in pursuit of information and materials for their planned operation, then to Istanbul. Finally Case has his first journey into space as they blast off for the orbital station
Freeside. Soon after they join forces with a group of Rastafarian space dwellers and begin operations from the small Rasta space tug,
Marcus Garvey. But the two main, most powerful AI’s have their own game. Things do not go smoothly. Case, Molly and the crew are involved in a fatal climactic struggle. In the end Case discovers an unimaginable world even beyond the matrix. It is the realm of Neuromancer.
Critical Reader Response
In its content and especially in its style
Neuromancer is an immensely impressive book. I think “rewarding but demanding” will sum it up for many readers. It’s not a light read. Serious criticisms other than that are hard to think of. The prose of this book can be unusually torrential, intense and breathless. The plot is moderately complex and the themes, and sometimes even the action can be abstract, and the interrelationships complicated. But the writing itself will wow you. (This is a writing style definitely worthy of imitation.) At times it’s just a grinding avalanche of metaphor, with copious appositives and long winding series of clauses, stunning in their artistic sureness and consistent quality. Yet it escapes the “tour-de-force
to a fault” problem. It has a good and exciting underlying story with plenty of action. I felt the story came to a close fairly quickly but not un-satisfyingly, with a somewhat traditional final coda.
Early on the story shows many clear hallmarks of detective fiction. It opens with a bar scene. The customers are druggy and seedy -- hoods, prostitutes and of course inevitably, someone is looking for the down-on-his-luck protagonist. There is danger and even a good chance of death. There are pistol muzzles stuck in ribs, smart-talking wise guys and a semi-washed up crook called out of retirement. There is a mysterious job, hits, hidden identities. Things are not as they seem. There’s a rich, society heiress with secrets, crimes of sexual violence, and corrupt and decadent old families. But the detective-story feeling fades out almost entirely relatively soon, and you see this book is going to be something else altogether. But this section was nevertheless nicely presented; the book could have even been successful if it had followed the detective mold further. It didn’t.
This is a work of many wonderful semi-explored corridors. Many of them are also lurid and some are truly awful and terrifying. You have artificial intelligences, virtual reality matrices, super cyber security and viruses, recorded interactive “constructs” of the dead (some of whom crave nothing more than to be erased), post-death “flatline” realities, genetic manipulation, surgical modification and cryogenics, creepy inbred heiresses of immense brilliance. There are also “fetishistic” anarchical groups with odd, inscrutable agendas, and medicinal and recreational drugs of the future. Occasionally it gets a little gory. The hallucinations produced by the character Riviera are the most terrifying of all -- sick, dark but described with immense artistry. The author skillfully treads here, and preserves the main effect of the story instead of going too lurid. All these wonders in mind, it’s fair to add that it was not always crystal clear to a first time-reader-- who is fighting, allied with or double-crossing whom, or for what motivation? This is why I said it’s a little complex.
So how does Gibson mitigate reader confusion in a book that is such a fire-hose of figurative language, with abstract action and ideas, cyber-based POV’s and a relatively complex plot? It seems he anticipated the problem. Much of the book is divided into smaller sections, that are often, but not always, self-contained scenes or reading units. These potentially gives you a place to take a break, mull what you just read, or maybe pick your jaw up off the floor. Gibson plays it well and avoids too much prosaic explanation of the mysterious. However I noticed another admirable aid in understanding things. The writer returns to some of the more abstract events portrayed earlier in the book and helps clarify them. He does this unobtrusively and artfully. In a few places he flat out explains aspects of the book’s overall point or intended effect. This helped give the ending more completeness. Though I felt Rivera was a bit of a loose end and imagined he would get it. The writer reversed that expectation and the final scenes mention him and he seems perfectly happy. Perhaps its extra moral ambiguity added.?
Is the book
too good to be fun? Honestly I must admit I did not usually look forward to picking it up between reading sessions, not as a
diversion anyway. Still,
Neuromancer has an overall clear story and like I said plenty of action. It’s intense but not incomprehensible. If you let go of the need to properly appreciate each metaphor and to truly understand every abstract nuance, then the reading will certainly be a lighter experience.
