Oh, Baby, Baby, it's a Wired World (Neuromancer - William Gibson)

Name: Deany

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Product:	Neuromancer - William Gibson
Date:	21/11/01 (248 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting concepts

Disadvantages: Weak plot

Let me take you back in time – to 1983. Commodore has just wowed the computer gaming world with the release of its Commodore 64 computer, complete with a tape deck that will have you playing classics such as “Pong” and “Space Invaders” after, oh, about quarter of an hour of loading time. The arcades are buzzing with relatively new games like “Frogger” and “Pacman”. The year before, the term “internet” had been used for the very first time and businesses were just beginning to communicate with each other over primitive connections. The Apple Mac, floppy disks and Windows were still years away from hitting the market.

In the midst of this emerging computer culture, William Gibson is busily writing a novel that can only be described as “visionary”. In “Neuromancer”, the megacorps reign supreme, information is power and the internet as we know it has evolved into the sprawling expanse of the matrix, otherwise known as cyberspace. Computer cowboys jack their nervous systems into the matrix to unleash viruses on graphical representations of company mainframes – corporate espionage has become the new battlefield. The world Gibson creates is chilling, precisely because it could so easily be the world we are on course to creating.

When reading this novel, I had to continually remind myself that it was written almost two decades ago. Gibson’s description of humanity and technology converging, the complexity of cyberspace that he invents, the portrayal of a “wired world” –these things are concepts we are only currently coming to grips with, and the novel feels like it could have been written yesterday.

All of which means that the impact for a modern-day reader cannot be anything like what it was when the book was first published. Someone reading this novel in the mid-eighties would be reading about many of these concepts for the f
irst time, words like “computer virus” would be alien to them, the very idea of linking all the world’s computers seemingly impossible. Their only point of reference would be the Disney film “Tron” which had been released the previous year (The scenes in “Tron” set inside the computer bear an uncanny similarity to Gibson’s description of the matrix and surely had an influence on him). To the modern reader, though, many of these ideas are common knowledge and so, unfortunately, some of the initial “awe-factor” of the novel has been lost.

“Neuromancer” is the story of Case, a computer cowboy who tried to trick his previous employers when carrying out a job for them in cyberspace (which, as is widely known, is a term that Gibson invented in this novel). In retribution, his nervous system was maimed by a procedure that means he is no longer able to interface with his computer and is unable to enter cyberspace. He begins a vicious cycle of decline and drug abuse in “Night City” – a Japanese city populated with criminals and low-lives. Until, that is, he is approached by a shady individual called Armitage who offers him a cure in return for his help in carrying out a run in the matrix.

To be honest, the plot of the novel is not that important – which is good as I found it a little too contrived and simplistic at times. The characters also fade into the background to a large extent. What Gibson is doing is painting a picture of a future world based on and grown out of the one he was living in way back in the early 1980s. One of the most obvious reflections of this is the computer based “punk” culture that he presents which corresponds to the anarchic punk culture of the 80s (Gibson’s ideas led to the creation of a whole new SF genre, “cyberpunk”). The people in “Neuromancer” who have fully embraced technology and realis
e its full potential are the youngsters on the street who hardwire circuitry into their nervous systems and use it as the basis of their own networked subculture. Whereas the businesses and megacorps use technology as a shield to hide behind, the cyberpunks look upon it as a way of life.

Gibson’s vision is generally bleak and dystopian, with only the occasional flicker of a brighter future. Through hints and the occasional direct reference, we learn that there has been some form of war in Europe that left much of the population homeless and starving. The Eastern seaboard of the United States has merged into one giant megalopolis referred to as The Sprawl. The glimpses Gibson gives of life in Japan are of a human rat-race where the weak are crushed and the only way to rise to the top is through deceit and brutal force. And yet, there is also the brighter side – a Rastafarian colony in space living under its own rules and the opulent (though artificial) luxury of the Freeside space station.

The high level of technology presented is carefully balanced against the more human aspects of the story, which helps to maintain the reader’s interest. Although many of the characters are augmented and implanted with circuitry and software to various extents, their drives and desires are still recognisably human. Actions can rarely be carried out in the matrix alone – there usually needs to be some human element physically present to complete a chain of events, which prevents the novel becoming too abstract and removed from reality.

There are touches of older cultures as well, Case carries a shuriken with him through most of the novel in contrast to the other characters with more modern weapons, ninjas (albeit vat-grown ones) are used to protect important Japanese businessmen, people are still entertained by fistfights, the Rastafarians continue to live in space much the same as they did back on Earth. Brand names from our own ag
e are used for the technologies in the future. Sony, Sanyo and Panasonic manufacture the decks with which the characters enter cyberspace or the spacesuits they wear. These touches add to the sense that we are reading of a real future, one founded upon our society as it is now.

The book does, however, have weak points. I have already mentioned the weak plot. Case spends much of the novel unsure what is happening and simply stumbles from one situation to the next under the guiding influence of other characters. This manages to create a certain amount of interest in the reader, but there is very much the sense that Case will survive one incident then be told where to go next and get into another hairy situation, with the cycle repeating itself until the end of the book.

Gibson’s writing style is also slightly eccentric. Although I felt I had a good grasp of science fiction and cyberspace concepts before reading the book I still found myself confused at times, simply because I felt I was not getting enough information. Gibson writes very sparsely, mentioning a concept once and then assuming the reader will be entirely familiar with it next time it arises. Sometimes he only paints half a picture and you are left to put the pieces together yourself. This is usually something I find quite gratifying in a book as it leaves me free to create my own impressions and images, but here I repeatedly felt that I was missing the occasional piece of vital information (especially in the earlier chapters). More than once I had to backtrack and re-read a section – surely a bad thing in a novel, which is supposed to flow and not require the reader to break off in confusion.

All in all, though, I found this to be a very entertaining novel. The number of concepts Gibson introduces is breathtaking at times and his influence can be seen in many areas of science fiction today, from the film “The Matrix” to authors such as Iain M Banks (̶
0;Feersum Endjinn” in particular springs to mind) and Neal Stephenson. Well worth a read, but I don’t quite think I will be updating my top ten sci-fi op to include it.

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