Dooyoo via a Neural Jack? (Neuromancer - William Gibson)

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Product:	Neuromancer - William Gibson
Date:	16/08/02 (23 review reads)
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Advantages: It`s the book that started Cyberpunk, It`s non-stop action.

Disadvantages: All ends too soon

I Have bookcase upon bookcase of books, some new, but mostly old.. Some are Good, Some are Bad, and one in particular is the book that created an entire new Genre in Science Fiction.. The Genre now known as Cyberpunk, where many of todays best selling movies drawn much of their inspiration, it was after watching Minority Report and Re-watching Matrix that I decided once more to pull William Gibsons Classic from my shelves and give it a re-read.

For those that don`t know of him William Ford Gibson was born on March 17th 1948 in Conway, South Carolina.. At Age 19 he dropped out of high school and went to Toronto, Canada, and at the Age of 30 Gibson finally earned his Bachelor`s degree. Not wanting a traditional job, he decided to take a Sciene Fiction course at The University of British Columbia in the hopes of an Easy Credit.. He wrote many short pieces before settling down on Neuromancer his first book, and one of his more famous quotes from Rolling Stone is "Technology has already changed us, and now we have to figure out a way to stay sane" (a man after my own heart.)

Like I`ve already mentioned Neuromancer was his first published Science Fiction book. It was published in 1984 as the begining book in what would become a Trilogy (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive being the other two books, incase your interested in reading the whole set, which I`d definetly recommend) On it`s Publication Neuromancer infact went largely unnoticed, but as the minds of the world turned towards the future, the book became a huge success winning almost every major science fiction award, Including the Nebula, Hugo and Philip K Dick Awards.

I think that`s enough background information, now to the book. Unlike The Matrix's underlying Message of Hope Neuromancer actually brings a dark, post-industrial future careening towards a nihilistic, technology-saturated oblivion, placed at a time when It`s quite normal for a street samurai to have biological
ly enhanced muscles, surgically-embedded finger razors and all-seeing night vision. The world is crumbling as Globilization has reached it`s pinnacle with the birth of cyberspace, a global "hallucination" that makes todays information superhighway seem more like a pothole in the M6.

The story revolves around the idea that Equipped with "Neural Jacks" cyber-cowboys are able to plug their minds directly into this digital matrix, and manipulate it to their whim. Our Lead Character Case is one of these cyber-cowboys, He's good, real good, but not the best. A Lesson he cruely learned while trying to siphon money away from a client, Caught red-handed he has his ability to access the matrix burned out of him. When we first meet Case he`s living in the worst part of town (as they all do in these kinds of stories) Although no longer able to access the Net for fun and profit, he`s still on the wrong side of the law, A man named Armitage and a street-samurai called Molly come to his rescue.. Arranging his rehab, he is genetically modified so the drug of his choice no longer affects his body. (A Solution to our growing drug problems? Possibly, but not one I`m fully convinced about..)

Our story now truly begins as Case`s ability to access the Matrix is restored, and that opens the door to a series of cyber-adventures beyond anything he'd dreamed of before.. But as the story developes Case begins to realise that Armitage isn`t everything he appears to be, so who is behind it all? And will Case ever find out the whole story?

Reading Neuromancer, is like opening your mind to every fear you every had about technology. It`s a dark future, very dark, but cutting thru the doom and gloom to get to the story, there`s a lot to like here, Like I said previously this is the book that brought us Cyberpunk, a term first coined by Gibson in this book, and since then largely used, and even more largely misunderstood.

The idea of
Truly hooking your brain into the Net, and Mentally traveling rather than idly surfing is a compelling an idea now as it was the first time I read this book, Gibsons writting style will definetly not suit everyone though, it`s a mesmerizing, dense style that forces you to pay attention, but for that you are most certainly rewarded with some of the most rewarding mental images of a future gone bad, and a world crumbling under it`s own virtual addiction. (It`s enough to make you want to switch your computer off for a day, and live in the real-world, if only for a moment (Just to check it still exists.)) There is an awful lot of Technology in this book though, as you`d expect, but the terminology isn`t too wild, and as long as you have a basic grasp of computing it shouldn`t confuse you too much.

To Sum up, I`d personally say Neuromancer is the best Novel William Gibson has written, many think cyberpunk is all about techno-fetishism, and Neuromancer wallows in this image from start to finish.. Unlike many books that now fill this Genre it has a plot, although it is not of a traditional structure, which in my opinion adds an extra edge to the book.. My only major criticism of Neuromancer is the end comes all too soon, I feel it`s yet another case of a writer getting bored and moving onto the next idea before he`s fully finished the one he was working on.. It`s something I feel you see a lot in the Sci-Fi circuit..

Those who think the world is going to hell in a halo of smoking technology will love this book. Those who don't won't like it nearly as much, but should still read it to see why the other half thinks the world's in for the aformentioned ride.

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