Mona Lisa Overdrive is the final novel of the William Gibson's cyberpunk Sprawl trilogy.
Living in the vast computer landscape of cyberspace, young Mona taps into the mind of world-famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell who deciphers cyperspace plans, including those devised by Japanese underworld.
I don't know if it was possible for this book to live up to its hype for me, but nevertheless it didn't live up to it's hype. I had such a hard time getting into it that I wound up powering thru on the day it was due for my book club, reading the entire book in 1 four hour sitting. I think the major problem is that I found the characters to be pretty one note and the setting wasn't very appealing to me. I'd say that it manages to redeem itself by the end but only barely.
One star bumped up to two stars just for at least attempting to do something interesting but I don’t get it. This seems like a huge failure of a book for me. It doesn’t end up doing anything with the world it started (and never finished) building. It’s a lot easier to follow if you think of it as a noir. There are glimmers of the patterns of that genre and the plot only makes sense if you’re familiar with them, but it doesn’t seem to know what to do with those patterns. The few moments when something literary seems to be happening (wasps nest, shuriken) never pay off. It’s a mess, that never goes anywhere useful. If all you care about is cyberpunk window dressing I suppose it would be fine, but what do you do with the rest of it then?
Walking into this book and knowing how influential it was on the larger cyberpunk genre, I was concerned that I would encounter a sort of "opposite Ready Player One" in which it would be filled with references from media that has not existed yet. I was worried that I'd feel like this book was a weaker version of the best part of the Matrix, Cyberpunk 2077, and Bladerunner. And while it was true that I could easily pick out elements that clearly influenced later media, it did not distract me from the instantly captivating story, fantastically written characters, and a breathtakingly atmospheric setting. Gibson's ability to convey both scenery and emotion made me understand why he is easily one of the sci-fi greats.
It's an OK book. I think the fact that it was innovative is probably why it is so highly regarded. But strip that away and its just OK. The plot and characters aren't as engaging as they should be - the book is long and meanders its way through the story. I found I just didn't care enough about the characters or plot enough to enjoy it. And the writing style makes it difficult to follow at times.
Some of the great innovative pieces of science fiction are also just great books and stand up to the test of time. Neuromancer doesn't quite manage it.
Neuromancer is one of my favorite books, which I have read and reread over the past two decades.
I really like the cyberpunk genre of Science Fiction, with Neuromancer being one of the fathers or founders of “the movement” (I can't leave Mirrorshades aside, nor other seminal Gibson tales that are there in Burning Chrome…).
Neuromancer has it all. A lot of younger people don't like or even don't understand the vision we had of the future in the 1980s. The Matrix and Cyberspace were just some of our fantasies of the future. It is “curious” that nowadays any child has access to this universe on a tablet, accessing the Matrix while sitting on the sofa in the living room.
Gibson's writing is incredibly vivid. The way he play with words has, in my opinion, its apex in Johnny Mnemonic, earlier work, but Neuromancer also contains these characteristics.
I also …
Neuromancer is one of my favorite books, which I have read and reread over the past two decades.
I really like the cyberpunk genre of Science Fiction, with Neuromancer being one of the fathers or founders of “the movement” (I can't leave Mirrorshades aside, nor other seminal Gibson tales that are there in Burning Chrome…).
Neuromancer has it all. A lot of younger people don't like or even don't understand the vision we had of the future in the 1980s. The Matrix and Cyberspace were just some of our fantasies of the future. It is “curious” that nowadays any child has access to this universe on a tablet, accessing the Matrix while sitting on the sofa in the living room.
Gibson's writing is incredibly vivid. The way he play with words has, in my opinion, its apex in Johnny Mnemonic, earlier work, but Neuromancer also contains these characteristics.
I also like the characters and how they live in this nihilistic madness so characteristic of cyberpunk. Call me nostalgic, but that's the truth.
For Science Fiction lovers, Neuromancer is a must-read. Gibson reset those old sci-fi standards. Contrary to what many can say, cyberpunk remains very relevant and far from dead. Long live the Neuromancer.
I couldn't finish this book. It might be a cult in its genre, but it's hard to read. The author jumps from one scene to another without giving any context. Maybe I'll try next time again.
I guess any novel that begins with an apology should be believed. This was a rambling discourse, traveling nowhere; discussing drugs, murder, sex and dysfunctional behavior. I get enough of that from the news.
Didn't do a great job of making me care about the main characters, but they were all fully-fleshed and each with their own distinct voices. Gibson's use of language was beautiful, and the worldbuilding was amazingly intricate, such that I couldn't help but want to keep reading, even if I was sort of neutral on Case and Molly. There were some brilliant and original descriptions of cyberspace and the way it can be accessed.
"A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he’d taken and the corners he’d cut in Night City, and still he’d see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void."
Neuromancer is one of those classics. It's the book that introduced the term Cyberspace before the internet existed. While reading it I kept getting flashbacks to the Matrix movies, they undoubtedly have been inspired by the book.
So Neuromancer has been a great influence on todays world. But I surely had a hard time following the story and getting through the books was a struggle. I guess the ideas in it where awesome, but the writing isn't very good.
A fun dive back into the world of the Sprawl. Some of the characterization was kind of weak but that's okay - I'm in this for:
- capitalism is bad - technology also - criminal/corporate intrigue - molly millions beats up everyone, again
It took a while to set up the different threads of the story, and the way he tied them together was neat but fairly predictable, but it was satisfying nonetheless.
This is a satisfying conclusion to Gibson's "The Sprawl" trilogy. The plot involves multiple threads (like many of his books I've read) and they are all tied together at the end. He also gives closure to events started in "Neuromancer" and "Count Zero". I would recommend this book and the full trilogy to anyone wanting to read the classic cyberpunk tale.
It's a brilliant book for all the things that are only half in it. The world of Neuromancer spills well beyond the pages, and the story lets you peek out at the horizon of an amazing world lurking just beyond the bits in the story's path. Gibson creates an amazing three-dimensional effect with his references and brands and other hints of fullness.
There's also a story, and some characters, and other things. I read the book a quarter of a century ago, and I remember a fondness for them (I remember being in love with Molly), but my memory is inadequate to write out the appreciation they deserve.
I started listening to it with the knowledge that it is an old book and expecting it to be slow and contemplative compared to modern books. I expected wrong. It felt action packed and visuals packed as the cyberpunk geanre would suggest. I felt like I missed some parts, probably due to my carelessness listening, so I listened to it again. I shouldn't have bothered, because nothing got clearer. I think it's a feature (not a bug) in this type of book, because it makes it sound more smart and misterious.
A must-read classic that confuses me every time I read this.
"The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel."
I don't usually memorize quotes, so this one is oh-so-significant. Never forget this was Gibson's debut novel!
I don't remember when I read this the last time, or when I read this the first time (sometime in the 90s I am guessing to both). I've read quite a few cyberpunk books lately, so I thought it necessary to go back to the godfather of all that is cyber and punk. The book didn't disappoint. Despite it being written in the 80s the technology does not feel dated. Well, we still don't have working VR so maybe that is it. We still don't have all the cool implants, and futuristic drugs.
Besides the cool tech, what keeps impressing me about this book is the language, …
A must-read classic that confuses me every time I read this.
"The sky above the port was the color of television tuned to a dead channel."
I don't usually memorize quotes, so this one is oh-so-significant. Never forget this was Gibson's debut novel!
I don't remember when I read this the last time, or when I read this the first time (sometime in the 90s I am guessing to both). I've read quite a few cyberpunk books lately, so I thought it necessary to go back to the godfather of all that is cyber and punk. The book didn't disappoint. Despite it being written in the 80s the technology does not feel dated. Well, we still don't have working VR so maybe that is it. We still don't have all the cool implants, and futuristic drugs.
Besides the cool tech, what keeps impressing me about this book is the language, the variety of great settings through which Case and Molly travel. Oh and the thing that allows Case to switch into Molly's viewpoint. A very neat story-telling trick.
But then there is the ending. It's long, and weird, and gets ever weirder once they reach the villa. The ending was the reason this book took me so long to finish.
And I'll never understand how Riviera's holo tricks are supposed to work. But then this is SF :D Still very readable (last time I tried to read Foundation, I quit after about 50 pages). So go 80s SF!
A lot of interesting commentary on the state of society and technology; fascinatingly predictive considering its publication date.
It takes some momentum to get into it: Gibson doesn't waste time explaining the culture, the jargon, or the geography, so it's largely up to you to keep up.
