mass market paperback, 308 pages
English language
Published June 24, 1989 by Bantam Books.
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 stopped reading science fiction decades ago, tired of sifting the dreck for the few gems to be found. It was refreshing to find that there's still good stuff being written. Well, being written thirty years ago, at least.
I read the whole thing in an xterm. Couldn't shut it down.
reseña completa: http://markapaginas.blogspot.com/2015/02/mona-lisa-acelerada-william-gibson.html
Tal y como ocurría con su predecesora directa -Conde Cero- Mona Lisa acelerada proyecta su trama de forma compartida en varias subtramas que se juntan al final. Poniendo peso en nuevos personajes principales y secundarios, que esta vez sí, interactúan con viejos conocidos para dejarnos con un final que deja más preguntas que respuestas, pero que cierra la trama de forma impecable, y que no deja ninguna duda haciendo un resumen de la trama general de la trilogía.
The world itself is fantastic, but the narration is (intentionally) too choppy. I found myself having to re-read constantly to keep up with changes of location and conversation.
Re-read this after many years and it holds up quite well.
Still fantastic. I don't know what to say about my favorite book.
I originally started this re-read to keep my attention held while I waited for my Oculus Rift DK2 to arrive... I have a few more days before it arrives and I find myself wondering if I can power thru Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive before it does arrive.
Or maybe I should try to re-read Snow Crash in the next few days...
Or maybe i'm a ridiculously slow reader and all of the above is a pipe dream..
Halfway through the book I found out that July 1st was the 30th anniversary of Neuromancer's release. There's some weird synchronicity in there somewhere.
So many terms from Neuromancer that are now commonly used in real life. This was apparently the first place we saw Cyberspace being used, and one of many things in the late 80s early 90s that used the term "Matrix" before Neo. Amazing book that I'm sad it took so long to read.
Rating is for second read completed on this comment date.
I liked it. I'm guessing I would have given 4 stars on the first read, but it's showing it's age. Particularly the computer technology parts.
Hmm. I wanted to like this book. I started reading before realizing it was third in a series, so maybe that has something to do with it; a lot of the setting and context went over my head. Even at the end I had no idea what this book was about or what exactly happened. I don't feel like any of the characters really changed or interacted meaningfully. There were some pretty descriptions of settings and sentiments, I suppose. Many characters were interesting stills, but felt somehow inanimate.
Also, I spent a distressing amount of time trying to figure out how it is possible that one can wear "three or four" leather jackets at once.
What can I say? Chiba site got me. The Sprawl made me excited and Freeside finished me off. Great book all in all, with some parts that were quite hard to understand for me, but enjoyable still. And I just loved little intermezzo about Johnny Mnemonic. Just classic.
I bow before W. Gibson's ability to create sense of certain environment, of polluted narrow streets, London, wastelands, cyberspace. I still think Neuromancer was somehow better, but loved how various characters from Neuromancer and Count Zero played their parts here. It really got hold of me and didn't let go until the last page was read.It seemed more user-friendly than previous parts, but maybe that's just me getting used to the Sprawl slang...
Absolutely love this book. Everything that I always like about the genre of Cyberpunk, finds its origins here. I cant believe I hadn't read this book sooner.
Interesting ideas, worst storytelling I've read in a "popular" book in ages. If it had been a movie I'd ask for my money back.
I originally read this in high school, but I'd forgotten most of the details, so I decided to do a reread after finishing one of Gibson's newer novels (Pattern Recognition). Like Tolkien, it's one of those classics that's been copied so much that the original has begun to seem clichéd. It probably doesn't help that a good portion of The Matrix was lifted directly from this book. It also suffers a bit from an dating; in 1984, it was generally assumed that the Cold War and Japanese economic dominance were here to stay.
Having said, that, it's still an entertaining read, with an unpredictable plot and interesting views on personality and identity. It probably wouldn't make much of a splash if it were published today, but the genre today would be very different if Neuromancer had never been published.
Holds up amazingly well over the years, and easily one of my favorite books, part of one of my favorite series. I adore the stripped down writing style, the characters, everything. Bloody lovely.
