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!