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Neuromancer
(Sprawl #1)
by
Winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards
Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic a ...more
Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic a ...more
Mass Market Paperback, 271 pages
Published
July 1st 1984
by Ace Books
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Start your review of Neuromancer (Sprawl, #1)

Wow.
This is a wild ride. If you like Philip K. Dick’s writing and wondered what would happen if you extended his vision into the not too distant future, if you liked Bladerunner, if you liked The Matrix … and even if you like all the film and fiction that has made an attempt to be any of the above, you will love Neuromancer.
William Gibson said that while writing Neuromancer he went to see the Ridley Scott film Bladerunner and thought that his ideas for the book were hopelessly lost, that everyo ...more
This is a wild ride. If you like Philip K. Dick’s writing and wondered what would happen if you extended his vision into the not too distant future, if you liked Bladerunner, if you liked The Matrix … and even if you like all the film and fiction that has made an attempt to be any of the above, you will love Neuromancer.
William Gibson said that while writing Neuromancer he went to see the Ridley Scott film Bladerunner and thought that his ideas for the book were hopelessly lost, that everyo ...more


Eureka!...Hallelujah!...I've had a wondrous epiphany!
I finally get it...I have seen the light and understanding has dawned. Gibson’s manifest brilliance has revealed itself to me and I am left humbled and quivering in AWE.
After a rocky, tumultuous courtship that oscillated between respect and frustration through my first two readings of Neuromancer, number 3 became the CHARMing, rapturous awakening into a hopelessly devoted, head over heals love affair that I’m confident will last a lifetim ...more

For well over 20 years, I have seen copies of William Gibson’s “Neuromancer” on the Sci-Fi/Fantasy shelves of nearly every bookstore I have gone into. I recently decided to pick up a copy and read it. I figured a book that’s been continuously in print for over twenty years and is considered a ground-breaking work in Science Fiction had to be good. I figured wrong.
“Neuromancer” is a very convoluted novel. It jumps from local to local and situation to situation in a very jerky way. To add to the ...more
“Neuromancer” is a very convoluted novel. It jumps from local to local and situation to situation in a very jerky way. To add to the ...more

A lozenge is a shape. Like a cube, or a triangle, or a sphere. I know that every time he types it, you are going to imagine a cough drop flying serenely by, but it's a shape. It's from heraldry for god's sake. You may want to look up some synonyms to insert for yourself when he uses it, here are a few: diamond, rhombus, mascle.
Now that the greatest obstacle in Gibson's vocabulary has been dealt with, I can tell you that he writes in one of the finest voices of any Science Fiction author. His ab ...more
Now that the greatest obstacle in Gibson's vocabulary has been dealt with, I can tell you that he writes in one of the finest voices of any Science Fiction author. His ab ...more

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it,
click here.

DNF at 61%.

I am sorry, I really am. I tried really hard to finish it and made an attempt to resume reading after a break. I understand the huge influence the novel had on science fiction practically creating cyberpunk genre and introducing several words now in mainstream use. I fully acknowledge it. Let me say what was wrong with it - in my opinion.
If there was ever a victim of its own success, this book is it. It was so successful lots of people began developing the same theme and often much be ...more

I am sorry, I really am. I tried really hard to finish it and made an attempt to resume reading after a break. I understand the huge influence the novel had on science fiction practically creating cyberpunk genre and introducing several words now in mainstream use. I fully acknowledge it. Let me say what was wrong with it - in my opinion.
If there was ever a victim of its own success, this book is it. It was so successful lots of people began developing the same theme and often much be ...more

May 04, 2008
This Is Not The Michael You're Looking For
rated it
liked it
·
review of another edition
Context. Sometimes the key to understanding something is context. And never is that more the case than with the book Neuromancer. Neuromancer is a very famous, genre creating/changing book, winner of many awards. I’m reading Neuromancer for the first time; while not quite done, I find the story to be decent and the writing to be ok. As just a book that I am reading, I would call it fair. But that is an evaluation without context.
Under what context does my evaluation change? Well, one of the firs ...more
Under what context does my evaluation change? Well, one of the firs ...more

Mar 01, 2008
E.B.
rated it
did not like it
Recommends it for:
Cyber Goths, Computer Programers, IT Pros
Wow. What a terrible book.
First, let me just say that I read for entertainment value. Anything else that happens is gravy. That being said- the biggest reason this book is so awful is that Gibson's characters are completely hollow. Gibson makes it up as he goes along. He'll introduce a character, barely describe him and then 10 chapters later toss in another description. As if to say "Oh, yeah did I mention his hands were chainsaws? Yeah, they were totally chainsaws. Cool right?"
The reason this ...more
First, let me just say that I read for entertainment value. Anything else that happens is gravy. That being said- the biggest reason this book is so awful is that Gibson's characters are completely hollow. Gibson makes it up as he goes along. He'll introduce a character, barely describe him and then 10 chapters later toss in another description. As if to say "Oh, yeah did I mention his hands were chainsaws? Yeah, they were totally chainsaws. Cool right?"
The reason this ...more

Towards the end of this novel, the protagonists, Case and Molly, are walking down the rooms of the Villa Straylight, which looks like an abandoned and labyrinthine library or museum, spinning in orbit around the Earth. At one point, Molly passes by the shattered glass pane of Marcel Duchamp’s masterpiece, La mariée mise à nu par ses célibataires, même. Gibson’s reference to the cubist and dadaist artist, at this point of the novel, might look casual and unsubstantial; but to me, it implies a lot
...more

I am going to have to admit that I was utterly confused by the majority of this book. I mean,
“His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines.”
How’s that again? Eggs…of humming rainforest glass? No?
Normally I would read a sentence like that and just throw in the towel. But for all its trippy, surreal, dense prose, this book still manages to convey so much. Reading it fee ...more
“His eyes were eggs of unstable crystal, vibrating with a frequency whose name was rain and the sound of trains, suddenly sprouting a humming forest of hair-fine glass spines.”
How’s that again? Eggs…of humming rainforest glass? No?
Normally I would read a sentence like that and just throw in the towel. But for all its trippy, surreal, dense prose, this book still manages to convey so much. Reading it fee ...more

A bit of an embarrassment on the canon's part, really. Oooh Harsh! This one's "a landmark novel" that was actually ripped off by thousands of other sci-fi endeavors afterwards, like a chunk of meat devoured by the ever-hungry idea-challenged.
And it has explosive sentences with new and often-inexplicable lingo that ends making one feel alienated by the entire lit. crowd, this being a perennial favorite of theirs. It is a messy concoction thats too cool to let you ever, well, absorb. To allow you ...more
And it has explosive sentences with new and often-inexplicable lingo that ends making one feel alienated by the entire lit. crowd, this being a perennial favorite of theirs. It is a messy concoction thats too cool to let you ever, well, absorb. To allow you ...more

Nov 20, 2011
s.penkevich
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
Anyone who needs an escape from the Sprawl
Recommended to s.penkevich by:
Drunkkidcatholic
Shelves:
sci-fi,
times-100-best
I was watching Jeopardy a few weeks ago when I first heard of Gibson (Technology for 200: “I coined the term ‘cyberspace’”) and the next morning on my commute to work I heard another allusion to the Canadian author on NPR. A few days later, someone recommended I read Neuromancer so seeing as the stars were seemingly aligning to place a Gibson novel at the top of my ‘to-read’ list, I went out and bought this novel. I am glad I did. Not only did it remind me that I needed to read more sci-fi from
...more

Neuromancer is a most peculiar novel that deserves a peculiar review. So,
THREE PEOPLE WHO WILL (PROBABLY) NOT LIKE Neuromancer AND THREE PEOPLE WHO (PROBABLY) WILL :
THREE PEOPLE WHO WILL (PROBABLY) NOT LIKE Neuromancer
1. The Reader With Delicate Sensibilities
Does swearing, violence, lots of sex, and drug use sends a shiver of disgust down your spine? Then this is likely not the book for you. Though it rarely veered into territory that made me uncomfortable, Neuromancer refuses to be censored an ...more
THREE PEOPLE WHO WILL (PROBABLY) NOT LIKE Neuromancer AND THREE PEOPLE WHO (PROBABLY) WILL :
THREE PEOPLE WHO WILL (PROBABLY) NOT LIKE Neuromancer
1. The Reader With Delicate Sensibilities
Does swearing, violence, lots of sex, and drug use sends a shiver of disgust down your spine? Then this is likely not the book for you. Though it rarely veered into territory that made me uncomfortable, Neuromancer refuses to be censored an ...more

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.
Unhook the Modem: "Neuromancer" by William Gibson
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city light ...more
Unhook the Modem: "Neuromancer" by William Gibson
“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts . . . A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city light ...more

Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .
Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employers crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. ...more
The Publisher Says: The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus- hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace . . .
Case had been the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employers crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. ...more

Oct 21, 2009
K
rated it
did not like it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
cyberpunk fans
Recommended to K by:
Dena Udren
Shelves:
couldntfinish,
scifi-fantasy-magicrealism
True Confessions
1. I am a nerd.
(I know this is a shocking revelation from someone who spends most of her free time reading and writing book reviews for pleasure).
My overall personality, compounded by my sheltered religious background (as in, I spent most of my life going to school, marrying and having kids early, and being a homemaker with periodic stints in the workplace), makes it difficult for me to relate to characters who frequent bars, regularly use drugs, sleep around, and pepper their ...more
1. I am a nerd.
(I know this is a shocking revelation from someone who spends most of her free time reading and writing book reviews for pleasure).
My overall personality, compounded by my sheltered religious background (as in, I spent most of my life going to school, marrying and having kids early, and being a homemaker with periodic stints in the workplace), makes it difficult for me to relate to characters who frequent bars, regularly use drugs, sleep around, and pepper their ...more

Reminding me of both hard-boiled detective novels in the style of Dashiell Hammett and the cyber punk genre it spawned (yeah, it definitely reminded me of the Matrix movies), though groundbreaking when it was published in 1984, to me William Gibson’s Neuromancer was more attitude and atmosphere than substance. The plot is very thin and predictable and I felt almost no connection to the characters. It wasn’t unenjoyable to read. There was some interesting use of language and it was quite possibly
...more

This is my third reading of Neuromancer, the first time was while in my teens decades ago, I hated it then and was not able to read more than 50 pages. The second time was around five years ago, I liked it better then but still found much of it inaccessible. This third reading was inspired by The Three-Body Problem which is only partially a cyberpunk book. I keep coming back to this problematic book not because I love it, but because the story and its iconic status interests me and I really wan
...more

the following is a Reverse Exquisite Corpse Review, brought to you by the good folks at Sci Fi Aficionados.
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I first read Neuromancer about 20 years ago. Writing with strokes instead of details is an interesting way to describe Gibson's writing. That's how I feel about some of the performance art I saw in my art school days. The strokes were far too numerous. I found it impossible to tell what was detail, what was colour, what was clue. I get bored with things being laid out t ...more
_____________________
I first read Neuromancer about 20 years ago. Writing with strokes instead of details is an interesting way to describe Gibson's writing. That's how I feel about some of the performance art I saw in my art school days. The strokes were far too numerous. I found it impossible to tell what was detail, what was colour, what was clue. I get bored with things being laid out t ...more

The thing is I just didn’t get it. I like my SF near future and close enough to present day reality for me to be able to translate what we do now into what we’re supposed to be doing (or able to do) in the future. If it’s too wild, or just too big a leap, my mind doesn’t seem to allow me to make the jump.
Then there’s the language thing. The use of a new vocabulary left me befuddled and confused. I honestly didn’t know what was going on most of the time. And when I did glean a bit of the narrati ...more
Then there’s the language thing. The use of a new vocabulary left me befuddled and confused. I honestly didn’t know what was going on most of the time. And when I did glean a bit of the narrati ...more

To Call Up a Demon, You Must Learn Its Name
As punishment for a business indiscretion, Case, who lives for the "bodily exultation of cyberspace" (one of many neologisms first used in "Neuromancer"), is injected with a wartime Russian mycotoxin and hallucinates for 30 hours, only to suffer damage that is "minute, subtle and utterly effective".
He falls into a "prison of his own flesh". After some fringe medical treatment in Siberia reinvents him, he emerges debt-ridden and physically compromis ...more
As punishment for a business indiscretion, Case, who lives for the "bodily exultation of cyberspace" (one of many neologisms first used in "Neuromancer"), is injected with a wartime Russian mycotoxin and hallucinates for 30 hours, only to suffer damage that is "minute, subtle and utterly effective".
He falls into a "prison of his own flesh". After some fringe medical treatment in Siberia reinvents him, he emerges debt-ridden and physically compromis ...more

Jun 26, 2010
Shovelmonkey1
rated it
liked it
Recommends it for:
people who really like geometry
Recommended to Shovelmonkey1 by:
1001 books list
This book should be so covered in shiny, spangly stars to indicate all the sci-fi awards it has received that the cover should look like the milky way and possibly be shinier and brighter than the sun. I just had the plain old paper back version with no spangles. Very sad. I like a nice bit of shiny.
Any goodreaders who have already perused my shelves will note that I am not someone who has read a great deal of science fiction. Is this a glaring oversight on my part? Hmm maybe.
I was persuaded t ...more
Any goodreaders who have already perused my shelves will note that I am not someone who has read a great deal of science fiction. Is this a glaring oversight on my part? Hmm maybe.
I was persuaded t ...more

"Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding..."
A modern classic, as archetypal as they get. Quite a few thoughts were explored, but not a lot of fun ...more
A modern classic, as archetypal as they get. Quite a few thoughts were explored, but not a lot of fun ...more

The book that launched the whole cyberpunk genre... well of course it's brilliant. If you like SF at all, put this on your must-read list. ...more

NO SPOILERS
This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Gibson has a real gift.
Think of Blade Runner - the movie with Harrison Ford. This book has the same kind of slick, urban, grimy, futuristic feel to it. It has aged wonderfully. Written in 1983, it has done nothing to date itself and still feels fresh and new and possible, even now.
...
Case is a hacker, it's what he lives for - being jacked in and connected to the matrix. But he loses that ability ...more
This is one of the most beautifully written books I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Gibson has a real gift.
Think of Blade Runner - the movie with Harrison Ford. This book has the same kind of slick, urban, grimy, futuristic feel to it. It has aged wonderfully. Written in 1983, it has done nothing to date itself and still feels fresh and new and possible, even now.
...
Case is a hacker, it's what he lives for - being jacked in and connected to the matrix. But he loses that ability ...more


Following the resounding success of my Locus Quest, I faced a dilemma: which reading list to follow it up with? Variety is the spice of life, so I’ve decided to diversify and pursue six different lists simultaneously. This book falls into my HUGO WINNERS list.
This is the reading list that follows the old adage, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". I loved reading the Locus Sci-Fi Award winners so I'm going to crack on with the Hugo winners next (but only the post-1980 winners, I'll follow up w ...more

William Gibson's Neuromancer is considered a classic in the cyberpunk genre and, indeed, as I read it, I could definitely feel the influence it had other iconic cultural landmarks such as the film The Matrix. The book itself is confusing to say the least: all the characters are jacked up on drugs most of the time and the language becomes confusing as a result. The descriptions of cyberspace are also complex and, of course, visionary - how Gibson could have foreseen some of the insidious ways tha
...more

There is much to enjoy about Neuromancer, and as we all know, its influence reaches far in film and literature. But there was a lot about it that rubbed me the wrong way.
Its patina gloss shimmers at first, but soon sours, like sleek leather jumpsuits blurred by a g-force simulator. Gibson is a clever writer, and I will read more of his novels in the future. He writes with a stylized fervor that is rarely matched, the obsessive glossolalia of Nabokov and Ballard, but he transmogrifies his vision ...more
Its patina gloss shimmers at first, but soon sours, like sleek leather jumpsuits blurred by a g-force simulator. Gibson is a clever writer, and I will read more of his novels in the future. He writes with a stylized fervor that is rarely matched, the obsessive glossolalia of Nabokov and Ballard, but he transmogrifies his vision ...more

This is the bible of cyberpunk. Everything I ever read which was written after this story, has something from it. This isn’t a novel to read for its plot or characters, but for the worldbuilding and the references. It comes to mind a thing I only said once about Heinlein’s All You Zombies, and that is: ‘this story is like a neutron star: small but with a weight beyond one's imagination.’
It’s too dense to be a light read and confusing most of the time if you don’t pay close attention to it; also, ...more
It’s too dense to be a light read and confusing most of the time if you don’t pay close attention to it; also, ...more

Nov 29, 2020
Bernardo
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
dystopian,
science-fiction
Neuromancer was the book that started the cyberpunk movement. It was also in this book that William Gibson coined the term ‘cyberspace’. From cyberspace came the matrix and Neuromancer ended up becoming an influential science fiction book. Besides that, it was the first book to win the three big awards of science fiction: the Nebula, the Hugo and the Philip K. Dick awards.
This book isn’t as accessible as some other science fiction books. You are thrown right into the action of Night City, with i ...more
This book isn’t as accessible as some other science fiction books. You are thrown right into the action of Night City, with i ...more
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Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer(1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies wor ...more
William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer(1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies wor ...more
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“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
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“Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding...”
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