From the Bookshelf of Beyond Reality…

When I saw the movie Matrix, it initially struck me that it had something to do with the Matrix in this book. But, for better or for worse, the Wachowski brothers took that movie trilogy somewhere else and I was left to wondering what a movie version of Neuromancer's Matrix would be like. (Here's a link to some of the failed attempts at bringing this book to film: link).

It's a credit to William Gibson's particular genius that the images he painted in this seminal book remain in the popular consc

When I saw the movie Matrix, it initially struck me that it had something to do with the Matrix in this book. But, for better or for worse, the Wachowski brothers took that movie trilogy somewhere else and I was left to wondering what a movie version of Neuromancer's Matrix would be like. (Here's a link to some of the failed attempts at bringing this book to film: link).

It's a credit to William Gibson's particular genius that the images he painted in this seminal book remain in the popular consciousness this far removed from its original publication. Well, at least, they have remained in mine --- the landscape of the datasphere, the geek hacker jacking into his rack of hardware, mirrorshades, virtual reality indistinguishable from reality, and of course, the lost and bedraggled cyberpunk.

Comparing this book to his more recent efforts, such as the Blue Ant series, I can still see the traces of the early Gibson, keenly nuanced prose that borders on flash while promising more meaty energies running unseen. But you can feel it. And it is this sense of emergent tension that drives Neuromancer, hurtles it forward on a narrative trip that, alas, does not resolve well.

This book is more about the ride, and the scenery on the way, rather than the destination. Vintage Gibson.