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Neuromancer (Sprawl #1)

William Gibson

Why we're reading this: Hugo Winner 1985
Nebula Award 1984
#14 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.…more
[close] Hugo Winner 1985
Nebula Award 1984
#14 on NPR's Top 100 SF/F novels of all time (2011 poll) http://www.npr.org/2011/08/11/1390858...
#8 on Locus Magazines Best SciFi novels of the 20th century http://www.locusmag.com/2012/AllCentu...

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Mar 10, 2022 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: future-of-humanity, philosophy, technology, sci-fi-and-fantasy, oh-no-dystopia, award-winners

“His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it.”

The most disciplined and hardest of sci-fi.

What an astonishing work.

Unlike anything I’ve read in the genre.

The world is dystopian, futuristic, technology-infused, gritty, sexy, weird, dirty, confusing. Hints of Blade Runner (the author actually worried about this comparison, the movie being released during his writing), with thematic similarities to The Matrix (there is a “m “His ugliness was the stuff of legend. In an age of affordable beauty, there was something heraldic about his lack of it.”

The most disciplined and hardest of sci-fi.

What an astonishing work.

Unlike anything I’ve read in the genre.

The world is dystopian, futuristic, technology-infused, gritty, sexy, weird, dirty, confusing. Hints of Blade Runner (the author actually worried about this comparison, the movie being released during his writing), with thematic similarities to The Matrix (there is a “matrix”). Truly, though, “Neuromancer” is the most original sci-fi I’ve yet encountered.

There is a mysterious mission at the heart of the novel. The players are this fascinating assortment of humans, surgically-modified humans, warring AI, matrix-only consciousnesses, ninja assassins, psychopaths, clones, and cultists.

I may have found it so consistently captivating because of its prescience about moral questions that arise as a result of technological advance (it was first published in 1984). What does it mean to be alive, for example? What qualifies as a person, when so many compelling characters seem to be synthetic but still motivated by what we recognize as humaneness, humor, curiosity, love? What consideration do clones get, and what do we owe them? Many characters struggle with selfishness and vice, but experience unexpected bursts of consideration for others. And what if selflessness is more likely to occur in the synthetic dream-world of a “matrix”? What if the dream state has more of what we recognize as humanity and “real-ness” than the physical world of the future?

Particularly now (writing in 2022), the stress of the modern world has a fever pitch, for all manner of reasons: technology, economic anxiety, political division, ethnic tensions, COVID. The world of "Neuromancer" feels like our inevitable future. I see our progression into deeper and deeper human angst, relieved by increasingly sophisticated addictions, body modifications, or pure hedonism.

Of course it’s a science fiction story, and there isn’t an ounce of fat on this narrative. Lots of fun. I recommend it to anyone.
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