NEUROMANCER BY WILLIAM GIBSON (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)

 Hello, dear readers. Today I have a new reading recommendation for you: a novel that helped to establish the genre of cyberpunk! Published in 1984, Necromancer won all three major science fiction awards: Nebula, Philip K.Dick and Hugo award. Neuromancer brought fame to its author William Gibson, an American Canadian writer who (largely thanks to this novel) is today known as the leader of the cyberpunk genre. A classic of science fiction genre, Neuromancer is a novel that isn't easily forgotten. It's an unique and revolutionary piece of writing!

"It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. Set in the future, the novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up hacker hired for one last job, which brings him in contact with a powerful artificial intelligence. " cited from Wikipedia.  This is what Britannica has to say about it: "Neuromancer, novel (1984) by William Gibson that launched the cyberpunk movement within the science fiction literary genre. The novel, a fast-paced, gritty, Raymond Chandler-esque meditation on a computing-fueled dystopia of the near future, had an impact on many of its readers much like that of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road on the hipster-bohemian counterculture of the 1950s and ’60s......Just as Kerouac did not invent “beat” writing, Gibson did not create cyberpunk. Known simply as “the Movement,” cyberpunk had been bubbling for perhaps five years prior to Neuromancer’s publication, and in fact Gibson had made several important previous contributions to the sub-genre with such short stories as “Johnny Mnemonic” and “The Gernsback Continuum.” However, Neuromancer established the movement’s enduring face and provided its true founding text. The book established the filthy setting of an environmentally damaged, alienated, dystopian society dominated by global computer networks in which characters battle “artificial intelligences, monopoly capitalism and a world culture as ethnically eclectic as it is politically apathetic and alienated,” in the words of Webster’s New World Dictionary of Computer Terms. Gibson’s characters, like Kerouac’s, are fringe lowlifes, drug-ingesting antiheroes, and outlaws. They are also innately brilliant hackers who undertake insane adventures in the virtual reality of “cyberspace”—a word that Gibson had coined earlier and fleshed out in Neuromancer and that has since become a mainstream pseudonym for the Internet. "

Did that get you interested? If yes, scroll down to read my review. 

NEUROMANCER, A NOVEL BY WILLIAM GIBSON  4.4 /5

HOW DID I FEEL ABOUT THIS NOVEL? 

I loved Neuromancer. I knew I would love it as soon as I started reading it, for its flawed but amazingly charming protagonist got instantly under my skin. Moreover, the premise of the novel was ingenious. I won’t even say anything of the fact that this novel (dealing with the theme of cyberspace and inventing the world itself!) was published in 1984 and how ingenious that makes it.

“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...”
 William Gibson, Neuromancer

“A year here and he still dreamed of cyberspace, hope fading nightly. All the speed he took, all the turns he'd taken and the corners he cut in Night City, and he'd still see the matrix in his dreams, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colourless void... The Sprawl was a long, strange way home now over the Pacific, and he was no Console Man, no cyberspace cowboy. Just another hustler, trying to make it through. But the dreams came on in the Japanese night like livewire voodoo, and he'd cry for it, cry in his sleep, and wake alone in the dark, curled in his capsule in some coffin hotel, hands clawed into the bedslab, temper foam bunched between his fingers, trying to reach the console that wasn't there.”

The story drew me in right away. The descriptions felt very poetic and the ideas came off as very fresh. So, I enjoyed the introduction…Just when I was getting used to our protagonist and was learning of this new world, thinking how world building was done very well…along came Molly.

ALONG COMES MOLLY! 

What a woman! She is a wonderfully portrayed (albeit not in great detail) and seems to have that star quality. That charisma that some seem to have, that magic something that draws people instantly to them. I know she is a fictional character, but in this world of fiction, she is a star. This novel wouldn’t be what it was without her.

“Something he’d found and lost so many times. It belonged, he knew – he remembered – as she pulled him down, to the meat, the flesh the cowboys mocked. It was a vast thing, beyond knowing, a sea of information coded in spiral and pheromone, infinite intricacy that only the body, in its strong blind way, could ever read.”

A SUPERB HEROINE

The moment she appeared in this novel, she owned it. It was as if I could see her, with her long elongated muscles like that of a ballerina and her physical agility matching that of her mind. She is fabulously contrasted to our hacker. They couldn’t have been more different and yet they felt like they were made for one another. I found it very refreshing that it was the woman who was saving the guy from being beaten up, not the other way around. It is not a typical love story, but there is something honest and genuine about it. I did like the relationship between Molly and Case a lot and I think it added a nice depth to their character that would have been hard to accomplish in a novel that is as high paced.

“His vision crawled with ghost hieroglyphs, translucent lines of symbols arranging themselves against the neutral backdrop of the bunker wall. He looked at the backs of his hands, saw faint neon molecules crawling beneath the skin, ordered by the unknowable code. He raised his right hand and moved it experimentally. It left a faint, fading trail of afterimages.”
 William Gibson, Neuromancer

BEAUTIFUL AND POETICAL LANGUAGE

Some may say that the language is difficult but I don’t share that opinion. To me language of this book is absolutely beautiful and surprisingly poetic. The imaginative force of Neurmancer is very impressive. There was something visual and loud about it, something that make me see and hear it, even more than feel it. Style of this novel is stuff of legends and rightfully so. The writing is very unique, often mesmerizing but I must say that, on overall, it is not perfect. What do 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.”

“His teeth sang in their individual sockets like tuning forks, each one pitch-perfect and clear as ethanol.”
 William Gibson, Neuromancer

THE WRITING IS SO MESMERIZING YOU FORGET IT'S NOT PERFECT

There were times when this novel felt rushed. I didn’t find it hard to get into, nothing had felt easier but I found it hard to follow. It is as if the writer itself wasn’t sure what he was doing, it is like this marvellous vision was getting from his control…but what a magnificent vision it was! The imagination it must have took to write it!!! No wonder it must have been getting out of hand. There is so much newness in it, so much rawness that it must have taken some concentration of the writing. Nevertheless, the novel is a lot of fun to read. Moreover, reading it felt like trying a new dish for the first time. The flavour!!!! The writing might be flawed; the narrative might be confusing but what a rush it is to read it!

THE CULTURAL IMPACT OF NEUROMANCER

While I was reading it, I was very much aware of the cultural impact in had on our present society. Movies, cartoons, comic books, literature, art…this novel has left an immense trace on our popular culture, a trace that is perhaps unprecedented. It is amazing how it managed to have such a great influence, leaving its mark in so many fields. Or is it? Perhaps it only makes sense because it is an amazing novel. So brave in its originally, so new and unapologetic, so fresh and daring! Pushing its way, being the first in many ways…and moving on so many frontiers.

“The Matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games,' said the voice-over, 'in early graphics programs and military experimentation with cranial jacks.' On the Sony, a two-dimensional space war faded behind a forest of mathematically generated ferns, demonstrating the spatial possibilities of logarithmic spirals; cold blue military footage burned through, lab animals wired into test systems, helmets feeding into fire control circuits of tanks and war planes. '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 lights, receding...”

VIVID AND MEMORABLE CHARACTERS THAT AREN'T EXPLORED IN DEPTH

The best way to describe characters would be vivid. There is no in-depth analysis and characterization is not the merit of this novel. We don’t get the change to look in their soul, but we have enough time to be get a glance of them and to be fascinated by them. All of the characters seem to be belong in this world, one most of all. His majesty AI. The writer really did a great job of portraying what AI might be like. You see, AI is really the one pulling the strings. That part of the story was handled perfectly. It is really phenomenal that he managed to explore that aspect of it as well. Cyberspace, dystopian world, genetic engineering, adventure….a lot happens in this one.

HOW DID THIS UNIQUE 1984 NOVEL AGE? 

Has this novel age well? It didn't age a day. When I read it, it still felt terrifyingly fresh. It is as relevant today as when it was published. This novel founded the genre of cyberpunk. Any work of literature that founds a new genre is bound to be exceptional and this novel is no exception. It is amazing. It is loud like metal but at times it tones down and becomes melancholically enchanting. Neuromancer is sexy. Violent. Cool. In your face. It is a very unique piece of writing.

MIND-BLOWING STYLE AND CREATIVITY EVEN IF THE WRITER DIDN'T ALWAYS KNOW WHAT HE WAS DOING

Why four rather than five stars? The writing wasn’t as brilliant as the vision. There was something a bit chaotic about it, making the novel a bit hard to follow. The style was mind-blowing, but the structure could have used some improvement. I would compare it with On The Road, but while I had a love and hate relationship with that one, I had a love love relationship with this one. 

WOULD I RECOMMEND THIS NOVEL? YES, ABSOLUTELY! 

I would absolutely recommend this novel.  I immensely enjoyed reading this novel. However, I didn't establish that special connection with Neuromancer. I guess I was left wanting in some ways. Nevertheless, it is an exceptional novel of incredible imaginative force. It didn't change my life, but reading it certainly made me feel great. I do believe it deserved all the awards it wan.  Moreover, I consider it to be a great work of literature. When I think of this book, a smile comes to my lips. I think that's the best recommendation. If I had to sum my Necromancer review all in one sentence it would sound like this- It is bloody brilliant and absolutely original.

Thank you for reading! What is your favourite book at the moment (or all of times)?