Customer Reviews

JOHNNY MNEMONIC

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm generally a fan of Terry Bisson's work, especially his short stories ("Bears Discover Fire" is great), but this novel-based-on-a-movie-based-on-a-short-story is just embarrassing. The film was a mostly incoherent rendering of William Gibson's very good story (even though Gibson himself wrote the screenplay); I suspect Bill's stuff just doesn't translate well to the screen. This novelization (why bother?) has all the film's confusion and none of Gibson's trademark style and atmosphere. Worse, Bisson throws in some minor bits and pieces of his own invention. I couldn't get more than one-third into this before quitting in annoyance.

When viewing the film, I always thought that Johnny Mnemonic could have been more. The script laid out a world as amazing and dark as BLADE RUNNER, but the film itself was a cheap piece of trash.

With Terry Bisson's novelization, we can see the world missing from the film. Wonderful characters. Gritty surroundings. Cyberspace.

Bisson's prose is as rich as that of cyber-guru William Gibson (who wrote the screenplay). He even borrows a few frazes and slangs from Gibsons other works.

Don't see the movie, it'll be a waste of your time. But this book just might teach you somthing.

This movie sort of started a cyberpunk trend
and has become an historical document.
The book expands on the short story like many of Philip K. Dick stories became movies
in the past:Blade Runner.
Hacking and the web have since become household words.
The movie and book are both sort of fantastic plastic in the future...