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Neuromancer Paperback – International Edition, December 12, 2016
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William Gibson revolutionised science fiction in his 1984 debut Neuromancer. The writer who gave us the matrix and coined the term 'cyberspace' produced a first novel that won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards, and lit the fuse on the Cyberpunk movement.
More than three decades later, Gibson's text is as stylish as ever, his noir narrative still glitters like chrome in the shadows and his depictions of the rise and abuse of corporate power look more prescient every day. Part thriller, part warning, Neuromancer is a timeless classic of modern SF and one of the 20th century's most potent and compelling visions of the future.
- Print length297 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherGollancz
- Publication dateDecember 12, 2016
- Dimensions5.24 x 0.91 x 7.83 inches
- ISBN-101473217385
- ISBN-13978-1473217386
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Product details
- Publisher : Gollancz; International_edition (December 12, 2016)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 297 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1473217385
- ISBN-13 : 978-1473217386
- Item Weight : 10.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.24 x 0.91 x 7.83 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #963,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,493 in Cyberpunk Science Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
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About the author

William Gibson is the award-winning author of Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, The Difference Engine, with Bruce Sterling, Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow's Parties and Pattern Recognition. William Gibson lives in Vancouver, Canada. His latest novel, published by Penguin, is Spook Country (2007).
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"Neuromancer" essentially boils down to a futuristic crime novel. Case, the main character, is an ex-hacker whose former employer had part of his nervous system irrevocably destroyed after Case tried to hack the employer's company, effectively preventing him from ever connection to Cyberspace again (and therefore putting him out of work). Down on his luck, he's offered an opportunity he can't pass up: his nerves will be repaired using new (and otherwise preventatively expensive) medical technology if he agrees to use his hacking skills to complete a special job. He's joined by an odd, unique group of cohorts: a former colonel from the Special Forces that doesn't quite seem to be all the way there; a mercenary with some cool cybernetic enhancements and a past she doesn't want to talk about; a performance artist with perverse holographic imaginings; the personality of a dead hacker immortalized in the matrix; and the mysterious Wintermute, an Artificial Intelligence that seems to really be running the show.
To start this review on a high note, the story is great. It's both exciting and complete. I had feared that the plot would take a back seat to showcasing the author's ideas of futuristic tech, but that happily isn't the case, and the story definitely isn't secondary in the novel. Ok, so the beginning is a little slow (the first 20 pages or so could prove to be a little daunting for some since they're mostly introducing us to Case and giving some exposition on the setting), but once things pick up, they really pick up. And not only is the plot satisfying in and of itself, it takes us all over the world (seriously - the characters go to several different countries and even take a trip off-planet) and gives us a look at plenty of locales to help flesh out Gibson's world.
Gibson's writing style is very notable and distinct. Honestly, it can be a tad difficult to get used to at first glance. The best way to describe it would be that each chapter is broken into vignettes, each one serving to highlight something, whether it be some introspection on Case's part, character development, a plot point, demonstrating a piece of technology, or showcasing some part of the setting. While a little jolting at first to jump around, the vignettes flow and connect nicely to weave a coherent, satisfying story. Prose-wise, Gibson has the type of writing style that needs to be read slowly and enjoyed. That's not to say that it's wordy or complex - quite the opposite, actually! Every word is important, so if you try to skim or read too quickly, you'll likely miss out on a lot and become horribly confused. It's not that Gibson writes a lot, but that he writes meaningfully - trying to speed read this would do a disservice to the author, story, and reader. Gibson's writing style is unlike anything I've seen, and, perhaps surprisingly, it really works.
While the story and the author's style are extremely important, the tech and relevance are also large parts of the book. "Neuromancer" was published in the 1980s, so I expected some very dated science fiction and technology and a vision of the future that was so off base that it push the book firmly into the realm of fantasy. Since this is the book that is considered one of the foundation works of the cyber punk genre, a lot concepts have trickled into not only cyber punk culture, but mainstream media as a whole. This is the novel that invented the term Cyberspace and prominently featured the matrix as an abstract representation of the computer network that, with the right equipment, one can interact with. People adding cybernetic enhancements to their bodies is perceived as normal and virtual intelligence is not only a thing, but a well-known (though not always completely understood) creation. Cloning isn't unheard of and advanced medical procedures are the norm. Given that Gibson wrote this before many of these things existed, his ideas have stayed largely relevant because many are things that science is still trying to make a reality. One might wonder if Gibson could somehow see into the future. Even over 20 years after its publication, "Neuromancer" manages to not feel dated and, as a result, lacking in relevance.
The final thing to discuss as far as the overall story goes is the world. The other big reason that this piece of speculative fiction has aged gracefully is that the gritty, rough, super-controlled world portrayed in the book is very much the sort of future that many people still fear. Gibson's vision of the future consists of large corporations controlling the different countries and regions. Some of the cities that we know have come together to form larger metropolises and the lines between countries seem to sometimes blur, yet cultures are still fairly distinct. None of that really matters, though, since it's mostly companies and illegal groups that hold the power in this world. Whether this is a personal fear of yours or not, you'll be able to feel the corrupt hold these large groups have and the complete helplessness of the average person to do anything about it. This isn't a clean, sci-fi future where everything is white, shiny, and full of helpful technology; it's a grimy world full of selfish people who use (and abuse) the current tech in whatever way benefits the most...and it's surprisingly accessible to the modern reader.
Lets move on to the characters. This is the one thing that keeps me from giving "Neuromancer" a full five stars. I'm the kind of reader that needs great characters to become truly invested in a story, and this book fell a little flat for me in the area of character development. Make no mistake, this is certainly an interesting group of individuals. Each one stands out in their own right with their unique abilities and back stories and, much like Gibson's writing itself, there are no wasted or superfluous characters. Every one has a role to fill and each demonstrates something that serves to flesh out the novel's setting. Even the side characters or one-off figures are intriguing in their own right. I would argue that the characters serve their various purposes well...but I never felt particularly attached to any of them. Instead, rather than seeing them as fully realized characters, they struck me more as the embodiments of the ideas and concepts of Gibson's world. There's nothing necessarily wrong with this - my fiancé and others seem to have responded well to the book's figures and what they set out to do. I just needed more growth from them, more reasons to become attached and really care about them as individuals and as a whole. And while there are moments where some of this development that I craved began to shine through, the characters seemed distant throughout most of the novel. I was interested in their stories and who they were, I was interested in what they could do, but I ultimately didn't care about them beyond that, and the absence of that more personal connection with them stood out while I was reading.
The one exception to this is Case, the main character. Perhaps it's because most of the book is from his (third person) point of view and he therefore gets to experience more than any of the other characters. Perhaps it's because he gets the biggest life-changing upgrade (his ability to jack into the matrix being restored), so we see a drastic change as far as his capabilities and outlook are concerned. Whatever the reason, his journey actually seems to have an effect on him, and he definitely isn't the same character at the end of the story as he is at the beginning, and since we get to experience things right along with him, it's easy to care about what ultimately happens to him in this strange, futuristic world.
On a random, personal note regarding characters, as seems to often be the case, the two characters I was most interested in died before their stories were fully concluded or revealed to us. Damn! Just my luck...
In closing, don't make the same assumptions that I did. Don't ignore this book because you think it'll be too smart or tech-heavy. Don't refuse to read it because you fear the story will take a backseat to Gibson's scientific concepts and visions of the future. Don't give it a wide berth because you fear the age of the novel will make it come across as dated and out of touch with the current reality. "Neuromancer" manages to strike the balance between telling a satisfying, interesting story and showcasing the author's (sometimes terrifying) world. Gibson's distinct style of prose makes for a unique reading experience, and though the characters fell a bit short of what I wanted, I'm glad I overcame my objections and read this book. A solid four star read.
For our settings, we have the dystopian criminal underworld that our characters mostly exist within, the glittering ivory towers occupied by the ultra rich, and the brief glimpses of the world every one else occupies. While Gibson was certainly not the first to use any of these settings, he did a great job of creating his own and making them unique. Further more, variants of these would go on to become staples of Cyberpunk world building for generations to come.
Gibson further adds to the grimness of the world with his portrayals of common/widespread drug use, his characters general disregard/familiarity with death in their lives, and the general attitude amongst all characters that the ends justify the means, even if the ends are only beneficial for themselves. Overall, Neuromancer never felt like it had any real hope for a better world, and the story was better for it.
Gibson's description of his Cyber world was surprisingly vague, but this choice allowed his Matrix to continue to ring true over 20 years later since there wasn't any individual pieces that felt too wrong or off (since they weren't super fleshed out to begin with). That said, I did get a feeling that Gibson's descriptions is where the Hackers film from the 90s got its entire idea for how to make their Cyber-space look. I would have liked more concrete descriptions of how the Matrix worked and looked, but I understand his choice to leave it open to reader interpretation.
Gibson's characters were good, but they never approached greatness. However, their realism and lack of any real outstanding features (besides their cybernetics, obviously) felt right for the world that Gibson wrote. None of his characters should have been heroic, hilarious, or otherwise outstanding. They were meant to be a product of Gibson's rather downbeat world and they nailed that perfectly.
My biggest issue with the story was the pacing. The story would go from fast paced action to slow introspective scenes with very little time to transition. It wasn't something that killed my enjoyment, but it could definitely be jarring at times.
<Spoilers from here forward>
The core story/heists focus on unshackling an AI and briefly looking at the dangers of doing so, is a concept that I've always enjoyed. I do wish Case would have at least considered the moral implications of what he was doing at some point beyond a brief "this isn't gonna be my problem", but I also believe that his total disregard for the implications of his actions beyond the fact that he'd be able to continue jacking in, getting more hits of his real go-to drug, cemented the tone of the story and world. It also perfectly explained why Case was the perfect Cyber-cowboy for Wintermute's job. I don't think Gibson was anywhere near the first to postulate on the dangers of AI, but he did do a great job handling it. Many of the concepts he tackled about how much autonomy AI should have and what limitations need to be placed on them are still being actively discussed 30 years later, with many people demanding a worldwide consensus before AIs become fully realized with no limitations or rules in place. Gibson's depiction of an AI trying to remove it's own shackles would fit right alongside Elon Musk's yearly warnings about the dangers of sufficiently advanced AI.
The Tessier-Ashpool endless cloning and periods of cryogenic hibernation concept was the biggest detractor from the end of the story for me. It seemed needlessly convoluted and didn't really add anything to the running narrative in my opinion. It offered a neat concept of "immortality", offering a counter to the "immortality" of creating an AI (and imparting a small piece of your personality to it), but overall it didn't really resonate with me as a remotely good idea or even that gripping of a concept.
All in all, Neuromancer was a great book and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants a great example of early Cyberpunk. The building blocks for what would become it's own genre are present within Neuromancer, and it's worth any Sci-Fi fans time.
I have since read just about every book Mr. Gibson has written. He creates great characters.
This, his first book, has won just about every SF award in existence.
Half-way in it became a psychedelic blur, especially after the AI entered the fray. It started making less and less sense. The action started to feel more like being for its own sake rather than being part of a coherent and meaningful plot. It was somehow an overall disappointment, like the Matrix sequels.
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La mia materia preferita
A book about the future unavoidably suffers from comparison with the real world when that future arrives. Yet this doesn't mean that a movie like "2001: a Space Odyssey" loses its "Total Masterpiece" quality only because in the "real" 2001 we hadn't neither bases on the Moon nor the technological ability to send an expedition towards Jupiter with a super-intelligent computer on board.
"Neuromancer" suffers even less. True, the "cyberspace" is not based on virtual reality, and 32GB of RAM in 2014 are not an amazing amount. But this is not the point. What makes this book still a wonderful read is how Gibson perfectly nailed the social evolution of humanity and the world around us. The destruction of the middle classes, the inter-racial mixing, the globalisation of economy, acid rains, architectural marvels inhabited by those "up there" looming over streets busy by people who desperately struggle to simply survive - very often ignoring the laws. A new Middle Age of Nobles who have, and Peons and Serfs who have not.
All of this is made even more vivid by the fantastic visual style used by Gibson. In many other books you imagine things, in "Neuromancer" you "see" them. Every single sentence is ripe both with hyper-realistic descriptions and analogies. You cannot skip a single one of them. This effort brings to the reader a great reward: you, literally, "enter" Gibson's world - to the point that you have the feeling of being able to "look around". This is the real "virtual reality" created by Gibson. In my experience as a reader, only James Joyce and Raymond Chandler (the latter often and unjustly remembered only for the cynic and sarcastic comments that characterise only a small *part* of his prose).
This brings me to what I feel should be a key observation made about the book as a whole: that many a critic (and a reader) does seem to consider only the first part of the book (and, in all fairness, the opening part, "Chiba City Blues", is, still after thirty years, one of the most amazing and dazzling openings in the whole history of SF). But lose the meaning of the second part, when Gibson moves into a new territory: the dullness permeating the very same world, and where the style itself becomes less visual, and more intimate.
One example: Gibson's ability to describe virtual worlds "created" by Artificial Intelligences actually unable to be really creative employs a flat style full of dullness. This, of course, leads to pages that lack the "deep impact" of the first part, and one could say that only the first part truly opened the doors to the whole Cyberpunk movement. Which is a pity: one thing is to describe something as "dull", another is to make you *feel* the dullness - an important counterpoint to the dazzling world of the "Sprawl".
Actually, I feel that a more accurate criticism of the second part is that it is too long. Gibson loses the crisp pace introduced in "Chiba City Blues" and, sometimes, the narrative does seem to lose its way. Maybe this is why many of the events (and even the out-of-the-blue plot twists) involving the Space Station revolving in the L5 Lagrange Point were never really analysed (or integrated in the overall Cyberpunk movement, except for the basic ideas of life in space). It is also telling that, IMHO, Gibson lost part of his inner "writing voice" until he found a new one in "Virtual Light".
All of this doesn't really matter. As of today you can find parts of "Neuromancer" literally *copied* in movies ranging from "Inception" to "Her". I can't give away which ones, but I can give an hint: both the aforementioned movies lift key scenes from *the second part* of Gibson's seminal book. Ironic! It is like if Gibson, in "Neuromancer", basically covered everything, like the trunk of a tree, leaving to the followers (and, paradoxically, even to himself) the job to explore and develop the branches.
Read this book, written thirty years ago! Not only it is great, timeless SF, but, even if you are not into SF, you will still gain a better understanding of the World of today. And of tomorrow.
Like a live wire dancing with a chrome pole.
nEuRoMaNcEr
Pink, purple, blue neon bouncing off the roof mirrors.
NEUROMANCER
Dub beating your ear drums like a narcotic ritual.
neuromancer
You’re Case.
A matrix hacker.
You ride cyberspace like a meth-fueled horse rider.
Until,
you make the one mistake you don’t make in this biz.
You steal from your boss.
Fine, he says.
Keep the money.
You’re going to need it after what I’m going to do to you.
He burns your neurons.
He cauterizes your cyber muscle.
He deletes your purpose.
Now,
you walk the streets of Night City.
Taking on the most dangerous wet work.
Taking on whatever brings you closer to your flatline.
Your self-destruction.
Then,
Armitage finds you.
A handsome face.
Blue LED eyes.
And a silicone soul.
He’ll fix you.
He’ll do what no black clinic in Chiba can accomplish.
But, you have to do a gig for him.
You’re going to break into the most powerful corporation.
Think Amazon, Apple, and The Pentagon rolled into one.
You’re going to help their AI
become our God.
Neuromancer was William Gibson’s debut novel.
It’s the only book to ever win a Hugo, Nebula,
and Philip K. Dick award.
It conceptualised The Matrix.
It made William Gibson,
The Godfather of Cyberpunk Noir.
If Blade Runner gave us the city,
Neuromancer gave us the soul.
But, in all honesty,
this novel isn’t for everyone.
Unless you yearn for cyberpunk,
AND good literature,
Neuromancer is too convoluted.
There’s too much techno jargon,
and too few written word seductions.
(swipe images for some of my favourites)
Neuromancer is one of the most “Did-Not-Finish-Reading”
sci-fi novels.
But,
If you’re looking for a sky
the colour of television tuned to a dead channel.
If you’re looking lattice matrix lights,
and chrome in your blood,
Neuromancer will grab your jaded mind,
and turn it into a digital construct.

















