Mona Lisa Overdrive: Gibson, William.: 9789992716410: Amazon.com: Books

Similar items shipping to Canada

CA

Canada

See All Buying Options

Deliver to Canada

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

Added to

Unable to add item to List. Please try again.

Share <Embed>

Have one to sell?

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

Follow the Author

Mona Lisa Overdrive Paperback – December 1, 1989

by William. Gibson (Author)

1,919 ratings

Book 3 of 3: Sprawl Trilogy

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

"Please retry"

—

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

"Please retry"

$56.80

$2.35

"Please retry"

$6.96

$4.83

Paperback, December 1, 1989

—

$9.99

—

Mass Market Paperback

"Please retry"

$6.19

$1.52

Audio CD, Audiobook, CD, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$10.44

$6.71

Publisher

Bantam Books
Publication date

December 1, 1989
Dimensions

6.9 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches
ISBN-10

999271641X
ISBN-13

978-9992716410
See all details

William Gibson
2,371
Paperback
$13.99
$8.74 shipping
William Gibson
7,351
Paperback
$15.39
$8.96 shipping
William Gibson
843
Paperback
$8.89
$8.64 shipping
Neal Stephenson
2,099
Paperback
$14.19
$9.32 shipping
William Gibson
319
Paperback
$40.99
Get it as soon as Thursday, Oct 20
$10.82 shipping
Only 11 left in stock - order soon.
William Gibson
70
Paperback
$39.97
Get it as soon as Wednesday, Oct 26
$10.76 shipping
Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

Popular Highlights in this book

What are popular highlights?

He’d grown up in white Jersey stringtowns where nobody knew shit about anything and hated anybody who did.
Highlighted by 177 Kindle readers
The world hadn’t ever had so many moving parts or so few labels.
Highlighted by 136 Kindle readers
But did it wake, Kumiko wondered, when the alley was empty? Did its laser vision scan the silent fall of midnight snow?
Highlighted by 130 Kindle readers

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bantam Books; First Edition (December 1, 1989)
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 999271641X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-9992716410
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,315,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,115 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
1,919 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

William Gibson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

William Gibson was born in the United States in 1948. In 1972 he moved to Vancouver, Canada, after four years spent in Toronto. He is married with two children.

Customer reviews

5 star		68%
4 star		21%
3 star		9%
2 star		1%
1 star		1%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Phew! When all comes together and you get more questions than answers

Reviewed in the United States on August 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

After two confusing books in the series, Mona Lisa Overdrive puts it all together...sort of. Old stories come back to connect into a complicated narrative that at the same time explains all and gives you more questions. Definitely a must read to complete the circle...but it is as crazy and the previous books. Gibson just keeps you half knowing what's happening the whole time, but in this book there's more happening (I think)

Reading the Sprawl trilogy from a writer's perspective

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

I set out to read the Sprawl trilogy from a writer's perspective to try to glean Gibson's magic--plumb his style. Here's what I found in Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Like the previous novels Gibson is minimalist, disjointed, and noir. Lots and LOTS of people like that. Ultimately, I couldn't get into it. Problems I had with MLO.

Sally Shears/Molly Millions: Really an awesome character but totally underachieving her potential here. She was a bad ass assassin in Neuromancer but here she hardly ever even twitches her cat claw razors. One of the most powerful physical characteristics and it's left on the table! Why??? She could have been slashing through a couple of henchmen on a revenge sub-plot but that never happened. No. Here she's pretty much a bad ass but reasonably well behaved babysitter for most of the book with a kidnapping near the end with a VERY disjointed and confusing conclusion. So much potential wasted!

Slick: Had trouble giving a damn about Slick. His robots like "The Judge" may be pretty cool but they serve as little more than window dressing--not a whole lot of substance contributing to the story.

Gentry: Got confused with Slick sometimes. Gentry owns the factory. Slick is an ex-con with a court ordered 5 minute memory span who works in the factory. . .and that's about it..

Kumiko: Why is she in this story! She's a bystander and sucks up a third of the book. I don't get it. What is her purpose here?

Count Zero: Comatose throughout most of the book. Strangely key but superficial involvement at the end. Why, why, why?

Angie: Interesting. Central to the plot but kept at arms length throughout most of the book until near the end. Rich celebrity from Count Zero working in a popular but banal reality internet show.

Mona: Most interesting. Teen prostitute we feel for her the most. Improves her lot in life by assuming Angie's role in the show. Mmmm. . .okay. Good for her. I'm happy.

The book contains marginally interesting players but barely developed--skin deep characterizations but strangely powerful motivations. Sure wish I knew what motivated them to do what they do (Mona being the exception. We root for her to get the hell out of her situation.) The plot is unclear where it's going and then ends up in a spectacular achievement (SPOILER ALERT! We can upload our psyche--our soul--to the internet. Pretty mind blowing!) BUT accomplishes the climax in the most shockingly nonchalant manner. It's like a book building up to alien first contact and ending it with, "And then he shook hands with the first alien. The End." What? Wait! Where's the excitement? The abilities? The MAGIC of uploading yourself to the internet? It's just there and. . .close the book.

And speaking of "first contact" there were supposed to be voodoo gods in this book! Hinted at in Count Zero they barely take the stage here. Big disappointment! If you're looking for internet voodoo gods read Queen of Angels by Greg Bear. That's some REAL internet voodoo! Bear picks up what Gibson leaves on the table.

I think Gibson has. . .SOMEthing. I'm not sure what it is. He certainly has consistency. The characters are who they are without jumping the rails to do something completely OUT of character. But then again, we don't have a whole lot of input or back story on them so they could do whatever the hell they want and who are we, the readers, to challenge? And MLO is a noir book in line with the previous two. I like noir. I LOVE the movie Blade Runner! Gibson was deeply concerned that Neuromancer would be too close to the recently released movie that people would think the book was a knock off of Blade Runner. No chance of that. Two very different noir stories. I liked Blade Runner much more but that's just me.

So I suppose Gibson's followers don't mind or even enjoy massive anticipation, even tease, with little or no payoff. His minimalist style works for millions of fans but I like my unexplored territory of science fiction with a healthy dose of description, world building, and. . .well, color. Gibson doesn't paint a picture with words. He writes a gritty black and white story. Sgt. Friday would say, "Just the facts, ma'am." And that's kinda what you get. Maybe you like that kind of book. For me, I'll move on and won't look back.

15 people found this helpful

A furring end to the sprawl trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2022

Verified Purchase

Using crude, reductive analogies, If Neuromancer was a roller coaster and Count Zero was a corporate espionage thriller, then Mona Lisa Overdrive is landing a helicopter filled with corporate spies on a roller coaster track. I enjoyed it all and the resolution of some of my fav science fiction narrative to date.

The lowest point of the Sprawl Trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2021

Verified Purchase

It has been fifteen years since the corporate dynasty of Tessier-Ashpool has been infiltrated. Bobby Newmark, who became known as Count Zero eight years ago and sought out the mysteries of supernatural entities in the matrix now lies comatose and has been transferred to a virtual reality completely outside of the matrix. Taking care of him is an artist named Slick Henry who is a misfit and builder of killer robots living in a poisoned wasteland.
Meanwhile, a teen prostitute named Mona runs afoul of a plot to abduct a famous simstim star that looks remarkably like her, and a daughter of a powerful Yakuza crime lord is whisked away from the danger of the underworld and protected by none other than Molly Millions. Meanwhile, mysterious happenings are going on once again within the matrix….

“Mona Lisa Overdrive” is the third and final installment in William Gibson’s cyberpunk “Sprawl Trilogy.” Like in the book before it, it consists of three plot threads that eventually interconnect. The pacing of the novel is absorbing, as are the characters, who are all varied and bring different and interesting personalities to the table.
There is some action throughout, but, like the two volumes before it, it is not high-octane. What this book lacks in action, it makes up for in intrigue and espionage. The reappearance of Molly Millions from the first book, “Neuromancer” is a warm, welcome, and even exciting sight, but it soon proves disappointing as she is not so fierce and feral as she is in the first book.
Cyberspace is not the big focus in this work like it is in the two installments before it. There are some scenes and sequences in cyberspace, but it isn’t as alien, menacing, and wild and adventurous as it is in the preceding novels. Instead, this last installment focuses mainly on warfare in the underworld, drugs, and the peril and price of fame, and while some of that is enjoyable and even riveting, it just didn’t hold the pull of the first two books.
I’d go so far as to say that this is the Sprawl Trilogy’s ultimate low point, and it really is a shame, because it all could have ended with a bang. Definitely not what I expected, and not in a good way either.
I give “Mona Lisa Overdrive” by William Gibson a 3 out of 5.

4 people found this helpful

This in the Neuromancer trilogy

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2022

Verified Purchase

Prophetic Gibson fare, full of future visions many of which have come into reality in the time since these books were written. These books have shaped the technological ecosystem of today. Some words he coined for these books have become permanent elements of popular culture... "cyberspace", "the matrix". If you want to understand how we got here these seminal works are part of the essential reading list.

Top reviews from other countries

P. GILL

It may be a classic but it is so on the button for today

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 23, 2018

Verified Purchase

This novel is part of a trilogy and is a more of the moment story than many current novels. Despite being science fiction and located within the network it gives a real imaginative insight into the future and current failings of the connected world. Completely absorbing and compelling. Makes The Matrix feel like a kids comic.

2 people found this helpful

A buyer

Good

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2012

Verified Purchase

I'm a fan of Gibson, so I'm being kinder here than perhaps I should be, but this was overall a good novel. I think you'd have to be a fan of Gibson's universe to enjoy it so much, but also a word of advice: You should read the books in order (I didn't know that this was the third installment) and the overall narrative will be more enjoyable.

Not comparable to Neuromancer I'm afraid, but you can only make a breakthrough like that once! This book (along with Count Zero) gives a little more of the Neuromancer universe, plus Gibson's fast moving style, which is always a pleasure.

One person found this helpful

Ellipsis

Excellent continuation of the series

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 9, 2015

Verified Purchase

I read this quite a long time after reading the first two books in the trilogy and I enjoyed it a lot. Nothing could quite match the futuristic shock of Neuromancer but the author carried the story of his rather pessimistic cyber-future on in a entertaining way. Interesting characters and language, and plot threads knitted together in a satisfying way. Good book, but you should definitely read the other two first, otherwise you'll be missing a lot of references.

2 people found this helpful

Joel Hollowday

Leaves you wanting more ( this is a good thing.)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

I am late to William Gibson. While any one of the books stands alone this is best read as a trilogy in which some of the issues raised in book 1 are resolved. There are still enigmatic matters which would have allowed Gibson to carry on almost indefinitely. So, this is a gripping story which leaves the reader wanting more. Hence I am buying more by William Gibson.

mark turner

Blinding

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

Real sci-fi..if you love Iain M Banks this is for you.
I would strongly recommend reading the series in order to avoid some of the inevitable confusion.

See all reviews

Get to Know Us

Make Money with Us

Amazon Payment Products

Let Us Help You

English $USD - U.S. Dollar United States

© 1996-2022, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates