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Early cyberpunk tends to be power fantasy wrapped in dystopia. So, Hellblazer with more blinking lights and megacorps instead of demons. And it bears rememberi
by ethbr0 5y ago
Early cyberpunk tends to be power fantasy wrapped in dystopia. So, Hellblazer with more blinking lights and megacorps instead of demons.
And it bears remembering that Gibson was 34 when he wrote Neuromancer.
You can see a shift in his characterization by the time he gets to Mona Lisa Overdrive (a book and 4 years later). And certainly with the subsequent Bridge trilogy. IMHO, the Sprawl trilogy that starts with Neuromancer gets better with each book, even though the first is the most famous.
Also, plug for Void Star, which I recently finished after a recommendation here. It sits somewhere in Bridge-era Gibson tone, but with the quintessential "What the hell is going on?" Cyberpunk mystery that a lot of retro-CP authors drop. https://www.amazon.com/Void-Star-Novel-Zachary-Mason/dp/1250159415/ https://www.amazon.com/Void-Star-Novel-Zachary-Mason/dp/1250...
- batman-farts 5y agoIt’s definitely worth reading the whole Sprawl trilogy. It establishes something of a pattern in Gibson’s work where characters from the first book in one of his trilogies return in the third, changed. The scene where Molly and the Finn reunite in Mona Lisa Overdrive is quite powerful.
- bpiche 5y agoPersonally I feel like the series only goes downhill with Count Zero and worse with Mona Lisa Overdrive, but they're both fine books. Count Zero does world building well, it's cool to see the BAMA eastern seaboard, but Bobby is not as compelling of a protagonist. If anything the simstim star Tally Isham is a lot more interesting but there's a lot of human trafficking adjacent stuff happening there too. Don't remember Mona Lisa Overdrive very well but the whole A plot with the girl being protected because she has a modem in her head was a bit hard to follow. Though once again great world building. The B plot with an older Molly Millions delivering The Count's cybersarcophagus in the desert was cool af though. edit: that's not to say they're not fine books
- pmoriarty 5y agoI actually much preferred Count Zero to Neuromancer, but Mona Lisa Overdrive was by far the worst of the lot.