5 ms·

Neuromancer, 30 years old this month

95 points by slurry 12y ago

VonGuard 12y ago
Such a great book with the absolutely iconic characters of cyber-fiction. If you don't have time to read this book, perhaps you can find time to listen to the book on tape, as read by the author: http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audio.html http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audi...
- billybofh 12y ago
  There was also a pretty good BBC Radio dramatisation of it. Sadly, from a quick search, they don't seem to be selling it - but there are copies floating about online. Well worth a listen.
- tachyonbeam 12y ago
  I don't read very much paper books, for some reason I always found it uncomfortable, straining on the eyes and tiring. I recently got into audiobooks. Listened to Neuromancer, the first three of the Dune series, The Positronic Man, the first Foundation book, Burning Chrome, and the Steve Jobs Biography. Just started listening to The Last Theorem today. Audiobooks are amazingly convenient and you can definitely find time to fit them into your life. You can listen to them while walking around, on the bus or subway, while grocery shopping, while cooking, and even in the bathroom. I also think that audiobooks might be a good way to practice your focus, in the way that mindfulness meditation teaches you to do. You try and pay attention to the audiobook as best as you can, and if you're prone to anxiety and rumination, this will at the very least help provide a useful distraction and quiet down inner chatter. Thumbs up for audiobooks, helping me get more culture into my life.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    In my limited experience, most audiobook readers (as in people, not audio players) are not that great, which makes for a dull experience. One of the exceptions has been the Discworld, (mostly) read by Nigel Planer[1], they're just awesome. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer
dkns 12y ago
What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and Mona Liza Overdrive)?
- joezydeco 12y ago
  Stephenson's Snow Crash.
- mindcrime 12y ago
  It's closer to "proto-cyberpunk" but I can't recommend John Brunner's classic The Shockwave Rider[1] highly enough. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider
- VonGuard 12y ago
  Snowcrash. I love Buring Chrome, which is Gibson's short stories. True Names. Wetware/Freeware. Basically, start with Gibson, then Neal Stephenson, take some drugs and read Rudy Rucker, then have a mint julep and read some Bruce Sterling. Sprinkle lightly with Vernor Vinge, and end with some Dick.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- rrival 12y ago
  More from Neal Stephenson: Diamond Age is good, Cryptonomicon is fantastic. Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire is interesting as well.
  - keithpeter 12y ago
    I found Cryptonomicon a bit shallow and absurdly hyperactive, but then I read it more or less back to back with Le Carre's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
- Ecio78 12y ago
  I remember having at home Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk antology[1]. It contains short novels by Gibson and others and it was edited by Bruce Sterling. Unfortunately many years have passed so I don't remember if it was good.. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-Bear/dp/0441533825 http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-...
grimgrin 12y ago
Awesome. Was just reading this earlier today, because I decided to pick it back up again after never finishing years ago. I do really enjoy it, and would like to read the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy. A friend had a mousepad printed with this depiction of Chiba City (and I presume Case and Molly), which I use at work. :) http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-Illustrated-contest-WIP-294865366 http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-Illustr...
- Ecio78 12y ago
  I have always had this problem with Sprawl Trilogy books: I started, abandoned and then restarted and finished each of them..
mattmanser 12y ago
I read this for the first time last year. Absolutely fantastic book, apart from half the plot rests on mobile phones not existing. Which just comes across as bizarre now, looking back. Then again I'm reading the foundation series at the moment, and major plot points rest on how rediculously crap CPU power is and how travel is near instaneous, but somehow communication isn't. Sci-fi doesn't age well, alas. Though neuromancer is better than a lot and still well worth a read.
- cstross 12y ago
  Mobile phones as we know them today didn't exist when Gibson was writing Neuromancer. Pub date in 1984 means the MS was handed in in mid-1983 and he was writing it 1981-82 (on a manual typewriter: the royalties from Neuromancer bought him his first computer, an Apple IIc). While the idea of cellular comms dates to the 1950s (if not earlier), and some limited analog cellular service existed in some parts of the world (notably the Nordic countries from 1981), the UK didn't get analog cell service until roughly 1985; digital (over 2G GSM) didn't come along until roughly 1991. In Canada, cellphone service wouldn't have started until around the time the book was published, if not later. And, uninformed rumor to the contrary, SF isn't actually about prophesying the future.
  - keithpeter 12y ago
    Charlie, I accept the point entirely. BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of personal technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a video phone to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)
    - angersock 12y ago
      Heinlen's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Friday especially got quite a lot right.
    - incision 12y ago
      >'BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of personal technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a video phone to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)' Yeah. Personally, I disagree with the notion that science fiction authors are or should mean to be making predictions with their writing. Basically, it doesn't make sense to say someone 'missed' if they weren't necessarily aiming in the first place. Though, it's probably even more common to credit an author as prescient when he 'hits' so I guess it's a wash.
drpgq 12y ago
I ended up reading Neuromancer after playing the C64 game, which at the time I loved, but I'm sure if I saw it today I would laugh pretty hard at.
- josh-wrale 12y ago
  The Amiga version is definitely awesome. As a child I wondered what crystals had to do with hacking because of this game.
drpgq 12y ago
Have the movie plans moved forward at all? I seem to recall that something was happening relatively recently.
sBlomqst 12y ago
After reading this book a few months ago, I had the idea to make an iOS game based on secretly signaling others in a group while others attempt to catch who signals . The games called "Hand Jive" and its free if you care to check it out.
mrbill 12y ago
"GIBSON: I was afraid to watch Blade Runner in the theater because I was afraid the movie would be better than what I myself had been able to imagine." http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blade-runner-896472321 http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blad...
Linear-b 12y ago
I care what Cory Doctrow has to say about William Gibson in the same way that I care about what Britney Spears thinks of Ella Fitzgerald.
- dmix 12y ago
  Why? I'm a fan of William Gibson but I'm not familiar with Cory Doctrow although I hear his name often. Is he considered much less skilled than Gibson?
sampo 12y ago
The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.", has not stood the time. Nowadays that would probably mean a blue sky.
- jamesbritt 12y ago
  Nowadays that would probably mean a blue sky. That may have been what Gibson actually intended it to mean. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-creativity/#comment-131340 http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-creativity/#co...
  - VonGuard 12y ago
    No. Static was the intention: a grey mottled sky, rife with noir-insinuation. Can you possibly envision Chiba City as being anything but grey and filthy at all times? A blue sky completely changes the meaning of the line, and the tone of the setting.
NAFV_P 12y ago
> It sold more than 6m copies and launched an entire aesthetic: cyberpunk. The cyberpunk aesthetic was already in existence, like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga)

95 points by slurry 12y ago

Such a great book with the absolutely iconic characters of cyber-fiction. If you don't have time to read this book, perhaps you can find time to listen to the book on tape, as read by the author: http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audio.html http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audi...

billybofh 12y ago
There was also a pretty good BBC Radio dramatisation of it. Sadly, from a quick search, they don't seem to be selling it - but there are copies floating about online. Well worth a listen.
tachyonbeam 12y ago
I don't read very much paper books, for some reason I always found it uncomfortable, straining on the eyes and tiring. I recently got into audiobooks. Listened to Neuromancer, the first three of the Dune series, The Positronic Man, the first Foundation book, Burning Chrome, and the Steve Jobs Biography. Just started listening to The Last Theorem today. Audiobooks are amazingly convenient and you can definitely find time to fit them into your life. You can listen to them while walking around, on the bus or subway, while grocery shopping, while cooking, and even in the bathroom. I also think that audiobooks might be a good way to practice your focus, in the way that mindfulness meditation teaches you to do. You try and pay attention to the audiobook as best as you can, and if you're prone to anxiety and rumination, this will at the very least help provide a useful distraction and quiet down inner chatter. Thumbs up for audiobooks, helping me get more culture into my life.
- icebraining 12y ago
  In my limited experience, most audiobook readers (as in people, not audio players) are not that great, which makes for a dull experience. One of the exceptions has been the Discworld, (mostly) read by Nigel Planer[1], they're just awesome. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer

dkns 12y ago

What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and Mona Liza Overdrive)?

joezydeco 12y ago
Stephenson's Snow Crash.
mindcrime 12y ago
It's closer to "proto-cyberpunk" but I can't recommend John Brunner's classic The Shockwave Rider[1] highly enough. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider
VonGuard 12y ago
Snowcrash. I love Buring Chrome, which is Gibson's short stories. True Names. Wetware/Freeware. Basically, start with Gibson, then Neal Stephenson, take some drugs and read Rudy Rucker, then have a mint julep and read some Bruce Sterling. Sprinkle lightly with Vernor Vinge, and end with some Dick.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
rrival 12y ago
More from Neal Stephenson: Diamond Age is good, Cryptonomicon is fantastic. Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire is interesting as well.
- keithpeter 12y ago
  I found Cryptonomicon a bit shallow and absurdly hyperactive, but then I read it more or less back to back with Le Carre's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
Ecio78 12y ago
I remember having at home Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk antology[1]. It contains short novels by Gibson and others and it was edited by Bruce Sterling. Unfortunately many years have passed so I don't remember if it was good.. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-Bear/dp/0441533825 http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-...

grimgrin 12y ago

Awesome. Was just reading this earlier today, because I decided to pick it back up again after never finishing years ago. I do really enjoy it, and would like to read the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy. A friend had a mousepad printed with this depiction of Chiba City (and I presume Case and Molly), which I use at work. :) http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-Illustrated-contest-WIP-294865366 http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-Illustr...

Ecio78 12y ago
I have always had this problem with Sprawl Trilogy books: I started, abandoned and then restarted and finished each of them..

mattmanser 12y ago

I read this for the first time last year. Absolutely fantastic book, apart from half the plot rests on mobile phones not existing. Which just comes across as bizarre now, looking back. Then again I'm reading the foundation series at the moment, and major plot points rest on how rediculously crap CPU power is and how travel is near instaneous, but somehow communication isn't. Sci-fi doesn't age well, alas. Though neuromancer is better than a lot and still well worth a read.

cstross 12y ago
Mobile phones as we know them today didn't exist when Gibson was writing Neuromancer. Pub date in 1984 means the MS was handed in in mid-1983 and he was writing it 1981-82 (on a manual typewriter: the royalties from Neuromancer bought him his first computer, an Apple IIc). While the idea of cellular comms dates to the 1950s (if not earlier), and some limited analog cellular service existed in some parts of the world (notably the Nordic countries from 1981), the UK didn't get analog cell service until roughly 1985; digital (over 2G GSM) didn't come along until roughly 1991. In Canada, cellphone service wouldn't have started until around the time the book was published, if not later. And, uninformed rumor to the contrary, SF isn't actually about prophesying the future.
- keithpeter 12y ago
  Charlie, I accept the point entirely. BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of personal technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a video phone to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)
  - angersock 12y ago
    Heinlen's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Friday especially got quite a lot right.
  - incision 12y ago
    >'BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of personal technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a video phone to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)' Yeah. Personally, I disagree with the notion that science fiction authors are or should mean to be making predictions with their writing. Basically, it doesn't make sense to say someone 'missed' if they weren't necessarily aiming in the first place. Though, it's probably even more common to credit an author as prescient when he 'hits' so I guess it's a wash.

drpgq 12y ago

I ended up reading Neuromancer after playing the C64 game, which at the time I loved, but I'm sure if I saw it today I would laugh pretty hard at.

josh-wrale 12y ago
The Amiga version is definitely awesome. As a child I wondered what crystals had to do with hacking because of this game.

drpgq 12y ago

Have the movie plans moved forward at all? I seem to recall that something was happening relatively recently.

sBlomqst 12y ago

After reading this book a few months ago, I had the idea to make an iOS game based on secretly signaling others in a group while others attempt to catch who signals . The games called "Hand Jive" and its free if you care to check it out.

mrbill 12y ago

"GIBSON: I was afraid to watch Blade Runner in the theater because I was afraid the movie would be better than what I myself had been able to imagine." http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blade-runner-896472321 http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blad...

Linear-b 12y ago

I care what Cory Doctrow has to say about William Gibson in the same way that I care about what Britney Spears thinks of Ella Fitzgerald.

dmix 12y ago
Why? I'm a fan of William Gibson but I'm not familiar with Cory Doctrow although I hear his name often. Is he considered much less skilled than Gibson?

sampo 12y ago

The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.", has not stood the time. Nowadays that would probably mean a blue sky.

jamesbritt 12y ago
Nowadays that would probably mean a blue sky. That may have been what Gibson actually intended it to mean. http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-creativity/#comment-131340 http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-creativity/#co...
- VonGuard 12y ago
  No. Static was the intention: a grey mottled sky, rife with noir-insinuation. Can you possibly envision Chiba City as being anything but grey and filthy at all times? A blue sky completely changes the meaning of the line, and the tone of the setting.

NAFV_P 12y ago

> It sold more than 6m copies and launched an entire aesthetic: cyberpunk. The cyberpunk aesthetic was already in existence, like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga)