Neuromancer

Iconic, historic, inspirational but difficult to read. Filled with its own vocabulary, perspective changes, time shifts, and disruptions. The reading process was not enjoyable and the imagery, although well described, was difficult to picture and feel a part of. As the inspiration behind so many visual content like the matrix and cyberpunk, its no surprise that visual recreations of this book have been great. But, as a book, the descriptions and imagery just wasn't there enough for me to connect to. 

There are classics that are impressive for being the first of their kind and still standing the test of time, and others that make you so happy for how far a genre has come. Neuromancer is the latter for me. Gibson here seems more invested in cramming in as many made-up techie-sounding words into a sentence rather than building anything interesting character or story-wise. I love cyberpunk because I love the interaction between man and machine, but while Gibson drops cybernetic terms left and right, there's no real cultural, biological, or personal significance to any of it.

The prose has no rhythm, no allure. The character interaction is so stilted its laughable - the main female character, Molly, is such an obvious 80s action girl fantasy, who of course immediately jumps on the dick of this depressed drug addict, Case. I couldn't really tell you much else about what anyone did because I could not focus on any of it between all the random tech lingo and uninteresting plot. Oh right, and all the white people hanging out in future Japan. eye roll

Cyberpunk, and sci-fi in general, has come a long way since Neuromancer. I think I'd rather keep going forward than look back.

I have tried a few times now to read a Gibson book, but I just don't enjoy them. Yes, there are neat, sometimes revolutionary ideas there, but I have never attached myself to any characters or plot lines. This book starts with quite the Mary Sue moment, as the central character has sex with the first (and one of the few) women he runs into randomly. Just kind of weak writing to me.

I also realize this is sci-fi heresy. But there it is.