Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson – A 3rd Reading

“In the nonspace of the matrix, the interior of a given data construct possessed unlimited subjective dimension; a child’s toy calculator, accessed through Case’s Sendai, would have presented limitless gulfs of nothingness hung with a few basic commands.” (p.63)

Harper Voyager 2015 edition

As part of my 2017 William Gibson Read-Along, I reread Neuromancer in February. This was my third time to read it. (I posted a review on this blog in November 2015 after reading it for the second time.) So, this is more of an update than a new review.

Am I crazy to read the same book 3 times? Maybe, maybe not. What I will say is that after my third reading I’ve upped my rating of the novel from 4 to 5 stars. In my opinion, Neuromancer is a staggering piece of fiction that deserves all the praise and plaudits it has picked up since its publication all those years ago. But instead of waffling on with my own thoughts on this seminal work, I will post some quotes about the book by critics and authors made over the last 30+ years.

Bruce Sterling has been a big champion of Neuromancer since its publication. This quote is taken from the ACE edition: “Gibson’s prose, astonishing in its clarity and skill, becomes high-tech electric poetry … An enthralling adventure story, as brilliant and coherent as a laser.”

John Mullan writing in the Guardian in 2014 said Neuromancer “is dedicated to creating the feeling of a transformed reality, where a new vocabulary is required to describe how perception itself has been changed by computers.” [Link]

In his 2015 article for the Independent, author Ken Macleod had this to say about the book’s plot: “in several re-readings I’ve never quite followed its every twist and turn, but that didn’t matter. You were along for the rollercoaster ride and the vertiginous views.” [Link]

In an interview with Gibson in 1986, Larry McCaffery described Neuromancer’s “stunning technopoetic prose surface and its superspecific evocation of life in a sleazed-out global village of the near future” [Link]