On the Nature of Things | Forum

I just finished reading Neuromancer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not really a big sci-fi fan but having read both Snow Crash and The Diamond Age -- both clearly inspired by Gibson's seminal work of cyberpunk fiction -- I suddenly found myself very eager to devour it. I could hardly put it down. Not only has it withstood the test of time, it remains the exemplar of that genre and, if I can extrapolate from my limited sampling of it, is perhaps still the paragon. What I liked best is the richly textured writing. Every page oozes with synesthetic metaphors that render Gibson's fantastic world with laser-focused intensity.

That said, it's far from perfect. Whereas the first half of the book smothered my imagination in the virtual reality of 21st century Chiba and Manhattan, that faded into a tinny hologram by the second half, especially the scenes in Villa Straylight. And although I liked that the protagonist remained an unsympathetic anti-hero throughout, the character's lack of intellectual curiosity made his much-vaunted computer prowess completely implausible. Case is no more than a modern-day script kiddie zooming around a Tron-like world. Still, I never lost interest, and the ending packed a thoroughly satisfying punch.

Someday I'd like to read the other two books of the so-called "Sprawl trilogy" but probably not for a while. Has anyone read any of Gibson's other works?

i read these so long ago i can barely remember so this reminds me i should re-read them.

the only thing that vaguely comes to mind with Stephensens books is the endings being weak compared to the setup.

the only other scfi-fi i really enjoyed is Ian M Banks Culture books https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_series

and some of Greg Egans short stories, particularly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiomatic ... ollection)

Zack Morris wrote:I just finished reading Neuromancer and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm not really a big sci-fi fan but having read both Snow Crash and The Diamond Age -- both clearly inspired by Gibson's seminal work of cyberpunk fiction -- I suddenly found myself very eager to devour it. I could hardly put it down. Not only has it withstood the test of time, it remains the exemplar of that genre and, if I can extrapolate from my limited sampling of it, is perhaps still the paragon. What I liked best is the richly textured writing. Every page oozes with synesthetic metaphors that render Gibson's fantastic world with laser-focused intensity.

That said, it's far from perfect. Whereas the first half of the book smothered my imagination in the virtual reality of 21st century Chiba and Manhattan, that faded into a tinny hologram by the second half, especially the scenes in Villa Straylight. And although I liked that the protagonist remained an unsympathetic anti-hero throughout, the character's lack of intellectual curiosity made his much-vaunted computer prowess completely implausible. Case is no more than a modern-day script kiddie zooming around a Tron-like world. Still, I never lost interest, and the ending packed a thoroughly satisfying punch.

Someday I'd like to read the other two books of the so-called "Sprawl trilogy" but probably not for a while. Has anyone read any of Gibson's other works?

Count Zero and Pattern Recognition are worth checking out.

Mona Lisa Overdrive is a great title in search of a book and a let down for the trilogy as a whole in my opinion. Count Zero is fine but suffers from a typical case of sequelitis.