Neuromancer

By William Gibson (1984)

If a headache could be written down in word format, it would show itself in the book Neuromancer by William Gibson. I expected more out of a book that has been given several awards and lauded among book critics but it completely disappointed me.

His work was groundbreaking, I'll give him that; Gibson used terms such as Artificial Intelligence, and Cyberspace, which were relatively new ideas to the public at the time of his writing (1984), and in true literary fashion, he received several awards due to the uniqueness of his book. His writing is purposely meant to be confusing, so he cannot be faulted for poor execution of his main goal, as the book turned out exactly how he wanted it to.

Perhaps it takes a certain type of person to truly appreciate Gibson's work. I have found that science fiction is often a hit or miss. There are some excellent SciFi books out there, but there are also many books that are not worth the time. It makes one question to what end should new literary styles be used. Does a style wherein the reader feels like they are slightly high and sick indicate a breakthrough in literature? I think not. Gibson tries so hard to give us the experience of the situation that he skips out on the most important parts of story; a plot that is understandable, and characters we care about that are developed through the course of the book.

Because I am an optimist, I will tell you what I have gained from this reading - I can now have status in a crowd of SciFi readers by name dropping this book. In other words, I feel that if I could go back in time, I would chose a book that was worth my time. And, as a side note, if this is any indication of where the internet is heading, I don't want to be a part of it at all.

If this book was a food it would be a cheese, broccoli and mango smoothie, with perhaps some spaghetti with soy sauce and tomato sauce as an entree. I would recommend this book to all who enjoy being in a state of confusion, who like feeling like they are tripping out, or those who enjoy headaches.