Reading 1001 discussion

2 stars

I continue to try to like science fiction, and continue to find I just don't. I appreciated the fact that this book was written in 1984 long before I even contemplated that there would be data for someone to steal. I think that Mr Gibson was imaginative and brilliant and I am very impressed at his ability to see into and describe the future in a way that feels almost clairvoyant. However, I didn't enjoy anything about this book. It is one I pushed through just so I could scratch it off the list.

I read this one in 2013; here is my review - vThis debut novel, written by William Gibson is the first and possibly the best cyberpunk novel. The protagonist Case is a burned out computer hacker who is hanging out on the streets of Chiba City, Japan in a dystopian world. The United States east coast is called the Sprawl. Case was caught stealing from the person he was stealing for and the punishment was to have enough of his brains destroyed that he would not be able to work in cyberspace. Case is recruited by Molly, an assassin and Armitage (ex military) to do some work in exchange for repair of his brain. The settings are here on earth and space stations known as Zion and Freeside and of course a lot of time is spent in cyberspace. It can be a challenge to know where you are and what is real and what is imaginary or holographic. It helped to read this book with a guideline. I actually enjoyed it and found it not that hard to read. My rating would be 3.5 stars. The characters were unique and interesting. The author is combining human life with artificial intelligence. It was written in the eighties, well before the internet was a common and familiar place to all of us. Critics have claimed that Gibson borrowed and used sources from all over the place, comparing his writing to William S. Burroughs, Raymond Chandler, Ballard and Dick. Winning the triple crown, Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick was a first. The character development can be criticized and the prose described as dense and tangled. This book does become the first of The Sprawl trilogy though at the time, Gibson did not plan to write more. It would be nice to know more of Molly but I am sure I won’t read more.

Rating: 3 stars


While I generally like science fiction, I'm beginning to realize that cyberpunk doesn't do it for me. In the book, a computer hacker falls from grace, but is offered an opportunity to once again use his skills as a hacker. While I recognize this book's importance for its contribution to literature, it wasn't enjoyable for me. It is well-written and highly creative though, and I can totally see how most people who read it love it.

Pre-2016 review:

**

A cyberpunk, sci-fi classic where Case, a techno cowboy, is hired to commit further crimes in cyberspace in exchange for remedial surgery which will enable him eventually to resume his hard drug usage. Well, the plot is even more complex, as it involves two artificial intelligence constructs that will merge to evolve further in the matrix, but I won't go there because I am not even completely sure that this is what happened. I struggled to follow this story through many parts of the book, as if I myself had a derm of betaphenethylamine on my wrist. Time, space and action were utterly confused on many occasions, due partly to the very choppy style of writing adopted by Gibson. Glad to be through this one...