I love Phillip K. Dick’s work. It’s easy to read and easy to follow, and somehow, it stays timeless. But in Gibson’s Neuromancer, it felt really dated. People were smoking everywhere, AI was dull, and 32 GB of RAM was wow. Maybe, he should have added less detail.
Gibson had a talent for capturing the changing world. He showed how the middle class was vanishing, how people from diverse backgrounds were coming together, how the global economy was reshaping things, how environmental concerns like acid rain were looming, and how towering skyscrapers housed the wealthy while those on the streets struggled to get by. His work painted a vivid picture of a world in constant flux.
This is a timeless classic that serves as the standard against which critics measure more recent works, and the reasons are evident. It has all the ingredients of a compelling story: drama, tension, conflict, enigma, and a captivating character with a mysterious history.
It’s worth noting that Gibson introduced the terms “cyberspace” and “cyberpunk” within the pages of this book, a visionary feat that might have felt technically shaky at the time, considering that concepts like iPads and smartphones would have appeared astonishing in the 1980s.
One thing I’d like to mention is that sometimes, the mystery in the story can be really hard to understand. But maybe it’s just me not fully getting it.
