donovand792's review against another edition
1.0
Tough to follow the convoluted stream of consciousness. I read the entire book because I bought it on sale from the kindle store. However, I regret ever starting it. Still can't derive a theme or purpose even after finishing.
tylerbrown7844's review against another edition
2.0
DNF @ 50%. As many have said before, the book opened up a new world for cyberpunk techno scifi. That being said, god was this a slog. I had no investment in any character, the storyline was convoluted and jumped without hesitation, and overall I think it was just not written very well. As I’ve seen other reviewers do, despite the DNF, 2 stars for its impact on future (better executed) science fiction.
justytoo's review against another edition
I first read this book in 1990 after it was recommended by my computer programming teacher. This book help to shape my ideas of what the internet could look like and cemented my belief that any sufficiently complex system could eventually become sentient, and any AI system could eventually go off on its own tangent. I will say thank you to systems that talk to me and pat computers that I have bumped, you never know!
foxyfoxyfoxy's review against another edition
I don’t like the personality of this book. It’s one of those crime novels where the author seems to think that it’s chic and insightful to be edgy and cynical. Once I lost track of the series of events while listening to the audiobook, I found i was not interested enough in the material to continue listening.
cinnamon_roll_'s review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
2.75
albatrossonhalfpointe's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Lots of people are very into William Gibson. That's cool. It wasn't so terrible I'm offended by the very notion that anyone would think it's good. But I didn't fully understand what was going on and I found the characters flat and uninteresting, so it wasn't good for me.
snortingpages's review against another edition
1.0
no plot, no character development, nothing. why tf is this book a long-time best seller again???? (as one of my friends said in their review this book will make a mf fall out of love with reading lmao)
dzengota's review against another edition
2.0
It is interesting coming to the classics of the cyberpunk genre after seeing the ways the recent entries have changed it. The fingerprints of Gibson's works are all over it but Gibson's stuff is both deeply flawed and fundamentally different from what I've come to want and expect from cyberpunk.
What I've come to want from Cyberpunk is the transgressive, politically aggressive sci-fi of modernity. Fiction that is directly about the end-point of corporate capitalism and the way people operate within it. What I don't want is the rule-of-cool technobabel of Neuromancer. It does have the heart of large corporations and political entities controlling the world while people become criminals and scoundrels trying to survive underneath them or resist them, but its coated in ultimately meaningless descriptions of techno-jargon.
Speaking to a weird plot point for a moment: I initially found Case and Molly's romance simple but fun but was disappointed when it leaves the story for the last ~100-150 pages, only to show up in the last 10 to steal the last line of the book. Weird.
What I've come to want from Cyberpunk is the transgressive, politically aggressive sci-fi of modernity. Fiction that is directly about the end-point of corporate capitalism and the way people operate within it. What I don't want is the rule-of-cool technobabel of Neuromancer. It does have the heart of large corporations and political entities controlling the world while people become criminals and scoundrels trying to survive underneath them or resist them, but its coated in ultimately meaningless descriptions of techno-jargon.
Speaking to a weird plot point for a moment: I initially found Case and Molly's romance simple but fun but was disappointed when it leaves the story for the last ~100-150 pages, only to show up in the last 10 to steal the last line of the book. Weird.
bmack's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75