Maroon Weekly

By Sara Muessel

A 1984 classic, Neuromancer is the brain child of cyberpunk fiction, a science fiction genre noted for its “high tech” coupled with “low life,” according to Wikipedia. The question of whether the internet could still exist even if all computers were switched off couldn’t have been framed in 1984, as the web didn’t yet exist (brief internet history lesson: the modern concept of the World Wide Web to which we so desperately cling was not created until the late 1980s by English computer scientist Timothy Berners-Lee for the European Organization for Nuclear Research).

But today, it points out the omnipresent, almost religious nature of cyberspace, a place where anything is possible and where people find connections that transcend the physical world.

Neuromancer is the story of Case: a hacker-type, cyberpunk, cyber thief. He makes hackers of today look like amateurs – he totally immerses himself into the machine. Washed-up and raked over the coals, he gets a chance at a comeback, even if it isn’t on the most pleasant of terms.

When the book opens, a disgruntled employer has irrevocably destroyed parts of his nervous system with a mycotoxin, meaning he can’t jack into the matrix, an abstract representation of earth’s computer network. Then he receives a suspiciously sweet offer: a mysterious employer will fix him up if he’ll sign on for a special job.

He cautiously agrees and finds himself joined by a schizophrenic ex-Special Forces colonel; a perverse performance artist who wrecks havoc with his holographic imaginings; a long-dead mentor whose personality has been encoded as a ROM construct; and a nubile mercenary with silver lenses implanted over her eyes, retractable razors beneath her fingernails, and one hell of a chip on her shoulder. Case soon learns that the target he’s supposed to crack and his employer and are one and the same—an artificial intelligence named Wintermute.

Gibson writes about imperfection; he doesn’t gloss anything over or try to make it too pretty. The characters are flawed, and have weaknesses – just like in real life. They live in a gritty world – just like in real life. And around them all, is technology – just like in real life.

And I know, I know, with the second round of testing in full swing, reading yet another book is the exact opposite of what everyone is looking to do with their precious spare time. But give it a chance; it will only take the first few pages until you’ll be hooked. And when you finish it quicker than expected, Mona Lisa Overdrive and Count Zero follow in suit as refreshing science fiction sequels.