Never heard of it
Turn in your geek card on your way out.
I figured this type of basement dweller response would happen
Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
391–400 of 427 posts
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#392Somebody really should mention John Brunner. His "Stand on Zanzibar" and "The Sheep Look Up" predate Gibson and Sterling by a decade and both those authors have cited his influence on their works. I love Neuromancer but Zanzibar is also brilliant.
Totally agree. "Stand on Zanzibar" has a modern-world feel to it although some parts have been visited by the Suck Fairy. "Shockwave Rider" is also interesting - IIRC characters use their landline phones to access large computer systems. Because Brunner never really goes into too many techy details - it's just phones and computers - it's less jarring to read now than books where technology-heavy authors such as Arthu…
The Shockwave Rider is brilliant, and the savant hero reflected in many subsequent works. Neo, anyone?
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#393Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gibson was obviously very inspired by Japan. The Matrix was also in part directly inspired by Ghost in the Shell, even creating The Animatrix at the same time. But Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner was told from the inside. It is about the authorities chasing down rouge elements. Neuromancer and The Matrix is from the perspective of the outsiders. Like someone else said in the comments here, cyberpunk is countercul…
"my country counterculture is so much better" could be ridiculously funny if it wasn't so sad to consider a presumably intelligent adult could utter it in complete sincerity. Producing more in quantity, with far biggest allocated budget, and even better quality on everything that can be measured at surface level, all that is no guarantee to reach a work that is deeper in spirit. Those who don't question what's wrong…
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Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#394Obligatory reminder to listen to the audiobook read by Gibson himself. I think they did a great job with that production. He's not a natural but his southern drawl really adds flavour, along with the soundtrack and effects. Love it.
I couldn't find this anywhere, I tried the version on audible but it can barely stay awake. The narration is soooooo bland.
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#395Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Bulgarian translation I read was a valiant effort by a guy who ran the Bulgarian "science fiction and fantasy BBS". (Yes, that kind of BBS, with the dial-up modems, XMODEM/YMODEM/ZMODEM etc.) (Yes, it was mostly for pirating books in the form of badly OCR-ed TXT files, and occasionally discussing them.) Apparently at some point he decided he needs to bring Gibson to the non-English speaking part of the population…
Is there a place that has stories about Bulgarian BBS?
Heck, I'll take BBSs in general.-
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
The Dispossessed was great! I wanted to read something by Ursula K. Le Guin for ages, and then happened to be staying in a friend's house where that book happened to be on a bookshelf. So I'd the happy experience of just giving it a go, knowing nothing. And it was very good. Hadn't heard of either of the other two authors though - thank you for sharing!
I'd recommend The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley. It's sort of a response to Starship Troopers
Thanks, will be reading it!
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ahem: https://www.gregegan.net/
Greg Eagan’s SF is so hard it makes ‘hard’ SF feel like soap bubbles.
You can feel the shape of the fluting by the subtle dimples in the cardboard the characters are cut from!
One of my favorite authors in all honesty.
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gibson is such a unique sci-fi author because his fundamental interest is fashion (he’s said this himself) - his worlds are beautiful, but completely skin deep, and he’s a master of using one word or phrase to evoke an entire world or backstory, but you scratch at what he’s written and it’s all vibes. Bruce Sterling is similar, although maybe less of a fashion native - they’re both looking at people and at trends and…
Ahem: https://www.gregegan.net/
Egan is basically his own genre. And it is one of the my favorites.
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#399I had the opposite experience with Neuromancer. I read it too many times! Sorry for the long post (translated by GPT as it was originally in Greek). In September 1993, I started my final year of high school in Greece, aiming to study Computer Science. A girl I barely knew heard I was into computers and handed me Neuromancer, the 1989 Greek edition. I still have it. I already loved science fiction, though my reading h…
Fascinating story :-).Neuromancer is a book I reread often - like Dune, it has a rich tapestry of background world building. There is nothing surprising about plot anymore, but it is like a place I like to return to.
Dosadi Experiment is better than Dune. Just sayin.
Re: Reading Neuromancer for the first time in 2025
#400Man, I loved Neuromancer when I read it as a kid. Yes, it's a tough book to read, especially today where there are too many distractions as well as too many works of art built on the sci-fi ideas of that era. Neuromancer is the first installment of the Sprawl trilogy, followed by Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive. So trying not to spoil too much: Count Zero asks questions about / describes how AI could have influenc…
There are already dozens of AI Jesus influencers. Seems like it will get worse before it gets better