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40. William Gibson "Neuromancer"
I finished my re-read of "Neuromancer". I first read it in the early 90's I think. I can't remember if I read it in during the intervening years. This time I read it on ebook, with an introduction by Gibson written in 2004. Gibson focuses on how much he got wrong, but what I'm amazed by is how much he got right. I mean, a lot of it hasn't happened yet, but still could. His central world premise with the increased importance of tech, the decline of the USA as a political entity, the rise of Asia as the base of power, the rise of corporate power to rival nation states, that is all pretty much in line with where things have gone since the book was written in 1983. I had forgotten a lot of the details and twists and turns, so when I got to the mid-point of the book I thought it must be just about over, then there were all these other parts which came into play.
I think Gibson achieved more than he gives himself credit for in this book. It's still a compelling thriller with a thoroughly fleshed out world. There is limited character development, but to a certain extent that's kind of baked into the world. These people are all broken, broken in their own unique ways, but all broken. The world isn't a dystopia, dystopias are generally more organized and coherent. No, the society is a basket case, which makes it much more realistic and believable than a dystopia. In a basket case society you end up with a lot of broken people. You can take that sentence to be about the book or about current events, choose your own adventure. In the end, the broken people didn't magically become whole and an all powerful being didn't suddenly pop up and decide to run everything as a benevolent overlord. Bummer, but life is like that.
I finished my re-read of "Neuromancer". I first read it in the early 90's I think. I can't remember if I read it in during the intervening years. This time I read it on ebook, with an introduction by Gibson written in 2004. Gibson focuses on how much he got wrong, but what I'm amazed by is how much he got right. I mean, a lot of it hasn't happened yet, but still could. His central world premise with the increased importance of tech, the decline of the USA as a political entity, the rise of Asia as the base of power, the rise of corporate power to rival nation states, that is all pretty much in line with where things have gone since the book was written in 1983. I had forgotten a lot of the details and twists and turns, so when I got to the mid-point of the book I thought it must be just about over, then there were all these other parts which came into play.
I think Gibson achieved more than he gives himself credit for in this book. It's still a compelling thriller with a thoroughly fleshed out world. There is limited character development, but to a certain extent that's kind of baked into the world. These people are all broken, broken in their own unique ways, but all broken. The world isn't a dystopia, dystopias are generally more organized and coherent. No, the society is a basket case, which makes it much more realistic and believable than a dystopia. In a basket case society you end up with a lot of broken people. You can take that sentence to be about the book or about current events, choose your own adventure. In the end, the broken people didn't magically become whole and an all powerful being didn't suddenly pop up and decide to run everything as a benevolent overlord. Bummer, but life is like that.
