
Neuromancer, 30 years old this month - slurry
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/28/william-gibson-neuromancer-cyberpunk-books
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VonGuard
Such a great book with the absolutely iconic characters of cyber-fiction. If
you don't have time to read this book, perhaps you can find time to listen to
the book on tape, as read by the author:
[http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audi...](http://www.bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/neuromancer_audio.html)

~~~
tachyonbeam
I don't read very much paper books, for some reason I always found it
uncomfortable, straining on the eyes and tiring. I recently got into
audiobooks. Listened to Neuromancer, the first three of the Dune series, The
Positronic Man, the first Foundation book, Burning Chrome, and the Steve Jobs
Biography. Just started listening to The Last Theorem today.

Audiobooks are amazingly convenient and you can definitely find time to fit
them into your life. You can listen to them while walking around, on the bus
or subway, while grocery shopping, while cooking, and even in the bathroom.

I also think that audiobooks might be a good way to practice your focus, in
the way that mindfulness meditation teaches you to do. You try and pay
attention to the audiobook as best as you can, and if you're prone to anxiety
and rumination, this will at the very least help provide a useful distraction
and quiet down inner chatter.

Thumbs up for audiobooks, helping me get more culture into my life.

~~~
icebraining
In my limited experience, most audiobook readers (as in people, not audio
players) are not that great, which makes for a dull experience. One of the
exceptions has been the Discworld, (mostly) read by Nigel Planer[1], they're
just awesome.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Planer)

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dkns
What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and
Mona Liza Overdrive)?

~~~
facepalm
I recently tried to make a list of good virtual reality reads (not all of them
cyberpunk, though):

Otherland - Tad Williams

Ready Player One

Daemon - David Suarez

Neuromancer - William Gibson

Shadowrun - ?? there are lots of possibly varying quality, I only read the
ones by Nigel Findley which I liked

Snowcrash - Stephenson

Reamde - Stephenson

Der falsche Spiegel - Sergej Lukianenko (not sure about the english name)

Masters of Doom - Story of ID developing the games Doom and Quake - not really
a VR story, but it sets the mood.﻿

Pollen - Jeff Noon

Bruce Sterling is great, too, but I don't remember which of his stories are
about virtual reality.

I suppose Ian Bank's "The Culture" novels might be a candidate, but I haven't
read them yet.

~~~
egypturnash
Iain (M) Banks' "Culture" novels are great fun, but they are (IMHO) in no way
cyberpunk, nor do they concern VR _. His SF is about people running around in
meatspace doing things.

_ well okay there's a decent chunk of VR in 'Feersum Endjiin' but that's very
much the exception

~~~
facepalm
I see - didn't know that. I thought they are about artificial life or a
society that chose to withdraw into cyberspace. But as I said, I haven't read
them.

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NAFV_P
> _It sold more than 6m copies and launched an entire aesthetic: cyberpunk._

The cyberpunk aesthetic was already in existence, like:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_(manga)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akira_\(manga\))

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sampo
The famous opening line, "The sky above the port was the color of television,
tuned to a dead channel.", has not stood the time. Nowadays that would
probably mean a blue sky.

~~~
jamesbritt
_Nowadays that would probably mean a blue sky._

That may have been what Gibson actually intended it to mean.

[http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-
creativity/#co...](http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/08/05/negative-
creativity/#comment-131340)

~~~
VonGuard
No. Static was the intention: a grey mottled sky, rife with noir-insinuation.
Can you possibly envision Chiba City as being anything but grey and filthy at
all times? A blue sky completely changes the meaning of the line, and the tone
of the setting.

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grimgrin
Awesome. Was just reading this earlier today, because I decided to pick it
back up again after never finishing years ago. I do really enjoy it, and would
like to read the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy.

A friend had a mousepad printed with this depiction of Chiba City (and I
presume Case and Molly), which I use at work. :)

[http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-
Illustr...](http://sourgasm.deviantart.com/art/Neuromancer-CGHub-Illustrated-
contest-WIP-294865366)

~~~
Ecio78
I have always had this problem with Sprawl Trilogy books: I started, abandoned
and then restarted and finished each of them..

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mattmanser
I read this for the first time last year. Absolutely fantastic book, apart
from half the plot rests on mobile phones not existing. Which just comes
across as bizarre now, looking back.

Then again I'm reading the foundation series at the moment, and major plot
points rest on how rediculously crap CPU power is and how travel is near
instaneous, but somehow communication isn't.

Sci-fi doesn't age well, alas. Though neuromancer is better than a lot and
still well worth a read.

~~~
cstross
Mobile phones as we know them today _didn 't_ exist when Gibson was writing
Neuromancer. Pub date in 1984 means the MS was handed in in mid-1983 and he
was writing it 1981-82 (on a manual typewriter: the royalties from Neuromancer
bought him his first computer, an Apple IIc).

While the idea of cellular comms dates to the 1950s (if not earlier), and some
limited analog cellular service existed in some parts of the world (notably
the Nordic countries from 1981), the UK didn't get analog cell service until
roughly 1985; digital (over 2G GSM) didn't come along until roughly 1991. In
Canada, cellphone service wouldn't have started until around the time the book
was published, if not later. And, uninformed rumor to the contrary, SF isn't
_actually_ about prophesying the future.

~~~
keithpeter
Charlie, I accept the point entirely.

BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of
_personal_ technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a
_video phone_ to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)

~~~
incision
_> 'BUT it is interesting that a lot of people missed the possibility of
personal technology in their imagining of the future (2001, Floyd using a
video phone to call the kids, Gibson, Asimov et al)'_

Yeah.

Personally, I disagree with the notion that science fiction authors are or
should mean to be making predictions with their writing. Basically, it doesn't
make sense to say someone 'missed' if they weren't necessarily aiming in the
first place.

Though, it's probably even more common to credit an author as prescient when
he 'hits' so I guess it's a wash.

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mrbill
"GIBSON: I was afraid to watch Blade Runner in the theater because I was
afraid the movie would be better than what I myself had been able to imagine."

[http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-
blad...](http://io9.com/how-did-william-gibson-really-feel-about-blade-
runner-896472321)

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drpgq
Have the movie plans moved forward at all? I seem to recall that something was
happening relatively recently.

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sBlomqst
After reading this book a few months ago, I had the idea to make an iOS game
based on secretly signaling others in a group while others attempt to catch
who signals . The games called "Hand Jive" and its free if you care to check
it out.

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drpgq
I ended up reading Neuromancer after playing the C64 game, which at the time I
loved, but I'm sure if I saw it today I would laugh pretty hard at.

~~~
josh-wrale
The Amiga version is definitely awesome. As a child I wondered what crystals
had to do with hacking because of this game.

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Linear-b
I care what Cory Doctrow has to say about William Gibson in the same way that
I care about what Britney Spears thinks of Ella Fitzgerald.

~~~
dmix
Why? I'm a fan of William Gibson but I'm not familiar with Cory Doctrow
although I hear his name often. Is he considered much less skilled than
Gibson?

