I loved the rendering of the cyberspace, the combat logic, the story and all.
There are complete walkthrough now on youtube if you don’t want to go through all of it. The Amiga version was very nice graphically.
I would love to see a GOOD Neuromancer movie. That would bring me back in the theatre.
The other books are just as good, if not better.
Although be prepared that if you like it too much, there's no more. Gibson typically tires of writing in one style for more than three books.
PS: There's an excellent New Rose Hotel movie that no one has ever seen. Highly recommend reading the short story and watching it. https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0133122/
Indeed. I wished the article had spent more energy on his masterpiece trilogy...
Well, there's (most of) the short stories in Burning Chrome, and I don't think the break is that huge for the bridge trilogy. It's a different future from Neuromancer, though.
Then again I've yet to read anything by Gibson I didn't like, including the most recent books. So I might not be the best guide...
I recommend looking into Bruce Sterling, if you enjoy Gibson - particularly Islands in the Net (if you can find it! I ended up buying an expensive used copy online) and Holy Fire.
Other authors I've enjoyed, coming off Neuromancer-type Gibson:
Richard K. Morgan (Altered Carbon, Broken Angels, Woken Furies). Closest in tone. For god's sake don't watch the Amazon series for plot.
Effinger comes up on a lot of lists, although I haven't read it myself yet.
Vernor Vinge (A Fire Upon the Deep, A Deepness in the Sky, The Children of the Sky). Space opera instead of cyberpunk, but shares early Gibson's "incremental exposition," where you figure things out gradually vs all at once.
Tbh, I think the best cyberpunk was always in short story form, and mostly before 1990.
Also (different setting): Black Man/Thirteen and Thin Air.
I didn't actually realize any of the short stories came out after Neuromancer (1984)(or indeed that the omnibus(1986) did) - but a few were later works:
New Rose Hotel July 1984
The Winter Market April 1986
Dogfight July 1985
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome_(short_story_...
complete boring slog of a book I had to put down halfway as it didn't get better and I Couldn't do it anymore.
The first time was a bit of a let-down, but the cast is brilliant, and I have come to appreciate the slow pacing very much.
There's the entire Bridge trilogi which acts as a kind of precursor to the Neuromancer universe.
The magic of Neuromancer is not just the story, it's in how its written.
An average sentence carries as much information and visuals as a whole paragraph in a more ordinary book. The data per character rate is absolutely insane, there's nothing quite like it. It's like reading a zip file. So fucking cool.
This aspect of the book will be next to impossible to capture in a movie... least you'd be expected to pause every few seconds to decipher what you see and what's going on.
So the chances for a movie adaptation that really groks the book are zero. But perhaps it's for the best.
That’s so Gibson of you :)
I've lusted after this for over 30 years now. At this point, I am kinda glad that Hollywood never got it off the ground.
What I wanted was a good graphic novel version. They came out with a first edition, but no more. I sold it this year on an ebay spree...
The Neuromancer film was last meant to be directed by Tim Miller who directed Deadpool and was to be released in 2021.
So somehow the mess with the film rights may be resolved somehow.
The Neuromancer trilogy would make a great TV series. A few episodes for each book.
chiptunes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib8IYfcOnWU original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf8OmnRIBvA