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What's New
Review Features
S - Science Fiction
F - Fantasy
H - Horror
Complete Listing
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Adams, Douglas (S)
Asher, Neal (S)
Aylett, Steve (S)
Banks, Iain M (S)
Barclay, James (F)
Barker, Clive (H)
Baxter, Stephen (S)
Brin, David (S)
Bury, Stephen (S)
Card, Orson Scott (S)
Cherryh, CJ (S/F)
Clute, John (S)
Cockayne, Steve (F)
Cook, Glen (F)
Danielewski, Mark (H)
Dick, Philip K (S)
Egan, Greg (S)
Feist, Raymond (F)
Gaiman, Neil (F)
Gibson, William (S)
Goodkind, Terry (F)
Grimwood, Jon C (S)
Hamilton, Peter (S)
Jeter, K.W. (S)
Jordan, Robert (F)
Lethem, Jonathan (S)
McAuley, Paul (S)
MacLeod, Ken (S)
Martin, George RR (F)
McMullen, Sean (S)
Miéville, China (S)
Moran, Daniel K (S)
Morgan, Richard K (S)
Nagata, Linda (S)
Niven, Larry (S)
Noon, Jeff (S)
Robinson, Kim S. (S)
Rucker, Rudy (S)
Simmons, Dan (S)
Smith, Michael Marshall (S)
Stephenson, Neal (S)
Sterling, Bruce (S)
Vinge, Vernor (S)
Westerfeld, Scott (S)
Williams, Sean (S)
Williams, Tad (S/F)
Collections (S/F)
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| The Classics |
Bradbury, Ray (S/H)
Burgess, Anthony (S)
Tolkien, JRR (F) |
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| William Gibson |
| Author Information |
Reviewed Books |
Other Books |
Notes: (B) - Bridge Series
(S) - Sprawl Series |
Neuromancer
(S)
Count Zero (S)
Virtual Light (B) |
Pattern Recognition
Difference Engine
Mona Lisa Overdrive (S)
All Tomorrow's Parties (B)
Idoru (B)
Burning Chrome |
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 Our
Ranking Please note, the image shown is from
the UK version. It's much cooler than the US one. Neuromancer is one of those
books that single handedly managed to launch science fiction into another direction.
Written in 1984, Gibson delves into the world of cyberspace before it ever really
existed. The book more or less created the whole term and some of the vision for
what we see today. Hundreds if not thousands of science fiction books owe much
of their ideas to this one. And besides the groundbreaking technology of the tale,
it is also a superb book. The plot is phenomenal, I couldn't put it down the first
time I read it. A group of criminals are banded together by unknown forces and
basically led down a path to infiltrate the home of one of the wealthiest families
at the time. Each character, driven by their own motivations, but still forced
to go along are played perfectly, their strengths and weaknesses being used against
them. If the book has any weaknesses it is some of the characters. The main character
is Case, a run down cyberhacker who double crossed the wrong people and had his
nerves destroyed leaving him unable to enter cyberspace and therefore make a living.
This is one of the few characters I truly loved. He is completley run down and
broken. Usually these characters at some point change and refind themselves. Gibson
leaves Case desperate throughout the whole book, adding to its dark writing style.
Otherwise the characters are a bit stereotypical but this book is not about the
characters. If you want to read one of the pillars of modern science fiction this
is an absolute must read. |
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Our Ranking Count Zero, unfortunately,
is one of those books that are filed under the "Could have been great" category.
To start with it is the sequel to Neuromancer. Gibson was smart in not making
this a direct sequel, but rather just used a couple of the characters and the
concepts that Neuromancer established. For the most part it is setting the groundwork
for the final part of the trilogy Mona Lisa Overdrive, where the AI's (artificial
intelligences) that were set free in Neuromancer are beginning to position themselves
as something truly bizarre. The book is told from three different perspectives
which is very well done. Each of the characters is developed wonderfully, and
one of the opening scenes with Turner in Heathrow, a man trapped in a reconstructed
body, is still one of my favorite scenes ever written by Gibson. Even the odd
robot creator is very well done. The book is not as much of a breakthrough novel
technologically as Neuromancer but Gibson does a pretty good job adding tweaks
and twists to what he created in Neuromancer. Enough to make it interesting anyway.
Even while writing this review, I truly want to say this was a good book. Reading
it, I couldn't put it down, he does a great job of building suspense as he ties
in the three story lines. But, and this is a big but, the ending is absolutely
horrible. Gibson builds this story up to what could have been one of the best
endings and in my mind just cops out the last minute, trying to put a ridiculous
twist on a story that didn't need it. The ending completely ruined the book for
me. If you liked Neuromancer and want to see where he goes with the trilogy, you
might want to give this a shot, but be warned, it really only gets worse. At least
Count Zero was good until the ending, Mona
Lisa Overdrive is just flat out bad throughout. |
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 Our
Ranking Virtual Light is the only Gibson novel
I've read that wasn't tied to the Neuromancer series. After being disillusioned
and horribly disappointed by Count Zero and then Mona Lisa Overdrive, I figured
I owed Gibson one more shot. After all, the man did write Neuromancer and deserved
the benefit of the doubt. Well, after reading this, I probably will not be coming
back to Gibson for more. Let me start by saying the novel is not horrible. It
just really isn't anything special. The novel is set in a fragmenting California,
which has broken into two separate states, SoCal and Nocal. (Maybe it was just
the California thing, but this was a little too Snow Crashish for me) NoCal has
been rocked by earthquakes, and a large portion of the city has fallen into poverty.
Housing is bad enough that the homeless have occupied the Golden Gate Bridge making
it into a shanty town of sorts. I actually though this was a pretty cool idea,
and liked where Gibson went with it. Unfortunately this is where the originality
really seemed to die. The characters seemed like rehashes from the Neuromancer
series. Admittedly they were fairly interesting but I just had a hard time seeing
past the molds they were created from. The plot itself was very weak. Gibson used
the same writing format as he did with Count Zero. While bringing seemingly separate
story lines and characters and twining them together worked pretty well in Count
Zero, I just found it lacked the suspense here. I didn't really find myself caring
how they would relate to each other. Even the technology aspect, usually Gibson's
bread and butter fell flat. The glasses, the city, everything just seemed to be
cherry picked form the hot novels of the time or from his own past three. Nothing
was new. Of course, the final killer was the simple fact that Gibson still can
not write an ending. After plugging away at this I was very let down at the end
which was almost even more disappointing than Count Zero's. Overall, if this is
your first Gibson, don't do it. Pick up Neuromancer and at least develop some
respect for the man before this moves to ruin it. At best this is very pop science
fiction written by what was once a ground breaking writer, just trying to relive
that somehow. |
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