Neuromancer (Sprawl)
by William Gibson

Neuromancer is very much a worldbuilding, smell-the-silicone type of story, a techno-thriller with exotic junkyards and gritty space debris floating around at every bend.

Here’s a good example of using foreign terminology in an understandable context:

He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral.

It starts off slow, and the futuristic environment takes sweet time to preheat. Once you get to the midpoint, it picks up. The first third of the book is boring when it follows a drifter protagonist who basically did too much drugs and got slapped. Charactarization overall is rather thin. It’s an adventure book first and foremost.

The sense of wonder holds up well, but it unfortunately has gotten cliché at this point. I’m starting to feel like males write a lot of similar stories about drug use, being aimless, and looking to get laid. Maybe that’s a summary of the male experience, maybe I just keep getting recommendations from echo chambers. A lot of the technology is outdated since the novel was published in 1984. Apparently this book won 3 prestigious awards for its foresight.

Half of the sentences are difficult to read. They aren’t clumsy, but they are wordy.

They were waiting there, the three of them, their perfect white sportsclothes and stenciled tans setting off the handwoven organic chic of the furniture.

I’m not really sure what the plot is even about; it goes for random deaths and maximum ass-beating. It doesn’t have a clear villain, except the world itself. Better to turn off your mind and just flow with it.

Fun Stats

Word Count: 84133
Average Readability (US Grade Level): 7
Percent dialogue: 23.73%