SF Review; William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)

It begins with a hallucinatory stumble though the neon lights and filth of a technological ghetto. ‘Chiba City Blues’ is as iconic as first chapters get; a rush of confusing images, bypassed breathlessly by both protagonist and reader, that nevertheless attach themselves to memory and cling there, ready to flash upwards from the subconscious when jolted awake. It is as effective a manifesto as ‘cyberpunk’ received, but long after that genre has been muted, Neuromancer remains large on the landscape of science fiction.

This has a lot to do with the sheer energy of Gibson’s writing. We shadow Case, an empty ex-hacker reduced to drug addiction and dangerous deals in the alleys of Chiba City, as he is co-opted by a mysterious woman with razors under her nails and black glass covering her eyes, who offers a return to the cyberspace he is addicted to. Her purpose isn’t clear, ambiguous to both Case and the reader, but as he is dragged across the world by the woman and her paymaster we are fed drips of information amongst the filth of Gibson’s writing that may, or may not, represent truth. The story is a bright line of light shone through a flurry of white noise; the scummy details of Gibson’s nightmare world exciting and revolting equally, viciously obscuring reality. It’s a thrilling ride.

Interestingly, Gibson, rather than building to a furious climax like most authors would, slows the pace as we approach the final events. As Case is forced away from drug addiction and back into the cyberspace which brings him comfort and focus, at one stage he cuddles his computer like a child, the novel breathes more regularly, and we can feel this change in him. Nothing more than a shell when we first meet him, Case fills up with memories, events piling up on him; and since the reader is thrust so suddenly into the story, we are filled with the same memories. When those flash to the surface, obscure in their meaning and with an indefinable feeling of threat surrounding them, we feel Case’s fear, and eventually his nihilism, as acutely as him.

As the vague story resolves itself, like a scrambled picture becoming ever clearer, we learn of an ancient and secret war between two A.I’s and the family that created them. These machines get into Case, and hover around the brilliantly imaginative characters he travels with, tormenting and seducing them as they choose. His future seems out of his hands for much the novel, as we sometimes feel, today, that we are at the whim of machines, but eventually it is Case that makes the difference, and changes things, even if he doesn’t consciously choose to. After all the filth, deception and pain, it ends with a sigh of relief.