Neuromancer

So I had heard about this book for a long time and last week on a road trip I listened to the audio book (which was a weird experience, especially when the only voice actor attempts to change his voice for each character and tries to imitate chinese accents.) Pretty awesome stuff, but I don't think it translated very well to audio book, as the entire section from when they break into the guys house who is committing suicide until the end didn't really make very much sense. Could someone clear up exactly wtf was going on towards the end?

Also Philip K Dick's Dr Bloodmoney and Ubik are both pretty fucking awesome books.

Oh and World War Z was slightly disappointing, except that they got Alan Alda to do a voice in the audio book.

i reread this recently don't remember the part you're talking about but i'm glad you got to read/hear it

you mean all the shit on the beach and stuff?

There's an awesome audiobook version read by William Gibson himself here.

It's got computer voice effects, and even background music... definitely one of the best audiobooks ever.

Available in higher bit-rates if you look around ;)

lol haha how ironic gibson reading his story out loud the worst ever. I love his stuff but he's awful.

I love that audiobook. His southern drawl is great, I don't understand how you couldn't like it. The cheesy sound effects and "atmosphere" totally make it for me.

The end is confusing, I guess. What you really need to understand about Gibson and about Neuromancer specifically, is that he makes things up as he goes and writes purely to create an ambiguous sort of mood that allows the reader to make connections rather than spelling out the plot in the text. He's also not very good at plotting. He also wrote Neuromancer while on some kind of epic lsd run, apparently, and also admits that he didn't know how to write a novel at the time and just kept trying to top himself. So if it doesn't make sense I wouldn't attempt to read into it, because there's nothing there.

the audio book i listened to wasnt read by gibson. i suppose i just wasnt understanding the whole father/daughter/crazy guy that made people see things connection. im reading the rest of the sprawl series in standard book form now. great stuff.

Well the bridge trilogy is probably his best work. I would recommend skipping the rest of the sprawl stuff and just read burning chrome, his short story collection.

is neuromancer actually a good read or is it just some sort of bizarre science fiction wank off, cause I've had it on my shelf for years and I never really feel the urge to read it

How are we supposed to determine what you will or won't like?

  zaphod said:

Well the bridge trilogy is probably his best work. I would recommend skipping the rest of the sprawl stuff and just read burning chrome, his short story collection.

Zaphod!

Listen to this man, Beneboi. He knows what he's talking about, The Bridge Trilogy is the best stuff Gibson has done. I'm surprised they're making Neuromancer into a film because this trilogy is a lot better (although I'd love to see the scene from Neuromancer with the Rastas in their spaceship). Didn't know Gibson wrote Neuromancer while on acid. Kinda explains why it goes off the rails near the end.

Holy shit it's Zaphod.

And he's pretty much right.

Also, beneboi, take the 3 hours and read the book. It'll make much more sense.

ZAPHODDDDD

I love that book, i've read it 3 times in the past 4 years, the last time it made the most sense yet. I don't have the time to explain it like i see it, i just recommend actually reading it.

never understood the fuss about the bridge trilogy. it's kind og a retelling of the neuromancer trilogy with better writing and less ambitious ideas.

pattern recognition is his best book by far

I read Neuromancer in it's entirety and don't really know what happened. There was some chick, and the dude fucks her, and there's a rasta spaceship, and some AIs fighting, and some dude in a box, and I think at the end he has cybersex with the one girl in the computer.