Science Fiction & Fantasy Award Winning Book Group discussion

Happy September!

Our group read for this month is Neuromancer by William Gibson. It won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K Dick awards among several others and was shortlisted for even more.

I'm not sure why I've never picked this one up. I will admit that I read Snow Crash many years ago and as it faded from my memory I would often confuse the two and not be sure which was the one that I read. I suppose that gives a hint as to my feelings about Snow Crash. I am a much different reader now and I probably should pick it up for a reread. I did read Synners a few years ago and although I had no clue about what was going on until roughly two-thirds of the way through the book I did enjoy it quite a bit. I bring those two up because they are the only other well known cyberpunk novels that I've read and this month's pick is supposed to be the cream of the crop. Let's see.

As always, watch out for spoilers.

This one's going to be a challenge for me, because I totally bounced off Neuromancer the last time I tried to read it about a decade ago. Here's hoping I'm a different reader now too!

Good luck!

I'm about 25 percent through and enjoying it well enough. As I guess is standard in the style there is a lingo that you have to get used to. Not as difficult as I remember from Synners but maybe that's just because I have a couple under my belt. Nothing really to write home about but it has been fun so far. Lot's of drugs in cyberpunk it seems. Haha.

Also in real life programming, I'm told. Apparently everyone takes adderall to stay focused.

How are you going? Stuck at 25% or getting into it?

Finished it a bit ago, just haven't updated yet. It was fine. Not nearly as convoluted/complicated as I expected. I was interested while reading it but when I finished I quickly moved on to something else. I don't feel the need to finish the trilogy and to be honest this felt a bit dated, as if I've read books or watched movies that did it better. Probably (absolutely) not fair if this is the book that started this subgenre. I was surprised to find out that Neuromancer didn't refer to Case, the protagonist. Don't know why I always assumed that it did.

I might try one of his newer novels. I remember thinking that The Peripheral sounded interesting.

Did you end up picking it up or are you going to skip it?

I find that's always the case with really original books - later followers perfect and explore the idea in all kinds of ways which make the original look dull in comparison.

I was intending to read it, but things just got away from me this month and I've hardly read anything at all.

Nick wrote: . . . but things just got away from me this month and I've hardly read anything at all.

That perfectly describes my June AND July.

Jon wrote: " That perfectly describes my June AND July.."

Haha, oh dear! Fingers crossed for October