SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

The only other "first thoughts" thread for this book had the phrase "Spoilers" in it, and only had one relevant post. So I created this new thread which has NO SPOILERS, just so no one is confused.

Just getting ready.

I'm almost done the book, but I really like it a lot. This is the 4th book I've read by Gibson. I think his style is pretty interesting. I feel like you are just thrust into a world out of nowhere and you mostly have no idea what's going on. So, this gray fuzzy picture starts to get more and more clear as the book goes on. Those were kind of my first thoughts as I read his books.

"Thrust in" and "fuzzy picture" sounds right to me, at least with Neuromancer, which is my first book by William Gibson. (He even opens with a comparison to TV white noise.)

Just finished the first two chapters and I am enjoying it a lot, though still feel a little off balance. It reads a bit like a noir thriller, even though it is set in a Dick/Bacigalupi-esque future of hodgepodge technologies. Having seen The Matrix and Johnny Mnemonic definitely helps with translating some of the jargon so far; it would have been more bewildering when the book first came out, I think!

I'm enjoying it, although I do think I'll be reading the "I didn't get it" thread. A lot of the tech stuff is going right over my head. I'm also getting a noir feel from it, Michael, so you're not the only one. It's fascinating.

Still good stuff, but I'm a little worried because I'm now over halfway through and still have the feeling that I don't really understand much! Although the way the world and cities have evolved is fascinating...

I finished and I'm still clueless about a lot of it. I feel like I should watch The Matrix again and then reread it.

I am currently in a busy life phase and have made it all the way up to page 18 after a week. So far it does indeed seem very noir, with lots of punk-ish technology and dark moral undertones and I am looking forward to getting further in to this.

Gibson is an author prophet.

I read this a few months back and though I was frequently confused, I loved it and hope to revisit it. I really had a hard time understanding what was going on at times but really enjoyed the ride, the prose was amazing. Wikipedia cleared some of it up for me afterward.

Hmm, I may check out Wikipedia when I'm done, thanks for the tip!

Hope your life allows you to catch up soon, Edwin! I'm currently at 77% so I'll hopefully jump on the spoiler discussion soon...

About 1/3 of the way through. This book should be annoying as hell as I find it hard to follow what, exactly, is going on at times. However, I do find myself drawn into the book, and it is enjoyable. It does seem to make more sense after a couple of glasses of red. Bonus.

Michael wrote: "Hmm, I may check out Wikipedia when I'm done, thanks for the tip!

Hope your life allows you to catch up soon, Edwin! I'm currently at 77% so I'll hopefully jump on the spoiler discussion soon..."

Thanks. The past couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy with very little time for reading, which makes me a sad puppy. I am all the way up to page 26 now. Geez. Next week will be better, and I hope to join in on some spoiler talk soon.

Confusing so far (I started a few days early), but so far so good

I remember reading this when it first published in paperback in 1985-86. Mind blown. Then I went back for a reread in 2020. Still great writing. I think it takes almost everyone a little time to get into the flow of the story, be patient and I hope you ultimately like the book.

〰️Beth〰️ wrote: "I think it takes almost everyone a little time to get into the flow of the story, be patient and I hope you ultimately like the book."

I totally agree. It takes a while to get into the story, but once you're in it, it's mind-blowing.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. It's not just a novel from the 1980s, it's a *very* 1980s novel. I grew up in the 1980s so that vibe of the novel feels like home to me, but the 1980s was now almost a half century ago now (I died a little inside typing that) so younger readers may not have the same cultural footing to feel at home in a work like this without a bit of acclimation.

2. Gibson intended this work to be very counter-cultural, and in the 1980s sense of counter-cultural, with its f***-all toward the very constrained, conservative, conformist culture of the time. I know people think neon colors, splatter patterns and acid-washed jeans when they think of the 1980s, but reality was, the 1980s was very, very beige. The expectation was you had your place in society, defined by your parents, their jobs and income, the neighborhood you grew up in, the high school you went to, and you were doomed to that. This is why wealth had such a strong appeal in 1980s culture and media, as it was the only path for social mobility and of actually having a say in your own future. But what Gibson and other cyberpunk authors of this time saw was a different path through tech and computers that transcended the mainstream, creating its own space and reality and with it, its own kind of denizens, norms and morality, a virtual counter-culture that played by its own rules (how well various cyberpunk authors did that in their works is up for literary debate, but the intent was there). So if the novel feels discombobulating at first, that's because it's supposed to be--Gibson wants to shake up your expectations.

Just started this morning. I agree with all the people who are saying that it's confusing. I'm not sure I really understand what's going on, but I'll give it some time.

Has anyone read the graphic novel version? Does it help visualise all of the things that are going over my head?

I think this one would be very confusing in the audio book format, but I'm managing to keep most of the characters straight.

CJ wrote: "A couple of things to keep in mind:

1. It's not just a novel from the 1980s, it's a *very* 1980s novel. I grew up in the 1980s so that vibe of the novel feels like home to me, but the 1980s was no..."

I agree CJ on every point, part of why I moved to New Orleans right after college. Subtropical and vibrant. On your first comment I am shocked now when I hear some YouTuber react to an ‘80s song and call it a classic …. What? 🤯 Then I saw the neighbor’s kid trying to ride his bike with out training wheels last week. I congratulated him and said he was younger than I was when I learned then thought 🤬 that was 50 yrs ago… I am classic 🤣

I'm on Chapter Three, and enjoying the book so far. I agree, it is a bit confusing. There's a few terms that confused me for a while, but once I looked up what they meant, it was easier.

I haven't read the graphic novel version Beth, but now I know there is one I want to read it, lol! It looks awesome. A bit like Tron.

I hope some of you will come share your thoughts next Sunday for our Virtual Book Club! I think there's SO MUCH to talk about in this book.

I went into this book knowing that there was no hand-holding and that the reader is just tossed into this foreign world so perhaps, I anticipated being confused. Or perhaps, I've read enough cyberpunk and also grew up in the 70s/80s so the style seems familiar to me. I'm on chapter 4 and feel this is going to be a 4 or 5 star read for me, which is diametrically opposed to some of my scifi reading buddies' rating of the book.

Early autobiographical digression that I just wanted to get out of my system.

I was converted to cyberpunk very early, age-wise. I was the only one among my friends to even read sci-fi also; everybody else was a high fantasy puritan. The conversion itself involves one of the coolest asthetics a pre-Internet tween had ever seen.

Not that I understood much at the time; especially because the vagaries of availability didn't allow me to complete either the Sprawl or the Bridge trilogy. Yet we basically lived in the world the cyberpunk crew conjured.

In the spring of 2020, as Italy went into early lockdown and everything became forbidden almost overnight, I made my first attempt at reading Neuromancer and stopped halfway through for some reason; I ended up reading other things during that period (Norse mythology, quantum theory, The Left Hand of Darkness, and Jason Aaron's entire run on Thor).

Which brings me to this group re-read.