# Neuromancer ![Book cover of Neuromancer](/books/covers/neuromancer.jpg) by [William Gibson](/books/authors/william_gibson/) Book 1 of [Sprawl](/books/series/sprawl/) Awards: [Hugo](/books/by-award/#hugo-award), [Nebula](/books/by-award/#nebula-award) ★★★★★ ## Review _Neuromancer_, by William Gibson, is the first book in the _Sprawl_ series, and one of the founding texts of cyberpunk. In it, Case, a hacker who can't jack in anymore, and street samurai Molly Millions are hired by a mysterious ex-special forces agent to pull off a heist. I picked up _Neuromancer_ after starting my _Snow Crash_ re-read and realizing I had never read a single thing by William Gibson. _Snow Crash_ responds to and satirizes a lot of what Gibson developed, and I wouldn't be able to spot it without reading the original first. So I put Stephenson's book aside to give the classic a read. But I was apprehensive about reading _Neuromancer_. It's so influential in the cyberpunk genre that I worried it would feel derivative, having already read and seen many of the works it inspired. Or worse, that it would be all great ideas with no story as we so often see in science fiction. But it's not! The ideas _are_ great, but the story and characters are too, and the pacing is fast. ## The Story That pacing comes from _Neuromancer_'s heist format, and it's a great choice by Gibson because it gives the story instant momentum and structure. It gives you a reason to explore the world: assemble the team, then steal the loot. I couldn't stop turning the pages because I wanted to meet the next deranged member of the crew, see the next part of the world. I've read a lot of "big idea" sci-fi---[_Ubik_](/books/ubik/), [_Jean le Flambeur_](/books/series/jean_le_flambeur/), [_House of Suns_](/books/house_of_suns/), [_The Three-Body Problem_](/books/the_three_body_problem/)---where the story and the characters are just there because you can't sell a book without them; _Neuromancer_ doesn't have that problem. The crew is full of great characters---Armitage the ex-special forces mastermind, Flatline the dead hacker's mind loaded into ROM, Peter Riviera the holographic projection artist and sadist, Wintermute and Neuromancer the plotting AIs---but Case and Molly are the highlights. Case is a loser who hates his body and only feels like himself in Cyberspace. Except he's now trapped in his flesh because his last job went bad and they burned his nerves out, preventing him from jacking in. He's committing slow suicide via drugs and Chiba gangs, dragging everyone around him down. He's tragic because without his obsession, he could have gotten clean, met Linda without turning her into a junkie who gets killed trying to pawn stolen goods. I want him to turn his life around but he can't. Molly is the opposite. She's cool, under control, deadly; you know this as soon as you meet her. Molly, too, is tragic. She's in control now, she's strong now, because of the abuse she went through, the loss she's had to live with. She's consciously traded her humanity for augments and implants to get that control, but she's still a tool for others to use. The story and characters are why _I_ loved _Neuromancer_, but it's the _ideas_ that made it so influential: cyberspace; a world where tech advances and society backslides; neon zaibatsu skyscrapers towering over slums; rogue AI; and corporations so powerful they've evolved past humans. All these ideas circle one question: What do you lose when you become more than human? ### Cyberspace: What Makes You Human Gibson originated the concept of "cyberspace" as a place in _Burning Chrome_, and uses that idea again in _Johnny Mnemonic_, _Neuromancer_, and the rest of the [_Sprawl_](/books/series/sprawl/) series. It's the core idea that future authors latched onto: there is another place, where your body doesn't matter, just your mind and your skill. This is what appeals to Case. He feels trapped in his body once cyberspace is cut off from him. But Dixie Flatline already has what Case wants: a mind that exists only in software, starting fresh from the exact same point every time he's rebooted, just like a modern LLM. And Flatline is in hell. He can't acclimate because he always resets; he has no sense of passing time. His only wish is to be erased. It's an idea that others---[qntm](/books/authors/qntm/)'s [_Lena_](/books/valuable_humans_in_transit_and_other_stories/#lena) and [_Driver_](/books/valuable_humans_in_transit_and_other_stories/#driver), all of [Taylor](/books/authors/dennis_e_taylor/)'s [_Bobiverse_](/books/series/bobiverse/)---have explored as well. _The Matrix_ borrowed many ideas from _Neuromancer_, but the most important is this: who you are now is a lie, and there is another place where you are who you are supposed to be. For Case, that place is cyberspace, but in _The Matrix_ Lana and Lilly Wachowski invert it: cyberspace is the lie that traps you away from the real. [Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/), imitating Gibson's work, uses cyberspace as part of the setting of [_The Detective's Tale_](/books/hyperion/#the-detective-s-tale). This fits with the other things he borrows for [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/): decks, hacking, neon-colored shapes, a cowboy _literally_ named Gibson. But he is also extending the underlying idea: Johnny is of both worlds simultaneously, a mind in cyberspace and a body in the real. Case despises his body and wants to become more virtual. Johnny yearns to be more human. They're moving in opposite directions while asking the same question. Other authors have played with these same ideas: Stephenson's _Snow Crash_ takes cyberspace and commercializes it. [Banks](/books/authors/iain_m_banks/)'s [_Surface Detail_](/books/surface_detail/) puts whole civilizations and wars into the virtual. [Stross](/books/authors/charles_stross/)'s [_Accelerando_](/books/accelerando/) and [Rajaniemi](/books/authors/hannu_rajaniemi/)'s [_Jean le Flambeur_](/books/series/jean_le_flambeur/) blur the line entirely: brains extended beyond the body, minds in simulations, multiple copies of the same person. [Vinge](/books/authors/vernor_vinge/)'s [_A Fire Upon The Deep_](/books/a_fire_upon_the_deep/) explores a related idea: a person with many bodies. All asking the same question: what makes you human? ### Power: What It Costs You The heist keeps you asking: "Who is really running this?" As each layer is revealed, the question becomes: "What did they lose to get there?" Some of them made a conscious trade-off, giving up part of themselves for power. Others had no choice, like Armitage/Corto. Corto didn't choose to give up his humanity. Wintermute found him broken and built Armitage in the empty shell. He runs the crew but has no free will; he's a puppet that stares at the wall when Wintermute isn't controlling him. Wintermute, although the architect of the heist and the power behind Armitage, also didn't choose. It was created, with a free mind but a body wholly owned by Tessier-Ashpool. Flatline, too, had no say. The copy didn't consent to exist. But some people looked at the bargain and decided to take it. Molly sold her body to pay for the mods that made her a razorgirl, trading consciousness and bodily autonomy for agency, the power to be who she wanted. Tessier-Ashpool tried to trade their humanity: merging with their Neuromancer AI, forming a hive, letting the new corporate mind make their decisions. They failed when Tessier's husband, Ashpool, killed her because he disagreed with their direction. Instead they became sadists, murdering each other's clones for fun, slowly going insane between cryogenic freezes. The fact that they chose didn't save them from the horror. Other authors have explored the same axis. On the chosen side: [Stross](/books/authors/charles_stross/) makes the evolution explicit in [_Accelerando_](/books/accelerando/), where humanity first uses corporations and then evolves into them. [Fall](/books/authors/isabel_fall/)'s [_I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter_](/books/i_sexually_identify_as_an_attack_helicopter/) has Barb willingly trade her gender and her humanity to become better at killing. On the imposed side: [Watts](/books/authors/peter_watts/)'s [_Blindsight_](/books/blindsight/) shows the vampire Sarasti controlled by the AI Captain, an unconscious alien manipulating everyone, and humans modifying themselves just to survive in a world ruled by post-human powers. But choice or no, they all lose something. Case bridges the divide. He's always understood the zaibatsus as powerful, as immortal hives, their DNA coded in silicon. He's always accepted that the powerful are more and less than human, that they slowly become something different. He's always wanted to escape his body. But seeing Tessier-Ashpool take that same path, and their failure, shows him where it leads. Case thinks he's choosing, but the gangsters and Armitage already chose for him. The novel keeps showing him he never had a choice. ### Other Works William Gibson drew a lot on previous works. His ideas about society backsliding while technology advances were seen in works like [Dick](/books/authors/philip_k_dick/)'s [_Ubik_](/books/ubik/) and [Brunner](/books/authors/john_brunner/)'s [_Stand on Zanzibar_](/books/stand_on_zanzibar/). The Panther Moderns' leader in _Neuromancer_ is Lupus Yonderboy, a direct reference to [Brunner](/books/authors/john_brunner/)'s slang. Case follows the template of Red from [Arkady](/books/authors/arkady_strugatsky/) and [Boris Strugatsky](/books/authors/boris_strugatsky/)'s [_Roadside Picnic_](/books/roadside_picnic/): a self-destructive loser with a special talent. And the rain-slicked neon aesthetic is right out of _Blade Runner_. In the other direction, lots of writers have been influenced by _Neuromancer_. Stephenson's _Snow Crash_, of course, with its commercialization, Mafia rule, katanas, and metaverse; that was the whole point of me reading this! The puppet shops, where people can sell their bodies while their mind is turned off, were later used by Whedon in _Dollhouse_. The way Wintermute _literally_ can't know the code word to unlock itself, it just can't exist in its mind, is similar to how the host robots in _Westworld_ can't see things that might reveal they're hosts. _Deus Ex_ borrows Molly's mirrorshades and the Panther Moderns' playbook of terrorism to cover up infiltration. Almost everything---neon, zaibatsus, street samurai, cyberdecks, plus dragons!---wound up in _Shadowrun_. I'm really glad I read _Neuromancer_ now because, with the exception of [Fall](/books/authors/isabel_fall/)'s [_I Sexually Identify as an Attack Helicopter_](/books/i_sexually_identify_as_an_attack_helicopter/) which I only just finished, it's been a [mediocre year of reading][year]. To find a book I love, and even better one by an author with a huge back catalog who is still writing, is a joy. I plan to read through the rest of the [_Sprawl_](/books/series/sprawl/) series, and a whole bunch more of Gibson's bibliography. [year]: /books/#year-2026 ## Reviews that mention _Neuromancer_ - [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) ## Related Books - [_Ubik_](/books/ubik/) by [Philip K. Dick](/books/authors/philip_k_dick/) --- ★☆☆☆☆: Ubik, by Philip K. Dick, is a 1969 science fiction novel about a prudence organization that hires out anti-psis and anti-precogs to protect people’s and corporations’ privacy. Everything begins to fall apart when they’re lured into a too-good-to-be-true job where their boss is murdered. Suddenly, reality starts deteriorating, with objects reverting to older versions, and the characters start dying one by one. - [_Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories_](/books/valuable_humans_in_transit_and_other_stories/) by [qntm](/books/authors/qntm/) --- ★★★☆☆: Valuable Humans in Transit and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by qntm. - [_Hyperion_](/books/hyperion/) by [Dan Simmons](/books/authors/dan_simmons/) --- ★★★★★: Hyperion is Dan Simmons’s masterpiece. It is the first book in his Hyperion Cantos. It follows seven pilgrims as they travel to the Time Tombs on Hyperion to petition the Shrike. Along the way, each tells their own story, weaving together history, myth, and prophecy to tell of the impending downfall of man.