The Sprawl Series

I'd read Neuromancer before, but I'd never read the sequels.

Neuromancer

Author William Gibson ISBN ISBN 0-441-56958-7 Published 1984 Pages 271 Date read 2006.10.05 Rating 9/9

I have a weakness for books that do something original or start a genre. This book is largely responsible for the cyberpunk genre of science fiction. It's hard to see it now because the format has been copied so many times, but it was truly an original work. True, better works have come since in the genre, but this is still the original that got everyone thinking.

His buyer for the three megabytes of hot RAM in the Hitachi wasn't taking calls.

I find that quote so utterly droll. It's amazing how much writers/computer geeks in the 80s underestimated the size memory would grow to. The amount of bandwidth he talks about is similarly humorous. He talks about cities using Gbit bandwidths when today we have that much going to individual residences.

It's entertaining how he uses the word 'microsoft' not for the company, but for a type of software. A writer just couldn't get away with that today.

I had never realized before that Johnny Mnemonic was also in the Sprawl universe. I just never connected the two, until Molly starts talking about her old boyfriend Johnny who was a data trafficker, & etc, etc.

Anyways, I still like it, maybe not so much for what it was, but what it did to our culture. (Hey, where would The Matrix be without Neuromancer? It would probably have been called The Net or something. Oh wait. That was that movie that -- noooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!)

--Tometheus 21:25, 6 October 2006 (EDT)