William Gibson. Neuromancer. 1988; New York: Ace, 1 July 2000. E-book.

Scripture tells us, “Of the making of books there is no end.” (Ecclesiastes 12:12 KJV) I have known about Neuromancer for over twenty-five years, but, as with so many other books, I had never gotten around to reading it. Looking at it from that perspective, that it was originally published in 1984, this is quite a book. Even now, it still has a lot to say.

I first heard about it some time around 1990 or 1991. Some students of mine were speaking enthusiastically about it. The students in this class have always remained in my memory for two reasons. It was a very creative class—even today many have remained writers, artists, and musicians. They were also really the first class I had that grew up playing computer games. They were the original cyberpunks, a term that came to be used for writings like this. We have reviewed books by Cory Doctorow and Ernest Cline here that fall into that category.

At that point in the early nineties, the Internet was still not publicly available, but more and more people had modems attached to their personal computers and were using bulletin boards and online services. That was when I began English Plus, writing the SAT Review program Verbal Vanquish and posting it on bulletin boards as shareware. I am thankful for that personally because it provided needed income to support a growing family.

A few years before that, Gibson had written his book. I can see why it was so well received back then. It was radical, full of possibilities for the widespread use of the computer. As is well known, this is where Gibson coined the term cyberspace. He also used another interesting term for the network that was connecting seemingly everyone and everything in the world: the matrix.

Not only does that help explain the films by that name that would come out in the late nineties, but that word itself is interesting. In modern English it has two distinct meanings. Many students who have taken any mathematics classes beyond basic algebra have learned about the mathematical matrix, an arrangement of numbers that show a detailed relationship among the numbers and to other sets of numbers. In other words in Neuromancer’s world, the arrangement of zeroes and ones of binary code that relate to others and create what would later be called a network and virtual reality.

But the older, original Latin meaning of the word is simply “womb.” Its root is mater, or mother. By extension it is used sometimes today in various sciences to discuss something that creates a mold or causes something to come into existence. So Gibson’s matrix or artificial intelligence has created an extensive virtual reality. Indeed, the most difficult thing about reading Neuromancer is to try to figure out which parts are VR (virtual reality) and which are IRL (in real life). In the end, it hardly makes a difference. The reader has to go with the flow and accept the premise of the story without trying to figure those things out.

The real world of Neuromancer is in a future with some degree of ecological disaster. Think of the Blade Runner film. However, the computer-generated virtual reality can be very pleasant for those who can afford it. The real part of the world that our protagonist Case ends up in is a satellite with various colonies of different types. Some places there have set up an artificial gravity field while others are zero-g like outer space.

Later the term avatar would be used in computer games for a computer-generated representation of a character or person. In Neuromancer, there are a number of characters who may or may not be computer-generated. In some cases, there is an IRL character who appears in the computer simulation as an avatar. This is very clever, but it can be dizzying.

Fans of Blade Runner may recall the difficulty people in that world of 2019 (imagine that!) distinguishing between robots and people. So in Neuromancer it is not always easy or even advisable to distinguish between avatars and real humans.

One reason for this is that computer science has evolved to the point that most people are genetically engineered. One man who is described as ugly is real anomaly in this world. Apparently his parents did not elect any genetic engineering or, as the book suggests, he intentionally altered his looks biologically as a kind of statement.

The title suggests another computer advancement. We have gone beyond Kurzweil’s singularity. People directly connect their brains and nervous systems to the computer networks. This creates a genuine virtual reality and explains why it is often difficult to tell what parts are IRL and what parts are VR. It also means that the memories of many individuals can be accessed and downloaded. This can be used in VR to stimulate pleasure via the simstims (“simulation stimulators”) which it seems that everyone uses. However, since their memories can often be accessed because they are stored somewhere, they can be used against people as well.

Not only do people enhance themselves biologically, but they often have implants which enhance their brainpower or physical ability. To discover things or increase one’s knowledge, all one has to do sometimes is plug into the matrix and download information into one’s brain.

Surgery often enhances people’s abilities. One of the other major characters is a woman named Molly whose eyes have been enhanced to see and interpret virtual reality and whose fingertips have razor-like retractable fingernails for fighting. When Case is recruited (somewhat against his will) to attack a major banking network, he is given a new pancreas (the one he was born with is being destroyed by his drug habit) and also is given some implants so that the drugs he likes to use will no longer have any effect on him. Case is mostly sober in the story—a trait he apparently did not have much before the story begins.

Note that in all this, I have not said much about plot. There is, in fact, a lot of conflict, but the basic plot is simply that attack on the secure computer network of a major bank. We begin to realize that the banks not only control money, but they control a lot of what people see and do both in VR and IRL. In 1984, Gibson could not imagine corporations like Facebook, Google, or Amazon, so he defaults with banks.

It is a wild ride. There are characters, both avatars and humans, who have a number of unusual powers. There are many challenges. In many ways, Neuromancer is simply a role-playing video game turned into a novel.

Without giving a whole lot away, Case is largely successful in his quest. The last image in the story reminds me of the end of another wild, cerebral epic, Milton’s Paradise Lost. As Adam sees himself and Eve and what they have done, and the fallen future they have before them, so Case reflects on his situation and sees perhaps some positive potential in his future. In both cases, “…with wandering steps and slow,/Through Eden took their solitary way.” (12.648-649)

P.S. Neuromancer does have a lot of strong language, and one of the main characters is a prostitute, another is a drug addict. In other words, this book might not be for everyone.