Neuromancer

I desperately wanted Neuromancer to be good. You know how it goes, one of those surefire bangers that's guaranteed to be brilliant? On your TBR list for years!

With a positive mindset, I carried on reading until it finally clicked that this book is technically amazing but incoherent!

It's relevant and aged pretty well, but the problem is the lack of cohesive plot.

When Neuromancer was first published in 1984 it was revolutionary. Cyberspace didn't exist yet and all we had was basic hardware, physical connections and lots of dreams. It hit the sci-fi community like a tsunami.

The glaring omission of mobile phones, WiFi or bluetooth technologies didn't bother me as much as I thought either like it does in other books with retro props that shatter the immersion because they glare so much of the past.

No, it's the blinding incoherence, scrambled by terminology that's difficult to understand.

Initially set in a future Japan, technology is an important part of the experience, with razorblade extensions, prosthetics and mind-bending advancements and, as a reader you feel like a little fish in a big pond controlled by uber bosses subservient to even bigger corporate honchos. There's a constant sense of being on the run, unable to stay still for long or relax, always on the edge and hyper stressed out in a bleeding-edge environment.

There's also a lovely digital effect when you switch between chapters, of a matrix-like circuit flicking in and out on the page as a fade-in fade-out perk.

Unfortunately, the book reads like a blurred dream as characters constantly plug in and out of cyberspace to advance their missions while you lose track of what's real and virtual. As with other books I've struggled with in the past, it's best to research characters and connections to make the experience more understandable, which is hardly a recommendation! And that's the thing, it doesn't get easier as you go forward because of the constant barrage of new terminology and concepts.

Constantly chucking new ideas and phraseology at the reader is an excuse for a ropey plot.

The portrait of a future cyber era is still impressive though in an electric and vivid world. If you like technology and science, Neuromancer is worth reflection on a possible future that's replaceable and interchangeable at all times, where new body parts and augments are standard practice like piercings and tattoos are today.

But this mishmash of hodgepodge add-ons left me confused, filled with crypto junk and cyber nonsense that I couldn't filter out.

Classified in some circles as dystopia, there are some interesting facts about space adaptation syndrome (SAS) for example, yakuza effectively means gangster or mafia in Japanese, and if you think about it, when jacking in to cyberspace there's a risk of losing track of time and flat-lining, so you need a trustworthy partner constantly on hand to pull you out.

The use of numbers in names is ingenious too, such as 3Jane or 8Jean for what we might call senior, junior or Jane III, for a new twist on King 8Henry.

This book has so much potential, so it depends on how much incoherence you can accept?

Although technically stunning, Neuromancer isn't entertaining enough to overcome the blur.

Final Word:

The video game Cyberpunk 2077 is NOT based on this book, but you may appreciate Neuromancer more if you've played the game or know a little about it.