/lit/ - Literature

I started reading Neuromancer a while back, and I'm not sure I really "get" it.

I liked some of Gibson's short stories, especially Burning Chrome and Johnny Mnemonic, so I thought Neuromancer would just be more of the same in a longer form, but it's actually been kinda boring and I've put it down and picked it back up a couple of times.

I feel like for most forms of niche media, there's always one or two exalted pieces that are guaranteed to be excellent - Blade Runner is this to cyberpunk movies, Akira and Bubblegum Crisis are this to cyberpunk anime, and so on - but I'm not sure if Neuromancer is this for cyberpunk literature, or if there even is such a thing for cyberpunk literature outside of a handful of short stories.

I could be wrong, I'm only roughly a third of the way through the book, so it could get really good all of the sudden and I might change my tune, but is this a normal first impression to have about Neuromancer?

Not the best books you've ever read, but those that you return to most, that have kept a grip on you for years
Obviously pulpshit is welcome

this unironically

I've just finished Neuromancer is Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive worth checking out or should I move on to something else?

Is there any Cyberpunk novels worth checking besides Neuromancer or should continue the Sprawl trilogy?

It's weird how aware everyone is of Cyberpunk dystopia in fiction, especially with movies coming out all the time about it, yet there are aspects of it already affecting every day existence.

Does the fact that you are aware of the possibility of encroaching techno-fascism necessarily preclude it from actually happening?

Just finished it. Wew. Had to read it in 2 chunks, first chunk mainly I was just digesting the aesthetic and the language and all of that style that was so influential. This sit down I tried to actually follow the plot but it was pretty nonsensical really.

I checked out Gibson's official twitter after apparently he had praise for Sasha Grey portraying Molly in some art exhibition/reading of the book, but it's actually just TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP which I 100% didn't see coming. Check it out:

https://twitter.com/GreatDismal

Anyway, what were your thoughts on Neuromancer? Did /lit/ read any of his other books? Also what's your opinion on Gibson purely as a thinker?

So this is nowhere near as good as everyone led me to believe.

Does it get better past the beginning? About of a quarter in and highly tempted to drop.

Worth reading?

"Shoulda just watch the anime", Anon thought while reading the last chapter of the book, riding the diesel shuttle to non-cyberpunk real life Helsinki city center. It took him a few seconds to realize there was no actual anime version. "Fuck", he muttered while wondering whether the degenerate wonders of genre fiction or his dihydromorphinone fog was to blame for this error. Although left with a crave for a more challenging read, swiping his Yota through the last, extra-cheesy pages of Neuromancer topped his lush reading experience, leaving Anon with a nice tech-enhanced human feeling.

Which books would you consider book kino (or bookino, if you will)?

Pic related.

>>8071427

I just finished this. Are all his other works this good or should I move on to other writers? And if so, which ones?

I really feel like I should enjoy cyberpunk novels. I love Phillip K. Dick books like UBIK and The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Bladerunner is one of my favorite movies. I enjoy cyberpunk anime like Ghost in the Shell or Bubblegum Crisis. I've tried reading two of the "best" of the genre and been severely disappointed.
Neuromancer was full of style and I'm sure for the time was groundbreaking. It seems to be all style though, which is fine for visual media. It just doesn't work for me in a novel. It wasn't bad just not great either.
Snow Crash was not near as funny as it thinks it is. It's too stuck in the whole "geek chic" kind of thing and that does nothing for me.
If these are the premiere authors of the style then I don't have very high hopes for the rest of it.
Basically, is there any cyberpunk novels actually worth reading? Or should I just keep admiring from a visual aesthetic standpoint.

>>6410811
It could be a well written and interesting piece of genre trash. Alas...

I really liked Neuromancer, but can someone explain why it is constantly referred to as "dystopian fiction"?

>crime still exists but now they use computers, WOW
>prostitution still exists but now they use computers, WOW
>drugs still exist but now they use advanced chemistry, WOW
>big and evil corporations only care about money and they are all corporationy and stuff
>and they use computers, WOW
>there are hotels for poor people which contain small box beds instead of rooms and don't even have wooden furniture and doilies; they are nicknamed "coffins" so that means they're dark and depressing, WOW
>the computer becomes smarter than people and rebels against them (even though he ultimately just left them all alone)
>people use virtual reality and that is escapism and soullessness, fucking kids and their smartphones

Maybe I'm just bad at reading between the lines, or maybe life was better in the 80s and I'm just used to what it has become, but the "dark future" seems, at worst, to have failed at fixing humanity's problems, as opposed to creating new ones.

I am 40 pages in into this book and I got zero enjoyment out of it so far.
Maybe cyberpunk is not for me, but the whole thing just feels too dense and confusing.

Does it get better? Should I push on with it or drop it?

Are other cyberpunk stuff easier to read (Snow Crash? Dick's stories?)?

Okay, I'm reading the Neuromancer and I'm halfway through the book. The problem is I'm not sure whether I'll continue or not. I can't really get what's happening all the time, seriously. It seems convoluted as fuck and I'm not sure if I'm not too pleb for this. I enjoy Gibson's style, but his prose and the plot seems to be really awkward.

What do you guys think?

Thoughts on pic related? I love Gibson's style and the world he created. Haven't had this much raw enjoyment reading a book in a while. In before genre fiction.

ITT- Novels you thought you'd love and ended up disliking

Is Neuromancer worth my time?

>>5041548
yeah this cover looks so bad.

this is the cover for the brazilian version i think

>>4925637
this book isn't supposed to be particularly challenging but for some reason I've had a much harder time getting through it than a lot more "literate" books