Bookreport: Neuromancer - William Gibson

Essay by asfir2High School, 11th gradeA-, January 2005

download word file, 4 pages 3.0

This book is a mark in the sci-fi genre: it is supposed to be the first Cyberpunk book to be written and published. What is Cyberpunk? Its main characteristics: it takes place in the near future; it features an "anti hero", one who lives at the edge of society. The world is controlled by evil corporations, which manipulates everybody to their needs. The anti hero usually goes against this system. These books are usually very depressing, presenting a very sad, "dehumanized" world controlled by organized crime, filled with drugs and machines.

From time to time I like to read books that mark corner stones in sci-fi, like Dune, Alice in Wonderland ect. I decided to read this book to "complete my education" so to speak. When I had to pick a book for my book report, I chose this one, because I was already in the middle of it. I expected to find a special book, interesting and intriguing, because it is a "bread book" (must read, important book).

I thought it would be about some person possessing some special power, capable of doing something that was never done before, and who would be using this power to free man kind from the control of machines. The author is a real artist in English; he makes a dazzling use of it. The first sentence in the book "The sky was the color of TV, tuned to a dead channel" is just the tip of the iceberg. He uses slang freely and it makes the book really hard to comprehend.

The story takes place in the near future. The world is now controlled by great corporations and crime rules. The world is now a "sprawl", a huge complex of merged mega cities. Nowadays, every thing economic is in the matrix. Our...