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Published in 1984, Neuromancer was author William Gibson's first novel. It won the 1984 Nebula award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award and Hugo Award the following year. The novel is considered to be the first proper cyberpunk novel. The Sprawl-trilogy, of which Neuromancer is the first part
Setting
Set in a dystopian future which many readers find chillingly plausible, this book explored ideas such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations dominating the world at the expense of the nation-state, and cyberspace (a computer network called the Grid) long before these ideas were fashionable in popular culture. Gibson also explored the dehumanizing effects of a world dominated by ubiquitous and cheap technology, writing of a future where violence and the free market are the only things upon which one may rely.
In 1988, a video game adaptation, designed by Bruce J. Balfour, Brian Fargo, Troy A. Miles, and Michael A. Stackpole, was published by Interplay. The game had many of the same locations and themes as the novel, but a different protagonist and plot. It also featured an electronic soundtrack performed by Devo.
Characters Case: The anti-hero. A drug addict and cyberspace hacker whose nervous system was burnt out by some of his business partners who used a Russian mycotoxin after he ripped them off. When Armitage offers to help him he jumps at the offer.
Molly: A "Razorgirl" who is recruited along with Case by Armitage. She has extensive body modifications, most notably blades under her fingernails which can be used like claws, an optimized reflex system and implanted lenses covering her eyesockets with added optical enhancements.
Armitage: He is (apparently) the main patron of the crew. Formerly a Green Beret named Colonel Willis Corto, who took part in the Screaming Fist operation. He was heavily injured both physically and psychologically, and the "Armitage" personality was constructed as part of experimental "computer_mediated psychotherapy" by Wintermute, one of the artificial intelligences seen on the story (the other one being the eponymous Neuromancer) which is actually controlling the mission. As the novel progresses, Armitage's personality slowly disintegrates.
Peter Riviera: A thief who can project images using his implants. He is a drug addict, hooked on a mix of heroin and cocaine.
Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool: The shared current leader of "Tessier-Ashpool SA", a company running Freeside, a resort in space. She lives in the tip of Freeside, known as the "Villa Straylight". She controls the hardwiring that keeps the company's AIs from exceeding their boundaries of intelligence.
The Dixie Flatline: A famous computer hacker named McCoy Pauley known for surviving 3 "flat-lines" or brain deaths while trying to crack an AI. Before his death, he had Sense/Net save the contents of his mind onto a ROM. Case and Molly steal the ROM and Dixie helps them complete their mission.
Wintermute: One of the two Tessier-Ashpool artificial intelligence. Somehow, Wintermute gained a minute ammount of control of different computer systems all over the earth and on Straylight. His goal is to combine with Neuromancer and become a super-intelligence.
The Finn: One of Molly's old friends. He has all kinds of debugging and sensor gear that allow Case to confirm Artmitage's toxic sack threat. Later in the book Wintermute uses his personality to talk with Case and Molly.
Julius Dean: A 115 year old man with a fetish for fashion. He is very paranoid even around friends and is constantly chewing ginger candy. Case often went to him for information or jobs.
Linda Lee: Case's girlfriend in Chiba. The book hints that she is killed by Julius.
Lupus Yonderboy: Leader of the Panther Moderns. Has pink hair, a chameleon suit, and many ear ports. He and the Moderns help steal the Dixie Flatline from Sense/Net.
Plot Wintermute's goal was to combine with its AI "sibling" Neuromancer, in order to become an even greater intelligence. By doing so, it somehow became the sum total of the computer matrix, and set off to finding others of its kind in the universe.
Wintermute is the deus ex machina behind Armitage and his crew, and uses them to try to locate the terminal that holds the key to merging with Neuromancer. Meanwhile, human drama and tragedy works its way out against this background.
Reference William Gibson, Neuromancer, 1984, New Ace SF Special, ISBN 0-441-56956-0
See also
External links - Study Guide for Neuromancer by Paul Brians of Washington State University (http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/science_fiction/neuromancer.html)
- Technology and its dangerous effects on nature and human life as perceived in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and William Gibson's Neuromancer (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5972/gibson.html)
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