Neuromancer (©1984)

Case was a cowboy who double-crossed his employers - so they lobotomized him stranding him in his "meat" body. Along comes a couple of strangers: one a patched up military type, and the other a female version of Wolverine from The X-Men. Along with the aid of a mysterious benefactor they fix up Case's noodle, and enlist his help in trying to crack into a superdooper computer to release an AI from its fetters.

Written in 1984 Gibson won the Hugo, Nebula, and Philp K. Dick Awards. For good reason - the ideas in this book are absolutely amazing. The story is secondary to the images. The characters are puffed up caricatures. Neuromancer will be remembered for what it started and the way in which Gibson envisioned the future.

Reviewed January 4, 2001

Virtual Light

A bike courier lifts a pair of glasses off some loser at a party. Berry who is a former police officer becomes involved with a bounty hunter who trying to recover the glasses.  Shades that are more than just your standard Foster Grants.

Gibson has a very crisp style, and his ideas are right out there. The images of the Golden Gate bridge are boggling. The guy paints a very engrossing picture. Not the best ending ever written, but an engaging tale. I look forward to reading more of his books.

Idoru (©1996)

For what ever reason I read this one after All Tomorrow's Parties, and although this is a really good novel, it wasn't nearly as good. Having said this, it was a really interesting story, and Gibson has a way with words that is really something.

The whole concept of taking virtual reality and meshing it multimedia and then blaring the lines is pretty cool. We get a rock and roll band, some seriously dedicated fans, a very loyal bodyguard and a bunch of intrigue.

All very cool.

Shame on me for reading this out of sequence, as it really would have been appreciated more had I read this first before having zipped through the next one.

Reviewed Fall 2002

All Tomorrow's Parties (©1999)

Wow, and wow again.

I've read a bunch of Gibson's work now, and one of two things has happened. I finally get his stuff, or he's really hitting the mark now. In the past he was getting close, but this is an excellent story.

I really liked this one a lot. It brings back the main characters from Virtual Light, as well as a couple from Idoru. Meshes them all together and basically blows the doors off the barn. Rydell is a great loser, and Chevette is as tough as they come. Laney the geek from Idoru has basically lost himself in the datastream, and is struggling to keep it together.

Gibson returns us to his perverse vision of San Francisco and he treat us to a real potpourri of twisted characters. I loved it.

Not to give too much away, but Gibson has reached a new high with this effort.

Wow and wow again.

Holy crap, I'm just a gushin' fool. You'd think I liked this one.

Reviewed Fall 2002