Neuromancer
by William Gibson · first published 1984
38% recommend55% neutral7% critical
Why HN recommends it
Cyberpunk novel about a hacker in cyberspace, valued for its imaginative vision, atmosphere, and influence on tech culture; suits sci-fi fans who will absorb its impressionistic style rather than parse every detail.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The first of William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, Neuromancer is the classic cyberpunk novel. The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future — a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations. Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits hi
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…previous one while somehow keeping the reader focused on the story. (Last book to successfully do that to me was the Saga series.) It was fascinating to realize just how much of our culture is indebted to Neuromancer. So many games and movies use scenes or characters taken wholesale from the pages. Now if only somebody would do a TV adaptation of the original! (As an aside: after finishing the book, I really enjoyed…
on “Revisting Neuromancer After Three Decades” ↗Neuromancer was groundbreaking in its time. I read it when it came out in 1984 and it blew me away. These days so much other media has been influenced by it that it doesn't look nearly as original. But just imagine…
on “The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk” ↗…friends read a draft and they are really confused by this major character, better fix it, but, like, without working very hard" way. I mean, at least he bothers to tell us, but wow. Like you, I enjoyed Neuromancer quite a bit (and I read it after Stephenson—only last year, in fact). The other two in that trilogy are somewhere on my mental to-read list.
on “YC's Winter Reading List” ↗Neuromancer - William Gibson REAMDE- Neal Stephenson Pattern Recognition / Zero History / Spook Country - William Gibson The Peripheral - William Gibson Not exactly the same thing, but I'll also throw in Glasshouse…
on “Ask HN: Books that altered your view of reality” ↗>> he former US soldier in this article even sounds a bit like Gibson's character Armitage from Neuromancer. I just started getting into Sci-Fi (particularly dytopian worlds) and my Dad recommended this book as a "must read". I'm halfway through it and love it so far.
on “Eyes Everywhere: Encryption programmer Paul Le Roux and his commando kill squad” ↗…Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States by Herfried Münkler - Smedley D. Butler's War is a Racket (more of an exposé) - In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell (ditto) - Neuromancer by William Gibson
on “Ask HN: What books fundamentally changed the way you think about the world?” ↗My favorite: "Neuromancer" by William Gibson. A close second: "Accelerando" by Charles Stross. (I met Charles Stross once. He told me that "Accelerando" was not his favorite of the books he's written.)
on “Ask HN: Best hard scifi AI novels?” ↗Nobody's really like Stephenson, but to the extent that he is something of a cyberpunk author, I'd say you might like some of these folks if you're not familiar with them yet: 1. William Gibson - Neuromancer, 'nuff said. The rest of the Sprawl Trilogy is great as well. 2. Rudy Rucker - I haven't read any of his stuff yet, but he is on my short-list of authors to start reading. Gets recommended a lot in these…
on “Neal Stephenson reacts to Facebook name change” ↗"the descriptions of the metaverse are the parts of Neuromancer that hold up least well" I'd be interested in reading descriptions of cyberspace that are better than Neuromancer's. So far I haven't found any.
on “The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk” ↗I found Snow Crash to be really childish, and not even in the same league as Neuromancer. I read Neuromancer originally in 1984 and again a few years ago, and for me it still holds up. It's not the greatest book or anything, and I found Count Zero to be much better, but apart from those…
on “The Influence of Neuromancer on Cyberpunk” ↗Neuromancer by William Gibson, though it might not be inspiring, is a must-read; it's practically internet heritage!
on “Ask YC: What's the most inspiring sci-fi book you've read?” ↗…Godel, Escher, Bach - Douglass Hoffstadter Brocas Brain - Carl Sagan The (mis)Behavior of Markets - Benoit Mandelbrot The Black Swan - Nicholas Nassem Taleb Fiction Gates Of Fire - Stephen Pressfield Neuromancer - William Gibson Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Hardwired - Walter Jon Williams Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson Space - Stephen Baxter Enders Game - Orson Scott Card…
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗…* Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) * Influx (Daniel Suarex) * Sputnik Sweetheart (Haruki Murakami) * Apex (Ramez Naam) * One Second After (William R. Forstchen) * Anna Karanina (Leo Tolstoy) * Neuromancer (William Gibson) * A Farewell to Arms (Ernest Hemingway) * Crux (Ramez Naam) * A Moveable Feast (Ernest Hemingway) * Hardboiled Wonderland and The End of the World (Haruki Murakami)
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2017?” ↗…what might happen in reality) - Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that can't... (Ok, not great, read it on blinkist) - Ender's Game (Under rated, most fun I had reading this year, I know...) - Neuromancer (classic, must read) - Pre-suation (interesting and worth reading if starting a consumer facing business) - The Three-Body Problem (Found it tedious, honestly. Interesting though) - Radical Candour…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…Charles Stross, or Glasshouse also by Stross. Permutation City by Greg Egan. Off To Be The Wizard by Scott Meyer. Any of the "Dresden Files" novels by Jim Butcher. The Shockwave Rider by John Brunner. Neuromancer by William Gibson. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.
on “Ask HN: Best non-business books to read on vacation” ↗