Book Review: Neuromancer

Two decades ago when I was 12 my brother brought home a role playing game called Shadowrun. We looked over the pictures, read the rules, and started playing. Ten years later I was still playing on a regular basis. For most of my high school and college years, family time meant play time as we ran the shadows with my brother as Gamemaster. I started my own groups and ran campaigns for them. I loved this game. My first character, a shaman, was invincible until he encountered a dragon. I cried when he died. The game allows you to play a shadowrunner, a criminal just trying to scrap by on the streets. The players are hired by corporations and other criminals to pull jobs. 

The ownership of the game has changed a couple of times and the rules have changed for the worse. I still play old rules occasionally when I can get a group together. So it is surprising that all through these last two decades that I haven't picked up William Gibson's Neuromancer. The book was the inspiration for the game. Most of the terminology is taken directly from the story. Gibson is credited with the creation of the word Cyberspace. It is a book that mixes technology and crime into an exciting thriller. 

Gibson himself hated that his book was linked to the Shadowrun game. I read an interview with him where he states how upset he was by the use of his material. But it is not for the copyright issues that you are thinking of. Shadowrun offers the players a choice of playing a human or a metahuman (elf, dwarf, orc...) Gibson was upset by the fact that these species existed in the game. He felt that it trivialized the work. The game also includes the return of magic to the world. Something that Gibson never included in his book.  

The book follows Case, a Matrix cowboy. Case is one of the best computer hackers in the Sprawl. He enters the Matrix, a construct for cyberspace to battle ICE (security measure) to access corporate or personal information. When the book begins his mind has been blown after he tries to steal from his employer. He turns to ordinary crime until he is offered a cure and a job he can't refuse. He works with Molly, a street samurai who has more metal than flesh. She has been cybernetically augmented until she is a killing machine. Both of these characters are archetypes in the game. 

The action is tense and the world is well described. Gibson wrote the book in 1984 and set it in the not too distant future. It is even possible to see some of the technology he discusses. The characters, including the AI, are interesting and flawed. It makes for exciting reading. Gibson is not very good at explaining his terms and for the first part of the book that is a bit confusing. The book throws you into the world and makes no exceptions. The reader must either keep pace with the changed world or the book will make no sense. This was an exciting book that climaxes in a startling mix of violence, compassion, technology, and strangeness. It is definately recommended. Then after you are done pick up Shadowrun, preferably 2nd or 3rd edition and start playing. Gibson may not approve but you are sure to have a lot of fun.