Neuromancer

By: William Gibson

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's summary

Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society. Neuromancer's virtual reality has become real. And yet, William Gibson's gritty, sophisticated vision still manages to inspire the minds that lead mankind ever further into the future.

©1984 William Gibson (P)2011 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Unforgettable ... The richness of Gibson’s world is incredible.” (Chicago Sun-Times)

“Freshly imagined, compellingly detailed, and chilling in its implications.” (The New York Times)

"Serious science fiction and fantasy readers cannot resist the classics.... That’s what makes the Penguin Galaxy series so appealing.... Each of the novels here has earned their place in the halls of literary history.... Their small form factor and minimalist covers call out to readers and make them fun to read all over again.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Terrific mind-bender, and a wild ride at that!

While there have certainly been many imitations of this book and the genre it helped to create over the years, none can surpass the original.

This is true head-expanding cyberpunk at its very finest, with great characters, punchy dialogue, and a story that'll keep you guessing all the way.

The only slight detractor is the narration, which is a bit flat on dialogue inflection, but I feel he still does a great job on exposition and the like.

Overall I highly recommend this book!

Monotone reader made it hard to get through

I really realize with this that the reader can make or break an audio book. I did not know you could make a rasta accent monotone, but I now know you can! I fell asleep multi times with this reading.

good book, a little hard to follow in narration

Good book, a piece of history. Female voices sounded very similar in the narration making it a little hard to distinguish between characters and that could be confusing for some.

easy to lose focus

this is the first 3 star rating I have given a book. the subject matter is interesting, especially for when it was written. the narrator lacks enthusiasm sometimes. his tone is the same for describing a room as it is for a character in a stressful situation. I caught myself drifting off and rewinding, wondering how the story got to where it is as a huge jump just occurred and I missed it.

The book that inspired them all!

Great story, nostalgic of early technology that was cusp of what would be believed as cutting edge. The story is written to let the mind wander with detail left for the reader. The narrator is a little dry at times, but plays the plot well.

Laid open upon the blade of our cyber future

The experience of listening to this 40 year old crystalline shard of the future is to lay open oneself and dig around inside, slicked with our own essence, only to find all that you seek throbs at our core.

Wow

A beautiful, shockingly prescient, snapshot of the future as seen through 1980's smoke and neon.

Very confusing

I considered giving up many times. In the end, I wish I had. Long, almost unintelligible, over-described scenes left me completely lost as to what I was supposed to be seeing in my mind.

Performer’s reading was distracting for me

Robertson Dean has a great voice and it would have been perfect if he was narrating a book without characters or reading just Henry Case’s dialogue. Unfortunately, Case is the only unique voice in this reading. With a couple of exceptions, the other characters mostly sound like the same person including their inflection and pacing.

This might make sense as a style choice, especially in the beginning, given Case’s disposition and feelings toward life and everything around him, but I don’t think that’s what is happening here.

The performance was very consistent, though. I’m curious to check out some of Robertson Dean’s other performances to see if maybe it was just this one performance that didn’t click with me.

Awful narration

He makes every secondary character sound like they are knuckle dragging hillbillies. They all just sound dumber to me when he’s reading the book. I couldn’t finish it.