William Gibson in 1985, a year after the prescient Neuromancer came out
Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images
Neuromancer
William Gibson (Orion Publishing (UK); Ace Books (US))
Neuromancer begins with a brilliant, highly memorable line: “The sky above the port was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.”
The novel was first published in 1984, when very few people had access to computers. Famously, William Gibson wrote the book on a typewriter. But despite this, it goes on to draw a vivid portrait of a futuristic world where data is currency and business is done in “cyberspace”, though companies can also be hacked into and robbed. And, shimmering mysteriously in the background, there are powerful AIs that no one really understands.
Neuromancer instantly revolutionised sci-fi, giving birth to the cyberpunk genre, and more than 40 years later, it has proved to be one of the most prophetic books ever written. Now, it is being adapted as a series by Apple TV+. So how does the book stand up in a world where so many of us carry computers around in our back pockets, and time spent in cyberspace (a term popularised by Neuromancer) is the norm? I decided to revisit it to find out.
Not having read it in over 20 years, at first I found it hard going. Stylishly written, yes, but the claustrophobic account of an ex-computer hacker wandering between bars and getting in trouble with a gangster didn’t seem that gripping. I began to wonder if the novel had failed the test of time. After all, its imagery and concepts are no longer new and astounding, having been copied so endlessly in TV, other books and film, as well as overtaken by real life.
But then it pulled me in. There is a scene where our hero is making a phone call from a hotel lobby when the next phone over suddenly rings… and it is an AI calling. It is a spine-tingling moment, and a reminder that The Matrix was extremely heavily inspired by Neuromancer.
The action shifts into space and we get to see more of the AI(s) up close. As I read on, I realised that the book’s big concepts remain as relevant and thought-provoking as they were in 1984. One example: his idea of a force called the “Turing” that polices AIs.
By the end, I understood why people such as the author Adrian Tchaikovsky read and reread Neuromancer. You have to take it slow and pay attention, but it is a classic that still has so much to say. The question that remains is: how the heck did Gibson dream it up when his technology of choice was apparently a typewriter?
Fortunately, this is something he has had plenty of time to comment on in the decades since. “I was actually able to write Neuromancer because I didn’t know anything about computers,” he told The Guardian five years ago. “What I did was deconstruct the poetics of the language of people who were already working in the field. I’d stand in the hotel bar at the Seattle science fiction convention listening to these guys who were the first computer programmers I ever saw talk about their work. I had no idea what they were talking about, but that was the first time that I ever heard the word ‘interface’ used as a verb. And I swooned.”
He went on to mention how his eavesdropping led to some nonsensical stuff in the novel, for example when the hero shouts: “Get me a modem! I’m in deep shit!” Of course, this was in the days when Gibson couldn’t simply Google what a modem was.
In précis, the novel is fantastic. Let’s hope the upcoming TV series does it justice.
Emily also recommends…
Burning Chrome
William Gibson (Orion Publishing (UK); Gollancz (US))
Gibson’s short story collection is astounding. It was one of my favourite books growing up, and it still sizzles today.
Emily H. Wilson is a former editor of New Scientist and the author of the Sumerians trilogy, set in ancient Mesopotamia. The final novel in the series, Ninshubar, is out now. You can find her at emilyhwilson.com, or follow her on X @emilyhwilson and Instagram @emilyhwilson1
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