Status
Available
Call number
Publication
[Kbh.] : Per Kofod, 1993 (i.e. 1994).
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML:William Gibson, author of the extraordinary multiaward-winning novel Neuromancer, has written his most brilliant and thrilling work to date . . .The Mona Lisa Overdrive. Enter Gibson's unique world�??lyric and mechanical, sensual and violent, sobering and exciting�??where multinational corporations and high tech outlaws vie for power, traveling into the computer-generated universe known as cyberspace. Into this world comes Mona, a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is on a collision course with internationally famous Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell. Since childhood, Angie has been able to tap into cyberspace without a computer. Now, from inside cyberspace, a kidnapping plot is masterminded by a phantom entity who has plans for Mona, Angie, and all humanity, plans that cannot be controlled . . . or even known. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yazu… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member edgeworth
Taking a break from the Booker Prize 2011 Challenge with some classic science fiction. William Gibson, incidentally, comes up with the most awesome titles.
Mona Lisa Overdrive is a more direct sequel to Count Zero than Count Zero was to Neuromancer. It picks up several years later, following a
Gibson’s novels, to an extent, feel formulaic: the same story structure, with different threads converging into one climax, the same quick and neat resolutions, the same grungy low-lifes coming into the orbit of somebody with a lot of money and nefarious plans. If Neuromancer followed this formula, I don’t remember it – or maybe it did, but it’s okay to do it for the first time. In any case I recall Neuromancer generally being far more creative, gripping and flat-out awesome than any of Gibson’s other books. Again, though, that’s a catch-22. Perhaps all his books are brilliant, but Neuromancer was the first, and eclipses all else.
But I’m inclined to believe that Neuromancer really is superior. The second two are very similar to each other, and different from their predecessor. As with Count Zero, the European scenes in Mona Lisa Overdrive struck me as not quite belonging in the world of the Sprawl. Neuromancer was a grungy, filthy, terrible place to be, whether one was in Japan or New York or Istanbul. There were some brief scenes in Paris, but I don’t recall them salivating over the Old World splendour in the way that Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive do. Count Zero had Japanese tourists snapping photos of the regal old buildings and famous landmarks of Paris; Mona Lisa Overdrive has warm, smoky British pubs, people selling junk on Portobello Road, wealthy mansions in Notting Hill and noble history seeming “the very fabric of things.” I suspect that Gibson, a New Worlder like myself, is somewhat in awe of Europe’s historical grandeur. But this makes his London barely different from the real London (or, for that matter, the London of Pattern Recognition) and that simply doesn’t gel with the 1980s cyberpunk Sprawl of Neuromancer.
I think that’s the problem I have with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive: they fail to live up to the vision of his first novel, and not just in terms of plot and innovation. They feel less outlandish and futuristic than Neuromancer. More recognisable, more down to earth, more near-future rather than distant-future. Either I’ve become more acutely aware of our society’s myriad fucked-up problems since I read Neuromancer three years ago, or Gibson radically shifted gears when designing his fictional world.
Having said all that? Mona Lisa Overdrive is a good book. It has well-developed characters, an intriguing plot, and a tone consistent with Gibson’s unique style of writing. No author, science fiction or otherwise, captures our logo-soaked, corporate-controlled and technology-driven society quite as well as William Gibson, and he’s up there with J.G. Ballard as an author who deserves to have his surname turned into an adjective. Mona Lisa Ovderdrive fails to live up to Neuromancer, of course; nothing could, because Neuromancer is one of the most important novels of the 20th century. It’s a good book nonetheless.
I feel like I’m repeating my review of Count Zero here. These novels leave me with very mixed feelings; they’re much better than most stuff I read, but they come nowhere near to generating the feelings in me that Neuromancer did. It may be rose-tinted retrospect, but I recall that novel being a blinding kaleidoscope of ass-kicking glory and unprecedented awesomeness. I need to read it again.
Mona Lisa Overdrive is a more direct sequel to Count Zero than Count Zero was to Neuromancer. It picks up several years later, following a
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number of different characters, the most important of whom is probably Angela Mitchell – the gifted teenager rescued from a mesa arcology in Arizona in Count Zero, who has subsequently become a world-famous simulation star. We also meet Kumiko, a Japanese girl sent to London for protection while her father is threatened by a Yakuza war; Slick, a robotics mechanic living in an abandoned factory in a rusted-out wasteland somewhere in America’s heartland; and the titular Mona, a Cleveland prostitute who gets entangled in a dangerous scheme far beyond her understanding. From these disparate threads, Gibson generates one of his complex storylines.Gibson’s novels, to an extent, feel formulaic: the same story structure, with different threads converging into one climax, the same quick and neat resolutions, the same grungy low-lifes coming into the orbit of somebody with a lot of money and nefarious plans. If Neuromancer followed this formula, I don’t remember it – or maybe it did, but it’s okay to do it for the first time. In any case I recall Neuromancer generally being far more creative, gripping and flat-out awesome than any of Gibson’s other books. Again, though, that’s a catch-22. Perhaps all his books are brilliant, but Neuromancer was the first, and eclipses all else.
But I’m inclined to believe that Neuromancer really is superior. The second two are very similar to each other, and different from their predecessor. As with Count Zero, the European scenes in Mona Lisa Overdrive struck me as not quite belonging in the world of the Sprawl. Neuromancer was a grungy, filthy, terrible place to be, whether one was in Japan or New York or Istanbul. There were some brief scenes in Paris, but I don’t recall them salivating over the Old World splendour in the way that Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive do. Count Zero had Japanese tourists snapping photos of the regal old buildings and famous landmarks of Paris; Mona Lisa Overdrive has warm, smoky British pubs, people selling junk on Portobello Road, wealthy mansions in Notting Hill and noble history seeming “the very fabric of things.” I suspect that Gibson, a New Worlder like myself, is somewhat in awe of Europe’s historical grandeur. But this makes his London barely different from the real London (or, for that matter, the London of Pattern Recognition) and that simply doesn’t gel with the 1980s cyberpunk Sprawl of Neuromancer.
I think that’s the problem I have with Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive: they fail to live up to the vision of his first novel, and not just in terms of plot and innovation. They feel less outlandish and futuristic than Neuromancer. More recognisable, more down to earth, more near-future rather than distant-future. Either I’ve become more acutely aware of our society’s myriad fucked-up problems since I read Neuromancer three years ago, or Gibson radically shifted gears when designing his fictional world.
Having said all that? Mona Lisa Overdrive is a good book. It has well-developed characters, an intriguing plot, and a tone consistent with Gibson’s unique style of writing. No author, science fiction or otherwise, captures our logo-soaked, corporate-controlled and technology-driven society quite as well as William Gibson, and he’s up there with J.G. Ballard as an author who deserves to have his surname turned into an adjective. Mona Lisa Ovderdrive fails to live up to Neuromancer, of course; nothing could, because Neuromancer is one of the most important novels of the 20th century. It’s a good book nonetheless.
I feel like I’m repeating my review of Count Zero here. These novels leave me with very mixed feelings; they’re much better than most stuff I read, but they come nowhere near to generating the feelings in me that Neuromancer did. It may be rose-tinted retrospect, but I recall that novel being a blinding kaleidoscope of ass-kicking glory and unprecedented awesomeness. I need to read it again.
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LibraryThing member dczapka
Mona Lisa Overdrive, while not the best of Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, does manage to combine the successful elements of both Neuromancer and Count Zero into a story that works despite feeling like it's on the verge of falling apart.
Like in Count Zero, Gibson attempts to manage multiple storylines --
The characters here are fairly likable if overly abundant, and it's the tenuous handling of the plot threads and the excessive complexity of handling well over a dozen main characters and five or six storylines that weigh the book down. Fortunately, its pace matches that of Neuromancer and, even though it relinquishes much of its cyber-hipness in favor of more physical, lyrical description, it manages to keep the reader's interest until the end.
At that point, there's almost too much to keep track of: it's hard to tell who's dead, what happened, who we're rooting for, or why any of it even mattered or happened in the first place. But if we buy the credo of the closing pages -- that it's not the "why" but the "what" that matters -- then Gibson has succeeded about as well as could be expected in this novel.
Like in Count Zero, Gibson attempts to manage multiple storylines --
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four, this time around -- and does an admirable job of making them all individually interesting while also uniting them more patiently and believably than he did in Count Zero. Much of the mythology of Neuromancer, which had been absent in the previous book, returns, along with a reasonable and not-heavy-handed explanation of the holes in the plot.The characters here are fairly likable if overly abundant, and it's the tenuous handling of the plot threads and the excessive complexity of handling well over a dozen main characters and five or six storylines that weigh the book down. Fortunately, its pace matches that of Neuromancer and, even though it relinquishes much of its cyber-hipness in favor of more physical, lyrical description, it manages to keep the reader's interest until the end.
At that point, there's almost too much to keep track of: it's hard to tell who's dead, what happened, who we're rooting for, or why any of it even mattered or happened in the first place. But if we buy the credo of the closing pages -- that it's not the "why" but the "what" that matters -- then Gibson has succeeded about as well as could be expected in this novel.
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LibraryThing member myfanwy
Mona Lisa Overdrive is a continuation of the previous two in every sense. You get the same chase scenes, the same sordid world of drugs and prostitution, of high technology and low quality of life. The story itself is a continuation of earlier ones with Bobby now called simply the Count, Molly
I can't tell what is different between this book and Neuromancer, what makes Neuromancer the better read. Is it simply that Neuromancer is the start, where everything pulses with life? Is it that the chase scene in Neuromancer converges on one location and lasts for a good portion of the book at breakneck speed? Somehow Mona Lisa Overdrive leaves you with all the flavor of the other books, but it still doesn't make a satisfying meal -- like some Jelly-Belly chemical concoction which approximates but does not succeed in replicating real food.
Unless there is some truly compelling reason to change my mind, I think I'm done with Gibson. He paces well but there are too many things hidden, too many plotlines, and too many loose ends.
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renamed Sally, and a previously small character becoming a superstar over the course of the intervening 7 years. Amazingly, Gibson still manages to hold out on the reader. After two books you still have no idea what is going on, who is pulling the strings, what in the net has an effect on the real world, who is working for whom and to what purpose. It is a grand conspiracy viewed in Lackey-vision. Everyone is asking questions and no one knows the answers. It's a world where you simply fight to keep going, and any sort of foresight is an impossibility.I can't tell what is different between this book and Neuromancer, what makes Neuromancer the better read. Is it simply that Neuromancer is the start, where everything pulses with life? Is it that the chase scene in Neuromancer converges on one location and lasts for a good portion of the book at breakneck speed? Somehow Mona Lisa Overdrive leaves you with all the flavor of the other books, but it still doesn't make a satisfying meal -- like some Jelly-Belly chemical concoction which approximates but does not succeed in replicating real food.
Unless there is some truly compelling reason to change my mind, I think I'm done with Gibson. He paces well but there are too many things hidden, too many plotlines, and too many loose ends.
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LibraryThing member isabelx
Angie called pause again, rose from the bed, went to the window. She felt an elation, an unexpected sense of strength and inner unity. She'd felt this way seven years earlier, in New Jersey, learning that others knew the ones who came to her in dreams, called them the loa, Divine Horsemen, named
. . .
Bobby had told her about a general consensus among the old cowboys that there had been a day when things had changed, although there was disagreement as to how and when. When It Changed, they called it.
The third book in the Sprawl trilogy takes place 15 years after the events of "Neuromancer" and 7 years after those of "Count Zero" and contains four strands that come together towards the end; the story of 14-year-old Kumiko, a Yakusa chief's daughter who has been sent to London to stay with an English associate of her father; the story of a 16-year-old hooker from Cleveland called Mona Lisa, who bears a striking resemblance to stim star Angie Mitchell; the story of Angela Mitchell herself, who has split up from Count Zero and is no longer taking the drugs that stopped her hearing the loa talking to her; and the story of Slick and Gentry who live in an abandoned factory in the wasteland bordering the Sprawl, and who become involved when Slick is asked to do a favour for an old friend.
I decided not to leave such a long gap between reading "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive" as I did between the first two books, and that definitely helped reduce my confusion! Although there are still unanswered questions remaining at the end, the links between Lady 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool, Angela Mitchell and her father, the Tessier-Ashpool AIs, the loa and what happened 'When It Changed' become much clearer both to the characters in the book and the reader.
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them and summoned them and bargained with them for favor.. . .
Bobby had told her about a general consensus among the old cowboys that there had been a day when things had changed, although there was disagreement as to how and when. When It Changed, they called it.
The third book in the Sprawl trilogy takes place 15 years after the events of "Neuromancer" and 7 years after those of "Count Zero" and contains four strands that come together towards the end; the story of 14-year-old Kumiko, a Yakusa chief's daughter who has been sent to London to stay with an English associate of her father; the story of a 16-year-old hooker from Cleveland called Mona Lisa, who bears a striking resemblance to stim star Angie Mitchell; the story of Angela Mitchell herself, who has split up from Count Zero and is no longer taking the drugs that stopped her hearing the loa talking to her; and the story of Slick and Gentry who live in an abandoned factory in the wasteland bordering the Sprawl, and who become involved when Slick is asked to do a favour for an old friend.
I decided not to leave such a long gap between reading "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive" as I did between the first two books, and that definitely helped reduce my confusion! Although there are still unanswered questions remaining at the end, the links between Lady 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool, Angela Mitchell and her father, the Tessier-Ashpool AIs, the loa and what happened 'When It Changed' become much clearer both to the characters in the book and the reader.
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LibraryThing member Vvolodymyr
My third, and so far the most favorite book by William Gibson.
If the previous books in Sprawl series were ferocious with energy, then Mona Lisa Overdrive is truly in Overdrive. Love the gritty, yet quite poetic descriptions, the charged pace, the variety of characters, the tech, the action ...
If the previous books in Sprawl series were ferocious with energy, then Mona Lisa Overdrive is truly in Overdrive. Love the gritty, yet quite poetic descriptions, the charged pace, the variety of characters, the tech, the action ...
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Simply love the book. Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
You probably want to read Neuromancer and Count Zero first to get the introduction to the characters you meet here.
LibraryThing member Awfki
Having read Neuromancer, Burning Chrome and Count Zero about 15 years ago reading this was a fantastic journey back into that world. It's an excellent book but I very much suggest reading the other two as well. And don't leave 15 years between them.
LibraryThing member kevinashley
A well-plotted page turner about a simstar, some AI and yakuza interwoven in a way that takes a long time to become apparent. Although some of it never really does.
LibraryThing member AdonisGuilfoyle
Probably best read in quick succession after the first two novels, but a worthy end to the trilogy. Molly/Sally from Neuromancer and the Count from Count Zero are brought together in a tangled plot involving 3Jane. Gibson fills the story with eccentric characters and intriguing predictions of
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future technology, but as always, the punchy, thoughtful writing is what carries the action. Show Less
LibraryThing member iayork
Probably my favorite Gibson: This is probably my favorite Gibson. I feel it to have his strongest character development, which is something that has never been his strong point. This is was his peak before he did the awful Virtual Light.
LibraryThing member garnifeast
A true iconoclast. One of the earlier books that defined cyberpunk. A must read.
LibraryThing member mckall08
IMHO the best of the Sprawl series. The great plot with well developed interesting characters is not overburdened with techno references that can be confusing to even those who read the previous books.
LibraryThing member tjrandall79
the best of the Neuromancer novels and a fitting end to the 'trilogy'
LibraryThing member CowboyBeBib
Great novel by a true scifi genius!
LibraryThing member princess-starr
I didn’t realize that this was part three of a trilogy when I originally picked this up, and there was a major sigh of relief when I found out that technically all three entries in the Sprawl trilogy can be read as standalone. Which is interesting, because as I read this one, it did feel like a
Mona Lisa Overdrive was a lot easier for me to get into. The writing’s more streamlined, and the plot felt more concise. I liked how Gibson structured four unseemingly connected story arcs into one web of mystery. I liked the expansion on the world-building and the new elements to the cyber world. The addition of Haitian voundon as a way to access the matrix and cyberspace was a fantastic touch, and I loved the sense of otherworldliness it gave to the plot.
The characters were handled a little better here. I do think that the four major female leads do start off as being really passive. Kumiko, Angie and Mona don’t really do much, save for being carted off to different locales by their respective handlers. Cherry’s a little more proactive as she’s a medtech, but she stays in the background for the majority of Slick’s arc until Bobby needs her—and even then, Slick takes on the bigger perspective role in that particular arc. I like that Kumiko picks up on the fact that she’s being used for shady dealings, and tries to figure out what’s going on, although she’s more or less prompted to by Colin. Angie and Mona were probably the most interesting characters for me, but they really don’t do anything in the book, aside from being MacGuffins. I did like Molly/Sally in this a lot better—she’s not as much as a focus character, but more of an enigma in Kumiko’s eyes. This is where I think that Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive work really well as a duology: we’re picking up Molly’s storyline a few years down the road, and dealing with the fallout of the events of the first book.
The descriptions and setting really picked up in this. I loved reading Kumiko’s reaction to landing in England for the first time, and how cold and impersonal everything feels to her. The parts with Slick and his crew was some of the best descriptions in the book—I loved seeing the grungey, scraping to get by scenes.
I did like this book, but I can’t get past the passive nature of most of the perspective characters, and like with Neuromancer, I got to the end and thought, “What the hell just happened?” (Again, I do need to read Count Zero, because I know I missed something between the two books.) Still, I enjoyed it a lot more that Neuromancer, and it actually does read as a decent standalone book.
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spin-off dealing with the fallout of Neuromancer. There are some parts that I wasn’t as filled in on, but these two books work together for me.Mona Lisa Overdrive was a lot easier for me to get into. The writing’s more streamlined, and the plot felt more concise. I liked how Gibson structured four unseemingly connected story arcs into one web of mystery. I liked the expansion on the world-building and the new elements to the cyber world. The addition of Haitian voundon as a way to access the matrix and cyberspace was a fantastic touch, and I loved the sense of otherworldliness it gave to the plot.
The characters were handled a little better here. I do think that the four major female leads do start off as being really passive. Kumiko, Angie and Mona don’t really do much, save for being carted off to different locales by their respective handlers. Cherry’s a little more proactive as she’s a medtech, but she stays in the background for the majority of Slick’s arc until Bobby needs her—and even then, Slick takes on the bigger perspective role in that particular arc. I like that Kumiko picks up on the fact that she’s being used for shady dealings, and tries to figure out what’s going on, although she’s more or less prompted to by Colin. Angie and Mona were probably the most interesting characters for me, but they really don’t do anything in the book, aside from being MacGuffins. I did like Molly/Sally in this a lot better—she’s not as much as a focus character, but more of an enigma in Kumiko’s eyes. This is where I think that Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive work really well as a duology: we’re picking up Molly’s storyline a few years down the road, and dealing with the fallout of the events of the first book.
The descriptions and setting really picked up in this. I loved reading Kumiko’s reaction to landing in England for the first time, and how cold and impersonal everything feels to her. The parts with Slick and his crew was some of the best descriptions in the book—I loved seeing the grungey, scraping to get by scenes.
I did like this book, but I can’t get past the passive nature of most of the perspective characters, and like with Neuromancer, I got to the end and thought, “What the hell just happened?” (Again, I do need to read Count Zero, because I know I missed something between the two books.) Still, I enjoyed it a lot more that Neuromancer, and it actually does read as a decent standalone book.
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LibraryThing member elenchus
Gibson's now customary interleaving of separate plotlines, merging only at the end -- though in Mona Lisa Overdrive two threads mesh well before the others. (Here there are 4 plotlines, in other novels Gibson limits himself to 3.) His approach affords an opportunity to tell a tale not only from
Notable that throughout the Sprawl novels, Gibson uses New Yen as the successor to the US dollar, at least as cash currency vital to the informal and black market economies. Though he doesn't provide other detail it's clearly a profound change in realpolitik and though he doesn't select the Yuan, it's evidence he wasn't blinkered by a strictly Cold War mindset as some critiques suggest.
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synopsis | Kumiko is sent to London to avoid a Yakuza war at home and meets up with Sally Shears (aka Molly). Molly follows through on her basic distrust of Swain, her current employer and warden to Kumi. Cherry arrives in Dog Solitude with a comatose client, calling in a chip owed by Slick Henry. Slick and his friend Gentry are drawn to the patient, each in his own way. Angie Mitchell comes out of rehab and wonders whether the voices she's heard since childhood (CNS biosoft? ghosts?) might be more important than her stimsoft career. Mona Lisa leaves Cleveland with Eddy, whose perpetual need to pull off a big con threatens to sink them both. (Molly bridges two of these plotlines about halfway through the book.)
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various perspectives (character, setting) but also from varying frames, and these also become customary in later novels: extreme wealth / economic power; art and perception (loosely aligned with phenomenalism); social organisation typically manifested as corporations, crime syndicates, and to a much lesser extent political institutions. Information and technology suffuse each of these. It's an integrated vision and while plot becomes much more attenuated in the Blue Ant trilogy, upon second reading it's evident this vision makes the Sprawl novels other than straight genre fiction. A strong impression Gibson is working to similar purpose in later novels, though the packaging and writing are increasingly refined.Notable that throughout the Sprawl novels, Gibson uses New Yen as the successor to the US dollar, at least as cash currency vital to the informal and black market economies. Though he doesn't provide other detail it's clearly a profound change in realpolitik and though he doesn't select the Yuan, it's evidence he wasn't blinkered by a strictly Cold War mindset as some critiques suggest.
//
synopsis | Kumiko is sent to London to avoid a Yakuza war at home and meets up with Sally Shears (aka Molly). Molly follows through on her basic distrust of Swain, her current employer and warden to Kumi. Cherry arrives in Dog Solitude with a comatose client, calling in a chip owed by Slick Henry. Slick and his friend Gentry are drawn to the patient, each in his own way. Angie Mitchell comes out of rehab and wonders whether the voices she's heard since childhood (CNS biosoft? ghosts?) might be more important than her stimsoft career. Mona Lisa leaves Cleveland with Eddy, whose perpetual need to pull off a big con threatens to sink them both. (Molly bridges two of these plotlines about halfway through the book.)
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LibraryThing member gypsysmom
I think Gibson coined the word cyberspace or if not he certainly brought it into common usage. In this book he tells the story of Mona and the Sense/Net star Angie Mitchell who can tap into cyberspace without a computer. Gibson's writing is dark but he does tell a good yarn.
LibraryThing member antao
Is there a Monalisa Overdrive future in the works? That's not to say that there aren't plenty of SF predicted futures for the world that involve a sort of Utopian society where experiences are increasingly shared and cooperative than individually ring-fenced and private, but it's very easy to
It's a dangerous thing to see the world as moving on a dark an inevitable path and it concerns me to see that sort of thinking gaining traction in the mainstream. To his credit, Gibson's work is likely in the vein of Orwell's “1984”, not as something he would hope to see but of a future we should hope to avoid, and outlining honestly why he sees the world as heading in that direction as a dire warning to help us improve. I'm just fumbling around in some vain attempts to provide a little of the other side to Gibson’s story.
Since the sheer volume of information and understanding available in the world is so vast, more than any individual could ever know, you learn to identify what's important to know, and what isn't. You learn to extrapolate and familiarise yourself with the important concepts, and this leads to a very solid view of how you think things are, and you apply that view reflexively to every different piece of information or alternative perspective you encounter, modifying and updating where necessary. So when you encounter someone out there with conflicting views, like Gibson, someone with dark, dystopian views that counter everything your own views are about, well that provokes a reaction and that's why I feel 'qualified' to write an alternative perspective as a counterpoint. Like an hysterical fanboy or fangirl, you could take this as some deeply unreasonable act of disrespect to the genius of the author - and I'm sure he has a genius that goes beyond my understanding, but that doesn't mean I can't reasonably disagree, and fundamentally so, with his outlook. If Gibson thinks there will be an apocalypse in the next 80 years where 80% of the world is wiped out and he has a solid reputation as a visionary, a modern day seer who can model with some accuracy the way the world is headed based on emergent technologies, then as far as I'm concerned he is throwing down the gauntlet on a set of very serious matters, and from a position of some significant authority and respect.
That's reason enough, I think, to justify highlighting what might be seen as elements of an alternative to that perspective. When people (and Gibson is by no means alone in doing this) are predicting dark times ahead for humanity, it certainly can't hurt to explore the possibilities of diverting course, and, at best, who knows, it might actually help to try!
I've made an opening gambit by this review on which I would welcome the opportunity to deliver more specific details. If you feel anything I said was woolly or unclear, call me out on that.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
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discredit them on the grounds of communist and socialist critique and all the heavy baggage that comes along with that. The other biggest practical stumbling block are all those who just can't help but get ahead of themselves - or perhaps panic at what they see as the emergent imminent apocalyptic Gibsonesque state and use this as a justification for taking extreme attitudes towards people who don't agree with them, but when we do this, it's just an expression of weakness and lack of confidence in our own ideas. A tacit admission that the development process - whatever that might be - just isn't ready yet. Not even close. That doesn't mean such a process doesn't exist and can't be pursued, just that it'll be a lot more involved and require a lot more preparatory steps and hurdles overcome than people would hope it might. I mean, granted I’m writing in wild generalities, but sometimes you have to do to say anything meaningful at all, when the subject matter in question (i.e., “Monalisa Overdrive” that is) is broad enough and when you're not playing to people's pre-existing biases and suppositions.It's a dangerous thing to see the world as moving on a dark an inevitable path and it concerns me to see that sort of thinking gaining traction in the mainstream. To his credit, Gibson's work is likely in the vein of Orwell's “1984”, not as something he would hope to see but of a future we should hope to avoid, and outlining honestly why he sees the world as heading in that direction as a dire warning to help us improve. I'm just fumbling around in some vain attempts to provide a little of the other side to Gibson’s story.
Since the sheer volume of information and understanding available in the world is so vast, more than any individual could ever know, you learn to identify what's important to know, and what isn't. You learn to extrapolate and familiarise yourself with the important concepts, and this leads to a very solid view of how you think things are, and you apply that view reflexively to every different piece of information or alternative perspective you encounter, modifying and updating where necessary. So when you encounter someone out there with conflicting views, like Gibson, someone with dark, dystopian views that counter everything your own views are about, well that provokes a reaction and that's why I feel 'qualified' to write an alternative perspective as a counterpoint. Like an hysterical fanboy or fangirl, you could take this as some deeply unreasonable act of disrespect to the genius of the author - and I'm sure he has a genius that goes beyond my understanding, but that doesn't mean I can't reasonably disagree, and fundamentally so, with his outlook. If Gibson thinks there will be an apocalypse in the next 80 years where 80% of the world is wiped out and he has a solid reputation as a visionary, a modern day seer who can model with some accuracy the way the world is headed based on emergent technologies, then as far as I'm concerned he is throwing down the gauntlet on a set of very serious matters, and from a position of some significant authority and respect.
That's reason enough, I think, to justify highlighting what might be seen as elements of an alternative to that perspective. When people (and Gibson is by no means alone in doing this) are predicting dark times ahead for humanity, it certainly can't hurt to explore the possibilities of diverting course, and, at best, who knows, it might actually help to try!
I've made an opening gambit by this review on which I would welcome the opportunity to deliver more specific details. If you feel anything I said was woolly or unclear, call me out on that.
SF = Speculative Fiction.
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LibraryThing member gbraden
Third in William Gibson's Sprawl series, we are looking at classic William Gibson prose. High tech and high volume prose. Technological, detailed, dense prose that sometimes you really need to pay close attention to.
Four threads come together in a unconventional way for the grand climax. We see
This is my second read of this book.
Four threads come together in a unconventional way for the grand climax. We see
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Susan (Molly from Neuromancer), Angie Mitchell, a cyberspace celebrity, Kumiko is a young Japanese girl with a mobster father, and finally Angie, a trusting prostitute. Its a jumble at times but perfectly William Gibson. This story like the other two in this series can be read standalone.This is my second read of this book.
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LibraryThing member KurtWombat
Science Fiction that seems to drift just little past our current reality. Each page carries you just a bit further until suddenly you realize you can't get back. Anything that was intersting about the Matrix films was lifted liberally from Gibson's work. This story deals with celebrity, destiny and
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the pursuit of dreams realized in quite unreal fashion. Four story lines are gradually intertwined only to unravel in spectacular fashion. Wondrous is his virtual prediction of the internet and all that it allows and can reveal. Show Less
LibraryThing member SChant
Neuromancer just about stands up to a re-read, but this one is very dated and as dull as "television, tuned to a dead channel”.
LibraryThing member mbmackay
A great finale to the Neuromancer trilogy. I found each book in the series to be better than the one before. This one is well structured - with each chapter forming a series of apparently unrelated scenarios and characters which gradually come together for the finale.
LibraryThing member mboszko
Meandered a little more than I expected, and the ending was a bit exciting and a lot of “huh”
LibraryThing member Kurt.Rocourt
Better than Count Zero, but not as good as Nueromancer.
LibraryThing member dualmon
Good, but not as good as the first one
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1989)
Nebula Award (Nominee — Novel — 1988)
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award (Winner — 1989)
Ditmar Award (Shortlist — 1989)
Prometheus Award (Nominee — Novel — 1989)
Prix Aurora Award (Winner — 1989)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1988
Physical description
325 p.; 20.5 cm
ISBN
8789974417 / 9788789974415
Local notes
Omslag: John Ovesen
Omslagsillustration: Ole Pihl
Omslaget viser en ung kvinde med lidt blod løbende ud af venstre næsebor
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "Mona Lisa overdrive" af Arne Herløv Petersen
Omslagsillustration: Ole Pihl
Omslaget viser en ung kvinde med lidt blod løbende ud af venstre næsebor
Indskannet omslag - N650U - 150 dpi
Oversat fra amerikansk "Mona Lisa overdrive" af Arne Herløv Petersen
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Series
Pages
325
DDC/MDS
| 813.54 |