Neuromancer sent a pulsating shock through the science fiction world when it was first published in 1984, winning all three of Americas Science Fiction writing awards. The text gave computer nerds instant permission to wear black leather - casting a hop fluorescent light and literary form over otherwise daggy obsessions. Computers suddenly had a cool but dangerous new dimension. Gibson called it cyberspace
The text stands alongside 1984 and Brave New World as one of the twentieth century's most potent novels of the future. But Neuromancer has less to do with predicting technological change than making evident its excesses. It's about "garbage - the refuse of an industrial society" (Gibson).
Neuromancer follows the story of Case, once a computer cowboy, now a cyberfucked hustler. His skill lies within the virtual world of the matrix, where he penetrates the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data.Case made the classic mistake - he stole from his employers, who repaid him by maiming his nervous system with wartime Russian mycotoxin.
But the matrix becomes Case's sole hope for a cure. He goes back into the system - not only for the bliss of cyberspace - but to steal again. This time from the big boys, the megacorps. In return, should he survive, he will be cured.