nicanical
I read Virtual Light recently which was such a slog, that I questioned my fond memories of Neuromancer and had to crack it open again. I'm relieved that my original sentiments remain largely intact, although some elements of the story are showing their age.
The action begins quickly, and the stylized, scene-setting descriptions are all well-balanced. The pacing is smooth, propulsive. At its core, Neuromancer is a heist story, so it keeps moving out of necessity.
The world is futuristic but grounded, and still feels realistic ... mostly. Some stuff is really dated now, like graphical hacking. Films keep getting away with it because of the visual medium, but reading about it nowadays is underwhelming.
The same goes for the lack of technical details for Case's skillset. E.g., he uses microsofts but doesn't code them; the Kuang Eleven virus, also not coded by Case, is instead delivered on a 'one-shot cassette' like it was bought off Amazon. Case even has the Flatline execute some commands and navigate because it's faster.
Actually ... I suppose that makes Case kind of like a 'vibe hacker'. Depending upon how all this real-world AI garbage plays out, Neuromancer's portrayal of hacking might just become prescient yet.
I read Virtual Light recently which was such a slog, that I questioned my fond memories of Neuromancer and had to crack it open again. I'm relieved that my original sentiments remain largely intact, although some elements of the story are showing their age.
The action begins quickly, and the stylized, scene-setting descriptions are all well-balanced. The pacing is smooth, propulsive. At its core, Neuromancer is a heist story, so it keeps moving out of necessity.
The world is futuristic but grounded, and still feels realistic ... mostly. Some stuff is really dated now, like graphical hacking. Films keep getting away with it because of the visual medium, but reading about it nowadays is underwhelming.
The same goes for the lack of technical details for Case's skillset. E.g., he uses microsofts but doesn't code them; the Kuang Eleven virus, also not coded by Case, is instead delivered on a 'one-shot cassette' like it was bought off Amazon. Case even has the Flatline execute some commands and navigate because it's faster.
Actually ... I suppose that makes Case kind of like a 'vibe hacker'. Depending upon how all this real-world AI garbage plays out, Neuromancer's portrayal of hacking might just become prescient yet.