Ratings4
Average rating3.8
This book is so fascinating. It's influence is everywhere, the poetic language is absolutely gorgeous, and the storytelling is complete garbage. It's also fascinating how the author's lack of scientific knowledge helped him create a world so impossible yet engaging. He couldn't predict cell phones but he was able to predict the internet, and even coined the word ‘cyberspace'. I'm not sure what the first cyberpunk story was, but this is the earliest one I'm aware of, and it's easy to see the influence it had on stories such as Ghost in the Shell and Blade Runner. Do not read this book for the plot. It's barely touched on. The character motivations and conflicts are all buried under pages and pages of descriptors and it's obvious the author doesn't care about them much. It's better to simply enjoy it as the mega science fiction poem that it is.