Neuromancer

Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York: Ace, 1984. Introd. Terry Carr.

Cyberpunk vision of a 21st-c. world where human systems are altered by mechanical, chemical, cybernetic, and surgical means; the hard-case hero is a data thief in the world of the human-computer interface, "the Matrix." The plot threatens or promises release upon cyberspace and human society of a powerful AI. Cf. and contrast the funky worlds of P. K. Dick's Do Androids Dream . . . and the film BLADE RUNNER, the human-machine interface in K. O'Donnell's ORA:CLE and V. Vinge's Across Realtime (see under Fiction and Film). See in this Category WG's Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and the entry for J. T. Sladek's The Müller-Fokker Effect and the works cross-indexed there. The Neuromancer trilogy is important for positive containment (freedom to act) within computers ("cyberspace") and for use of the hive motif. For similar literary effects with more mundane technology, see F. Pfeil, Goodman 2000.