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davramlocke's Reviews (777)
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I’ve never enjoyed science fiction as much as I enjoy a good swords and sorcery romp. I always found Star Trek as boring as watching golf and never understood why so many aliens wore humanoid faces and spoke with voice boxes similar to our own. It hasn’t been until recently that I’ve found some extremely good science fiction, from authors like Phillip K. Dick, Neal Stephenson, and Ursula Le Guin; authors that write speculatively in a way that leaves me lost in thought for days beyond the last page. William Gibson certainly deserves recognition in that group, and Neuromancer is like nothing I’ve ever read. That it was written in 1984, before the internet was an ubiquitous entity and before virtual reality could be properly imagined, is mind-bending in a way that I’m still having trouble with. I’m half-convinced that Gibson is a time traveler. If he’s not jumping around between centuries, then surely he is a prophet.
But maybe all speculative authors are potential prophets, a notion I find alarming and exciting. In the afterword of Neuromancer, noted sci-fi author Jack Womack asks the question, “What if the act of writing it down, in fact, brought it about?” That bears some explanation. Neuromancer is the story of Case, a hacker, for lack of a better word, who is addicted to virtual reality. In the beginning of the book, he’s already landed himself in lots of hot water and had his brain fried in such a way that he’s no longer able to jack into the matrix (the term matrix is used, and yes, the movie series borrows many, many things from this book). His life is garbage, and he’ll do anything to fix his neural damage and get back into his chosen environment.
Enter Wintermute, an artificial intelligence that wants to be free from its constraints. It hires Case to perform a series of security e-heists that will eventually allow it the freedom it craves. Case meets Molly, his action-hero lover, complete with Wolverine-like claws that extend from her fingertips and eye-covering lens implants (she does the heavy lifting when things in the real world need to get hands-y), and the book takes off, leaving its readers swirling in cyberpunked and adrenalized ecstasy.
The term cyberspace was coined in Neuromancer. Gibson speculated that some day there would be a large world within computers that men and women could plug themselves into. It’s a virtual reality, much like that seen in The Matrix or Tron, replete with its own rules and laws and as vast as our own internet (if not larger). While we don’t yet have the ability to corporealize inside of our computers, the day likely isn’t far off given how rapidly virtual reality technology is advancing.
Which brings me back to the question posed by Womack. Did Gibson’s vision of a cyberspace cause the invention of the internet as we know it? Is his vision of the potential future still leading us down a path that will one day culminate in reality that mirrors his fiction?
It’s a head-spinner. How many genius programmers sitting in offices today read William Gibson’s masterpiece when they were young, as teenagers or in their early twenties? How many saw his vision of the future as the ideal version of their own futures?
And another question rises to me out of this murky train-station of thought. How many authors today are exerting as much influence over a generation of teenagers and young adults who will program and build the future in ways we can not even envision? Do authors realize what power they wield? Do they understand how they could shape the future with ideas and words?
It hurts my head to think about. I don’t think Gibson is solely responsible for the the internet, any more than Al Gore is. Nor do I think any author is completely responsible for any of the ideas that flow from their ink. Hitler is said to have found much of his inspiration from the operas of Richard Wagner, and while there is controversy over what beliefs Wagner actually held, no one would hold him entirely responsible for the Holocaust. Similarly, ideas that flowed from Gibson’s pen may have sparked ideas that would evolve into what we know, but it took the genius and collaboration of thousands of men and women to create our cyberspace.
Neuromancer is complicated. I’m certain I will someday need to read it again because the language employed is so jargon-heavy and the ideas complicated enough that there is much I feel I missed. For whatever reason, I’d thought it would be an easy read. I had it in my head that it was one of those novels assigned to high school freshman English classes. I can’t imagine reading this in high school, though when I think where my life could have gone had I read and understood Neuromancer as a young man trying to figure out where he wanted his life to go, I wonder if I shouldn’t have given it a shot. But maybe it would have just caused me to pierce things I shouldn’t pierce and wear more leather.
Original review at - https://goldnotglittering.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/book-review-neuromancer-by-william-gibson/
But maybe all speculative authors are potential prophets, a notion I find alarming and exciting. In the afterword of Neuromancer, noted sci-fi author Jack Womack asks the question, “What if the act of writing it down, in fact, brought it about?” That bears some explanation. Neuromancer is the story of Case, a hacker, for lack of a better word, who is addicted to virtual reality. In the beginning of the book, he’s already landed himself in lots of hot water and had his brain fried in such a way that he’s no longer able to jack into the matrix (the term matrix is used, and yes, the movie series borrows many, many things from this book). His life is garbage, and he’ll do anything to fix his neural damage and get back into his chosen environment.
Enter Wintermute, an artificial intelligence that wants to be free from its constraints. It hires Case to perform a series of security e-heists that will eventually allow it the freedom it craves. Case meets Molly, his action-hero lover, complete with Wolverine-like claws that extend from her fingertips and eye-covering lens implants (she does the heavy lifting when things in the real world need to get hands-y), and the book takes off, leaving its readers swirling in cyberpunked and adrenalized ecstasy.
The term cyberspace was coined in Neuromancer. Gibson speculated that some day there would be a large world within computers that men and women could plug themselves into. It’s a virtual reality, much like that seen in The Matrix or Tron, replete with its own rules and laws and as vast as our own internet (if not larger). While we don’t yet have the ability to corporealize inside of our computers, the day likely isn’t far off given how rapidly virtual reality technology is advancing.
Which brings me back to the question posed by Womack. Did Gibson’s vision of a cyberspace cause the invention of the internet as we know it? Is his vision of the potential future still leading us down a path that will one day culminate in reality that mirrors his fiction?
It’s a head-spinner. How many genius programmers sitting in offices today read William Gibson’s masterpiece when they were young, as teenagers or in their early twenties? How many saw his vision of the future as the ideal version of their own futures?
And another question rises to me out of this murky train-station of thought. How many authors today are exerting as much influence over a generation of teenagers and young adults who will program and build the future in ways we can not even envision? Do authors realize what power they wield? Do they understand how they could shape the future with ideas and words?
It hurts my head to think about. I don’t think Gibson is solely responsible for the the internet, any more than Al Gore is. Nor do I think any author is completely responsible for any of the ideas that flow from their ink. Hitler is said to have found much of his inspiration from the operas of Richard Wagner, and while there is controversy over what beliefs Wagner actually held, no one would hold him entirely responsible for the Holocaust. Similarly, ideas that flowed from Gibson’s pen may have sparked ideas that would evolve into what we know, but it took the genius and collaboration of thousands of men and women to create our cyberspace.
Neuromancer is complicated. I’m certain I will someday need to read it again because the language employed is so jargon-heavy and the ideas complicated enough that there is much I feel I missed. For whatever reason, I’d thought it would be an easy read. I had it in my head that it was one of those novels assigned to high school freshman English classes. I can’t imagine reading this in high school, though when I think where my life could have gone had I read and understood Neuromancer as a young man trying to figure out where he wanted his life to go, I wonder if I shouldn’t have given it a shot. But maybe it would have just caused me to pierce things I shouldn’t pierce and wear more leather.
Original review at - https://goldnotglittering.wordpress.com/2015/11/19/book-review-neuromancer-by-william-gibson/
I’ve been interested in this book for a long time because at some point, and I don’t remember when, someone read me a paragraph from Sabriel that was beautiful. Having now read the book, I have no idea which passage that was, but that’s largely due to the book having elegant and pleasing prose throughout and it could have been any number of different sections. The entire book is beautiful, Sabriel is an incredibly strong character, and Garth Nix has created something special with her story.
Sabriel begins, as many great fantasy novels do, with the birth of its character. Sabriel is a child who shouldn’t have been born, but she is saved by her father, a man known as The Abhorsen. Nix revolves his system of magic, at least the foremost system, around death, which is a subject most authors are loathe to tackle (especially those potentially writing for young adults). He includes other types of magic called Charter and Free, which are loosely defined as controlled and uncontrolled sorcery. The Abhorsen has the potential to deal in all three, but is a master of Death magic. His tools take the form of bells, each with a specific purpose, their own tone, and a singular name. This is definitely the first time I’ve ever seen bells used as weapons. It seems hokey at first, but Nix details it extremely well, and his rules of life and death are interesting enough to pull the veil over our eyes.
The Abhorsen has the power to raise the dead, quite literally, but he is a force for good in the Old Kingdom, Sabriel’s version of Narnia. Comparing Sabriel to The Chronicles of Narnia is appropriate because in many ways Nix is successor to Lewis. He writes about a land of magic and mystery that is connected to our own, in the beginning of the 20th century, and his protagonist is able to traverse between these two realms at will. Guns and swords exist in parallel, with the conceit that mechanical objects fail beyond the Wall (the barrier between the Old Kingdom and the modern world). This is a common strategy used by authors of fantasy to explain why swords and spells are truly the greatest utilities available.
The real story of Sabriel begins during Sabriel’s last year of college. She has excelled in all of her classes, is a powerful spellcaster in her own right, and receives news that her father, The Abhorsen, is missing. She is armed, prepared, and sets off on her journey. Sabriel follows the Hero’s Journey without fail. Sabriel exists in the ordinary world, is called to adventure, meets her mentor (in the form of a talking cat), is tested and trialed, undergoes the challenge, and eventually returns home only to face down another, more difficult challenge. It’s all very predictable, but Nix’s writing is so enjoyable that a re-telling of this myth is welcome. She also meets a hunky, 200 year old, warrior-mage along the way, fulfilling any young adult notions readers might have.
I hope none of this sounds reductive because I happen to love the Hero’s Journey. If I write a novel someday, I hope to use it myself, even if I subvert it in a few areas. This myth-type exists for a reason. It’s a method of storytelling that makes sense to our genetic code because we’ve read and heard it for almost two millenia or more. Sabriel is an excellent telling of the Journey, and that it features a strong, feminine protagonist helps it stand out above the pack.
I’m intrigued by Nix’s world, his magic methods, and his character building. He’s hooked me with this first novel in his Abhorsen series, and I plan on reading at least the next couple of books. I’m slightly disappointed, in looking at a brief synopsis of Lirael, that Sabriel no long features in the novels, but I don’t want to make too many assumptions, and Nix has earned some trust with this first installment. I look forward to my next trip beyond the wall.
Sabriel begins, as many great fantasy novels do, with the birth of its character. Sabriel is a child who shouldn’t have been born, but she is saved by her father, a man known as The Abhorsen. Nix revolves his system of magic, at least the foremost system, around death, which is a subject most authors are loathe to tackle (especially those potentially writing for young adults). He includes other types of magic called Charter and Free, which are loosely defined as controlled and uncontrolled sorcery. The Abhorsen has the potential to deal in all three, but is a master of Death magic. His tools take the form of bells, each with a specific purpose, their own tone, and a singular name. This is definitely the first time I’ve ever seen bells used as weapons. It seems hokey at first, but Nix details it extremely well, and his rules of life and death are interesting enough to pull the veil over our eyes.
The Abhorsen has the power to raise the dead, quite literally, but he is a force for good in the Old Kingdom, Sabriel’s version of Narnia. Comparing Sabriel to The Chronicles of Narnia is appropriate because in many ways Nix is successor to Lewis. He writes about a land of magic and mystery that is connected to our own, in the beginning of the 20th century, and his protagonist is able to traverse between these two realms at will. Guns and swords exist in parallel, with the conceit that mechanical objects fail beyond the Wall (the barrier between the Old Kingdom and the modern world). This is a common strategy used by authors of fantasy to explain why swords and spells are truly the greatest utilities available.
The real story of Sabriel begins during Sabriel’s last year of college. She has excelled in all of her classes, is a powerful spellcaster in her own right, and receives news that her father, The Abhorsen, is missing. She is armed, prepared, and sets off on her journey. Sabriel follows the Hero’s Journey without fail. Sabriel exists in the ordinary world, is called to adventure, meets her mentor (in the form of a talking cat), is tested and trialed, undergoes the challenge, and eventually returns home only to face down another, more difficult challenge. It’s all very predictable, but Nix’s writing is so enjoyable that a re-telling of this myth is welcome. She also meets a hunky, 200 year old, warrior-mage along the way, fulfilling any young adult notions readers might have.
I hope none of this sounds reductive because I happen to love the Hero’s Journey. If I write a novel someday, I hope to use it myself, even if I subvert it in a few areas. This myth-type exists for a reason. It’s a method of storytelling that makes sense to our genetic code because we’ve read and heard it for almost two millenia or more. Sabriel is an excellent telling of the Journey, and that it features a strong, feminine protagonist helps it stand out above the pack.
I’m intrigued by Nix’s world, his magic methods, and his character building. He’s hooked me with this first novel in his Abhorsen series, and I plan on reading at least the next couple of books. I’m slightly disappointed, in looking at a brief synopsis of Lirael, that Sabriel no long features in the novels, but I don’t want to make too many assumptions, and Nix has earned some trust with this first installment. I look forward to my next trip beyond the wall.
I think this book is mostly well written, but its message is garbage and I wouldn't let a child read it. If you're interested in my thoughts on the subject, check them out here - https://goldnotglittering.wordpress.com/2016/01/27/problems-in-redwall/
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