Of its time

Looked forward to this as a classic of the genre but I struggled to get into it and returned it after half way, having given it a fair crack.
It set a good, visceral atmosphere which put me in mind of classic neon city environments which you'd expect in a cyberpunk genre.
Unfortunately as it went on the word salad of tech words became distracting and slightly cringe-worthy. The dialogue was very much of an 80s action film.
Perhaps it's unfair of me to criticise what must have been revolutionary at the time and perhaps I've been spoiled by subsequent works by the likes of Neal Stephenson.
The narration was a bit "east end" for my liking. Not a bad job, though. Perhaps slightly fast, hence that sensation that the word salad of tech words was just washing over me.

9 people found this helpful

Really good. But hard to follow

Loved the overall book. The tone and story.
But if you are going to listen to this. It can get a bit confusing towards the end.
So not something to have on as an easy listen in while doing something else.

7 people found this helpful

Great narrator... Poor narrative

Every fibre of my being should love this book however, I cannot gel with the story at all just something about it my brain doesn't want to like, which is baffling because the genre is right up my street. Crazy.

Jason Flemyng is great as the narrator and hats off to him.

5 people found this helpful

Not am easy boom to listen to, better to read

I struggled to follow the book by listening. I think this would be a better book if read

4 people found this helpful

incrediable book 11/10

one of the best books I have ever listened too. i followed the whole story with book in hand. the plot, characters, setting and writing were amazing from start to finish. i look forwaed to reading the rest of the series ☺️

4 people found this helpful

Probably one to read rather than listen to

I was really looking forward to this one. I loved the Peripheral and Agency, but just couldn't get into the Neuromancer. Other reviewers have mentioned the lack of distinction in the narration between different parts of the story making it hard to follow and i'd certainly agree. Probably easier to follow in print.

3 people found this helpful

Enjoy without understanding

Is it possible I I can follow a book to it's conclusions with a kind of absence from the world and a pleasure in the words flowing around me. Could I describe this book to somebody else? No but I would recommend it from my heart if my head is not up to it.

Awful. Tedious and dated.

I am 40 years or so late to the party with this one, but I was aware of its significance to SF specifically but also the wider world with some of the terminology. I was very much looking forward to it. So I’m disappointed at how truly bad it is. I didn’t care for or about any of the characters, the plot was turgid and sludgy and I couldn’t get into it at all. In the end I didn’t finish this, and read the ending from Wikipedia. It’s terribly dated, but even if I’d read it when it first came out I wouldn’t have liked it. I guess you had to be there at the time, but there are so many better books out there which deal with the subject matter than this one.

Disappointingly bad.

Shame about the poor narration

I was looking forward to this book as it has been recommended, but was really disappointed as the narration is so poor that it's hard to listen to. I'll try and ignore it and see if I can get through it, and will update this review if I manage to get far enough through to say more.

A million miles per second

This was a trip.

So much is going on in every scene, so much detail is given but because of the engaging work of the narrator, it rarely feels over done.

I've nothing to compare this too and that's a massive positive in opinion, as this is one of the most unique stories I've ever heard.

I'd highly recommend this if you're a sci-fi fan who also enjoys a good heist movie.