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[jon bones]

Is it okay that I've read the first forty pages of Neuromancer and I barely understand what the heck is happening? I don't think I'm a moron when it comes to books, and I think I have read enough science fiction to get through difficult text, but this is like a whole new level of labyrinthine prose. I'm starting to think he just isn't that good of a writer in this book either...

"Raw edge of vomit in his throat."
"Her gray eyes blind with fear."

Really, William Gibson? Really? It's like he's striving incredibly hard for cool, but ends up sounding juvenile and gets a big ol' rolleyes from me most of the time. I know this book is beloved by many, and I am only forty pages in, but so far I just feel frustrated.

i felt much the same way - a shame because i loved snow crash and wanted more cyberpunk but neuromancer just didn't do it for me. the prose was just too goofy, i was able to look past it in Dune but Gibson is far worse than Herbert.

 

[AnkitT]

Finished reading this today:

Utterly amazed by the haunting imagery. Loved the overtone of despair and uncertainty. Not sure if the movie can pull the look off.

Going through this(~120 pages in):

Quite good, and reflects the period well(or maybe i'm drawing elements for my imagination from mad men lol) Its a lengthy read at ~600 pages, but it's looking to be worth it.

Next up:

and

 

[NIN90]

Just finished A Simple Plan. Great book. It's a fucking roller coaster ride.

Next up:

 

[BruceLeeRoy]

The sequel is just about as good. I recommend it. I guess it's not really a sequel as much as a follow-up. Eleven hundred pages and it took me seven days.

Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are hard to describe. Both of them involve a character who wants to accomplish something that seems impossible. Instead of giving up, though, we get to read about every difficulty and setback they face. And there are a ton.

These books almost remind me of a bad RPG (which doesn't make them bad books). It's like, one character wants "this" and they're told they first have to do "that." It's just a series of "I want 'this'" and "Ok, but first you must do 'that', 'that', and 'that'" over and over again. I'm not describing it well.

Ha I know what you mean. The book is definitely sort of a fetch quest of sorts. That's great about the sequel Ill definitely check that out.

 

[Monroeski]

Fair warning to all the people in the thread criticizing Neuromancer - I am going to track you down and kill you. Slowly. Painfully.

 

[poweld]

Just finished

which was great fun, definitely more gripping than the first. Third and fourth on order from Amazon

Started

About 50 pages in, and it's far more readable than I'd anticipated. Really fun read!

 

[ultron87]

Is it okay that I've read the first forty pages of Neuromancer and I barely understand what the heck is happening? I don't think I'm a moron when it comes to books, and I think I have read enough science fiction to get through difficult text, but this is like a whole new level of labyrinthine prose. I'm starting to think he just isn't that good of a writer in this book either...

"Raw edge of vomit in his throat."
"Her gray eyes blind with fear."

Really, William Gibson? Really? It's like he's striving incredibly hard for cool, but ends up sounding juvenile and gets a big ol' rolleyes from me most of the time. I know this book is beloved by many, and I am only forty pages in, but so far I just feel frustrated.

I just finished this up this weekend. I'll admit that at points things got a little confusing. The actual story was really interesting though. I expected and wanted more cyberspace action though, because the amount that was in there was really cool and was fun to try and visualize.

Onwards to Clash of Kings now.

 

[sparky2112]

About 50 pages in, and it's far more readable than I'd anticipated. Really fun read!

That's Simon Singh for you. His Big Bang book is also fantastic.

 

[Danne-Danger]

Is it okay that I've read the first forty pages of Neuromancer and I barely understand what the heck is happening? I don't think I'm a moron when it comes to books, and I think I have read enough science fiction to get through difficult text, but this is like a whole new level of labyrinthine prose. I'm starting to think he just isn't that good of a writer in this book either...

"Raw edge of vomit in his throat."
"Her gray eyes blind with fear."

Really, William Gibson? Really? It's like he's striving incredibly hard for cool, but ends up sounding juvenile and gets a big ol' rolleyes from me most of the time. I know this book is beloved by many, and I am only forty pages in, but so far I just feel frustrated.

I agree 100%. It had a few good parts but overall I was very dissapointed with Neuromancer after all the praise I'd seen for it. It felt... clunky.

It gets better further along though. I felt that it was at least worth reading through.

 

[poweld]

That's Simon Singh for you. His Big Bang book is also fantastic.

Excellent, going to put that on my wish list

 

[RubxQub]

Just finished book 2 in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.

Really enjoying it so far, and it looks like things are only going to get better.

FWIW, Kindle FTW IMO BTW. :lol

 

[Dugungar]

 

[bengraven]

Probably not the thread for this, but I don't want to make a new one and you are all the fellow GAF Readers:

Can you surf GAF on the Kindle 2?

I know it's kind of ridiculous, but I use this thread as one of my biggest inspirations at the book store or library (I print it out) when I'm buying books. I know you can read "text heavy" sites and blogs. It would be nice to pull up GAF, "Oh, that's right, I keep forgetting I want to read Murakami" and bing.

 

[Mifune]

Fair warning to all the people in the thread criticizing Neuromancer - I am going to track you down and kill you. Slowly. Painfully.

I'm glad you said it and not me.

Coincidentally reading:

I often find that, Sprawl Trilogy aside, Gibson's plots are really weak when compared to his ideas and settings. 60 pages into this one, and the plot is barely a blip on the radar. So..so far so good. It's surprisingly funny, too.



:

 

[Baladec]

Going through this(~120 pages in):

Quite good, and reflects the period well(or maybe i'm drawing elements for my imagination from mad men lol) Its a lengthy read at ~600 pages, but it's looking to be worth it.

If you end up liking this more or less, I highly suggest reading Atlas Shrugged. In my mind, Atlas is superior to this; the writing, story, characters, and philosophy are much tighter than The Fountainhead. It also reflects its period well if that's your thing.

Also note, I believe you're getting close to the part that almost killed the book for me:

Spoiler

where Roark rapes Dominique

. There's still a lot of interesting things that happen after it, but I had to force myself to get there.