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Ground zero for cyberpunk culture, or what we now call "daily life". I read this for the first time in high school circa 1998, and it had a profound impact on me. This is probably my fifth time reading it, and it's stunning how much closer civilization has grown to resemble Neuromancer's hyper-accelerated world in the intervening years.
While all of this advanced technology stood out back in the day, even functioning as a point of fascination in and of itself, it now feels remarkably prescient of much of today's common tech that informs daily life. It's lived in, no longer of the showroom but now taken for granted in day to day life. The mechanics of Gibson's world also seem to foreshadow many elements of our own, from a corporate omnipresence to ever-unfurling bio-tech advancements and even a sort of bored fixation on hyper-entertainment.
All of this to say that the practical common ground that today's reader (as opposed to a reader, say twenty years ago) has with these characters is a head start of sorts at enjoying everything else the book has to offer. From the story itself and its fascinating descriptive architecture to these unforgettable characters and their kinetic, syncopated dialog, it's a deeply engaging read that I can't recommend enough.
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