<i>Neuromancer</i> by William Gibson

I often have trouble following these "cyberpunk" novels. It is sort of like reading one's first Russian novel---you can't, for the life the life of you, keep the characters straight and, after making it through 2 or 300 pages, you are lucky if you have even a basic idea of the plot. This was definitely the case for me when reading The Golden Age series and The Diamond Age.

I, though, after this book am getting a better feel for the genre---what is the basic play between good and evil and what are the character types I can expect. I was more prepared for the battle inside the computer and how it interacted with what was going on outside---both The Golden Age and The Diamond Age use the interplay between cyberspace and the real world as a major theme of the stories.

There were some really great images in the book. I really liked the images of cyberspace that Case was hacking through. Of course, it is very attractive to think of coding and hacking in that way---visual---despite the fact it is rather like writing (if I am to believe my coding friends). Though, I guess when I write---and get things right---it is not a pleasurable sound I have in my head, but more like fitting puzzle pieces together to have a perfect picture. So, maybe for coders it is a similar imagery in the brain, and since Case has a neural link to the system, and we are looking through his POV, it could be that we are seeing his brain interpretation of the code.

Another great image was of the sacks of poison hanging inside of Case to keep him in-line. I imagined the dynamics of these sacs as Case moved along and they swung like so many shopping bags gently hitting his internal organs. There are few things as frightening as the poison inside you.

The ending wasn't bad. It left enough unsaid to not make it feel like Gibson as wrapping everything up with a bow. It was short, to the point and uncomplicated, as Case's life quickly became the same. So, overall a good read. Gibson is great at describing a cyberspace in 1983. It didn't read like dated sci-fi. My 21st century brain still felt this was in the future not the present or the past. That's pretty good for a book from 25 years ago: before the web and cell phones.

8/10

<i>"Fire in the Hole"</i> by MJ Boss

A coworker of mine wrote this book. I believe it was self-published through an online publishing house. When I had read and returned it, I told him he needs an editor, which he does.

He was going for a modern terrorist thriller and had a rather interesting compound story. Unfortunately, though, the book read little better than my journal entries---a series of events and interactions merely listed off. The characters were hardly developed, causing them to be easily confused as I read. It was little more than 120 pages (in 14 pt font, 1.5 spaced), though the plot could have easily filled the 400 pages generally given to a Clancy or Crichton novel.

The worst, though, was the distractions caused by the non-existent editing, which allowed the poor word choice, poor grammar and improper punctuation to reach the page. My advice is, still, to get an editor, then spend some time expanding the plot. It was a nice try, but a complete miss.

2/10