NEUROMANCER and AGENCY by William Gibson

I'm beginning to think I misread NEUROMANCER. Or... have I (and everyone else) turned into Neuromancers?

Below you will find two book reviews, written several years apart.

Back when I re-read the novel NEUROMANCER (1984) in 2018, I felt disappointed and criticized it by the rules and expectations of “classic” literary fiction. But reading his later novel AGENCY (2020), something had changed - not so much with Gibson, as with me. Now I “got it”… because my reality had caught up with his fiction.

I present the reviews “as is” without changes, to show how I’ve been affected by the world becoming more like a William Gibson story. But: Is this change a “growth,” or a regressive development … ?

1. NEUROMANCER (review from 2018, initially posted on Instagram)

Despite what I think about this novel, you should read it.
NEUROMANCER (1984) has had an enormous influence on SF and pop culture - despite the fact that the future it describes didn't come true.

NEUROMANCER is very much a novel about visuals - intensely focused on describing what things and people look like. Gibson has a great skill for textures and surfaces.

The story takes place in a future class society, where the Internet is tightly controlled by large corporations.

Case, the protagonist, belongs to a class of outlaw computer hackers. They break into corporate servers by connecting their brains directly to "cyberspace" - the visual representation of the future Internet. (It's just as insanely dangerous as it sounds.)

Case is rescued from the slum life by a mysterious rich client, who hires him to break into a closely guarded server - while his partners in crime turn on each other.

Apart from the visually focused depiction of the future world, this is essentially a heist story. The hacker protagonist remains a cipher - without his hacking skills he is nothing, has no life, no family - and his relationship with technology resembles that of a drug addict (which is obviously Gibson's intent) .

I'm seriously torn about NEUROMANCER. The fantastical amount of surface detail turns it into a big, ornately decorated birthday cake of a book... but when you bite into it, there's no core.

I'm not asking for a "moral instruction" or a less cynical protagonist - Case is a creep and that's OK - but the few "straight" citizens in the novel are depicted as disposable corporate drones, whom the protagonist has no qualms about killing.

That makes me suspicious of the novel, and it comes off as deeply adolescent in the worst sense of the word. (The exact same attitude that "straight citizens" are disposable is evident in the cyberpunk movie THE MATRIX, and for that same reason I dislike it too.)

2. AGENCY (review from 2021, initially posted on Blogger)

Back when I reviewed Gibson's first novel NEUROMANCER (1984), I noted that it excelled in marvellous visuals, surfaces and textures. I felt it lacked a certain depth, though, and the characters came off as empty and occasionally nihilistic.

Still, that was a novel by a young writer; AGENCY (2020) is the work of an older, more mature writer. The elder Gibson still writes more about surfaces than insides, and technology takes center stage, as in NEUROMANCER – but it's as if the real world has caught up with him.

Now we are sort of living in a William Gibson reality, and his signature style seems fit to describe it. He doesn't have to invent fictional data interfaces anymore, because they are all around us. We now have a close, addictive relationship with our digital technology that matches the ”addiction to tech” Gibson described in 1984.

AGENCY takes place in an alternate present, where Hillary Clinton won the 2016 election. The protagonist Verity Jane gets the job to test a new AI which calls itself ”Eunice.” Eunice demonstrates personality, initiative and is on a mysterious mission – the plot revolves around that mission, which may involve saving the world.

It gets even weirder – a lot weirder – but I don't want to spoil any more. I often found myself admiring Gibson's mastery of style – it's not easy to write like that, about stuff like this, and still make sense – more than the plot itself.

In the end, AGENCY is perhaps more interesting as an ”experience” than as a story. And the experience is so peculiar that only afterward do you start thinking about the story itself and its deeper themes: How we are shaped by technology, the possibilities of artificial intelligence, the menace of climate change – and the uncertainty of our future.

The title "Agency" carries an ironic meaning, which is buried in the story; I leave it to you to figure it out.

Gibson is still enamored with describing technology in loving detail, but I think that's part of his message: that our tools are now running us, and thus they are characters in our lives – perhaps more than we are.

Recommended for ”nerdy” readers who enjoy techno-thrillers, science fiction and non-fiction.
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