Ms. Hen reviews NEUROMANCER

Neuromancer

William Gibson

The Berkley Publishing Group

1984

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she thought it would relate to what she is writing now. It does, but it’s very different. The only similarity is that it’s science fiction about a similar subject. Ms. Hen honestly didn't like this book, however.

This is an action adventure novel that takes place in the future, in which a man, Case, chases his fortune across the world. It’s what Ms. Hen would call a Man Book, one of those novels full of sex, drugs and rock n roll, which is not usually Ms. Hen’s cup of tea. Ms. Hen likes science fiction, but the kind that is comprehensible.

This book is painful to read. Ms. Hen likes to live by the idea that a writer should not make a reader work to enjoy the story. This novel makes the reader work TOO HARD. There are all types of words that are made-up, and Ms. Hen didn’t like having to constantly trying to figure out what was going on. She thinks that if a person read this book constantly and did nothing else, maybe that person would get the lingo, but she has other things she has to do with her life, like work, and eat meals, and do her own writing.

Ms. Hen read reviews of this novel, and she can’t believe that people RAVED about this and said it was the best science fiction novel they had ever read. She wants to know what’s wrong with these people! Are they sick? Or do they love it because they think it’s so cool that they can’t understand what’s going on? Ms. Hen thinks it may be a case of the emperor’s new clothes – jumping on the bandwagon and saying it’s great because everyone else does too, and fooling themselves because everyone else is, too.

Ms. Hen doesn’t know how she got through this book, but she did. She was glad when it was over. She can’t believe that it’s a series and doesn’t know why anyone who finished this book would want to read more like this. All feathers down.