This is the first Gibson novel I’ve read. Maybe I went into it expecting too much. Maybe I should have read the first two in the Sprawl series (I didn’t know it was a series). I liked the characters and their development, but that’s pretty much where it stops for me. The story pace felt like driving behind someone going ten miles per hour slower than the speed limit. It seemed that the threads didn’t really tie together until the last two-thirds of the book, at best. I knew they would, but that only made my frustration worse. Frankly, I thought that the writing was frequently really flat when I needed it to be more. Many the descriptions of people and places felt unfinished or too simple. The sheer number of characters felt like Game of Thrones. And the names! Swift/Swain, Prior/Petal, not to mention characters who had two and three names! Also, I wasn’t certain if there was a difference between the “net”, “matrix”, or “cyberspace”. Angie’s “dreaming” into that space felt like another thing entirely. I found myself going back and rereading just to grasp what was happening. I know the ending is often seen as too open-ended and I definitely agree. Maybe I would have felt differently if I’d read the first two. Take Discworld, for example. You could read nearly any of the books in any order and not feel totally lost. I didn’t hate it by any means, but I guess I just don’t understand how this is considered such a foundational book.
TLDR- I unknowingly read the last in The Sprawl series. Even after discovering this I feel that it could be a better stand alone book.
by NikolaTes
11 Comments
Hi guys, just read the third book in a trilogy without reading the first two and I wanted to complain about the books having an order.
???
I would have started with Neuromancer – it’s the classic cyberpunk text and a hell of a read. That said, I feel like Gibson paces slower than others (thinking early Neal Stephenson), and I think a lot of the foundational concepts get a little more explanation (though not a ton more).
That said, I remember Neuromancer vividly – I remember NOTHING about Mona Lisa Overdrive. It might be that Gibson just doesn’t tickle your fancy.
It’s the middle of a series.
Second two books of this first “trilogy” are massive his weakest. Looks like you shot yourself in the foot there.
You dun goofed mate, read neuromancer it blew my mind, considering when it was written there was no Internet, no mass computer networks available to the general public.
>This is the first Gibson novel I’ve read
You read the last book? First?
Why?
Why on earth wouldn’t you just start with the first book in the series?
Neuromancer is the foundational book.
Not all series can be read out of order. Gibson is hard enough as it is. It’s cool that it’s not your flavor – I don’t think Gibson is my flavor either tbh, but I think it’s mostly on you for stumbling into the third book of a trilogy, not Gibson.
Dude. You said yourself you (accidentally) started on book 3. Of course, there is going to be a lot you missed or felt went unexplained.
Start with Burning Chrome.
I read Mona Lisa Overdrive first, too, and was also underwhelmed. I liked it a lot more on subsequent retreads, especially after I read Neuromancer.