Mona Lisa Overdrive

by William Gibson

This book is the third in a sci-fi trilogy by Gibson written in the 80’s about a futuristic dystopian society where cyberspace is the battleground for rogue hackers and large trans-national corporations. Really a very prescient vision, although the details are of course more thrilling. In Gibson’s world, cyberspace is a virtual reality construct similar to the internet, except it is visually represented by a gridline-based matrix with various entities/locales and navigated by jockeys jacked into cyberspace decks, with ‘trodes , goggles, and some variation of keyboard/joystick controls. Some of the virtual structures are awesome, from the exotic fortresses that hide protected data (ice) to the various programs that may resemble robotic worms or dragons or military vehicles designed to crack the ice (icebreakers, of course). This world is vivid in its construction and Gibson’s prose is cold and clear, yet still poetic. It's hard for me to imagine a book that conjures such brilliant and outlandish imagery in any genre.

Reading these books gives the impression that they could make great movies, and lo and behold the first book of this trilogy, Neuromancer, about a rogue AI program trying to transcend its boundaries, may be out some time next year. There was an awful film adaptation of one of Gibson’s short stories, Johnny Mnemonic, and although this was a real stinker (14% on Rotten Tomatoes), it does draw to mind significant similarities to the Matrix franchise, and not just because Keanu Reeves plays the same character in both. The Neuromancer trilogy is slightly less outré in its dystopian vision compared to the Matrix franchise, but it inevitably will share some themes, such as machine intelligence and human relationships to technology. Gibson’s work replaces robot overlords with a contemporary-feeling corporate power structure. The villains are more human, and the cold efficient machinery of concentrated power structures more plausible, and therefore the heroic struggles more tragic and poignant.

The novels are replete with hot blonde assassins with bionic upgrades, mercenaries, dramatic chases and showdowns, drugs, and mind-bending layers of (sometimes virtual) reality. Like I said, all the summer movie ingredients are there. Hopefully we won’t end up with another Johnny Mnemonic.

I haven't read terribly many sci-fi novels, but I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys taut suspenseful writing and outlandish surreal worlds. Vibrant for an apocalyptic world, Gibson weaves his tales with that rare thaumaturgy that makes the fantastic seem so eerily real. A quote from the author illustrates this connection: "This perpetual toggling between nothing being new, under the sun, and everything having very recently changed, absolutely, is perhaps the central driving tension of my work."

Next up will be Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe

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