Guest blog by Simon John Hillman
I have always been a voracious reader. My Mum taught me to read before I went to school, and it is a passion I have always pursued throughout my life. But even when you get as old as me, you still discover amazing books and novels that you cannot believe you had never read before.
One such novel is Neuromancer by William Gibson, which I have only recently read, even though it was written in 1984. It is a modern epic dealing with humanity’s relationship with computer hardware, software, the Internet, and artificial intelligence, whilst also dealing with the complexities of human nature and our most intimate of relationships. It is also the novel that coined many phrases which we use today, most notably the concept of ‘The Matrix’.
Set in a dystopian near-future – where cyberspace and IT is omnipresent – yet people still live a hand-to-mouth, grubby, daily existence, Neuromancer is a mind-bending, roller-coaster thriller of a novel, following the adventures of a group of dysfunctional, professional cyber-criminals who think they are working for ‘someone’, but eventual realise that they are working for ‘something’ altogether different from what they had assumed.
A modern classic, I would recommend Neuromancer to any senior students. Yes, its themes are very adult in nature, but no more so than what you may see on late-night TV or in a movie, but it is the English language in an epic, surreal, and ‘machine-gunned’ fashion … and quite breathtaking to read.
So remember … there are amazing and inspiring books out there. And when it comes to reading … nothing quite cuts it like the English language. So go out there … and find them!
Neuromancer is the first book in Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy, which also includes Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.
About the reviewer: Simon John Hillman is a Bangkok-based British expatriate who teaches Social Studies and Psychology to high school students.
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