Neuromancer: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Published in 1984, Neuromancer was author William Gibson's first novel. It won the 1984 Nebula award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award and Hugo Award the following year. The novel is considered to be the first proper cyberpunk novel.

Setting

Set in a dystopian future which many readers find chillingly plausible, this book explored ideas such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations dominating the world at the expense of the nation-state, and cyberspace (a computer network called the Matrix) long before these ideas were fashionable in popular culture. Gibson also explored the dehumanizing effects of a world dominated by ubiquitous and cheap technology, writing of a future where violence and the free market are the only things upon which one may rely.

Case: The anti-hero. A drug addict and cyberspace hacker whose nervous system was burnt out by some of his business partners who used a Russian mycotoxin after he ripped them off. When Armitage offers to help him he jumps at the offer.

Molly: A "Razorgirl" who is recruited along with Case by Armitage. She has extensive body modifications, most notably blades under her fingernails which can be used like claws, an optimized reflex system and implanted lenses covering her eyesockets with added optical enhancements.

Armitage: He is (apparently) the main patron of the crew. Formerly a Green Beret named Colonel Willis Corto, who took part in the Screaming Fist operation. He was heavily injured both physically and psychologically, and the "Armitage" personality was constructed as part of experimental "computer-mediated psychotherapy" by Wintermute, one of the artificial intelligences seen on the story (the other one being the eponymous Neuromancer) which is actually controlling the mission. As the novel progresses, Armitage's personality slowly disintegrates.

Peter Riviera: A thief who can project images using his implants. He is a drug addict, hooked on a mix of heroin and cocaine.

Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool: The shared current leader of "Tessier-Ashpool SA", a company running Freeside, a resort in space. She lives in the tip of Freeside, known as the "Villa Straylight". She controls the hardwiring that keeps the company's AIs from exceeding their boundaries of intelligence.

William Gibson, Neuromancer, published by Ace Books, ISBN 0441569595