Here's the thing... (Score 1)

Gibson is a remixer. If you've read W.S. Burroughs, seen a Cronenburg film or read any pulp detective novels, you can't take Neuromancer too seriously.

If you read Mona Lisa Overdrive, and know who Survival Research Laboratories are, same thing.

If you've read Speed Tribes, you see the Virtual Light series is a remix of a heap of other ideas. Same for Idoru - if you know who U2 are, and know who Mark Brandon 'Chopper' Read is, and have read Speed Tribes, you see the same thing.

For a long time Gibson would tell everyone who would listen that he didn't have e-mail, just fax, and his friends would fax him things he might think were interesting. Now to his credit, he does often explain these inspirations to the reader in the introductions.

If you read pattern recognition, you see Gibson re-mixing Gibson as a means of getting back to Present Time. A young woman in a strange environment who therefore has a reason to describe everything. Brand names. Unseen forces. Japan. Yakuza. Russia. Mafia. Reality and personal identity being manipulated by technology.&c.

And that book really sucked it, unfortunately.

A tip for the fans: I have heard Gibson read his books for an audience, and he reads s..l..o..w.. Trust me; grab Virtual Light and read the Prelude slowly, and you'll see the real reason we read him. He can write his pants off when he makes the effort.