That's a really interesting tidbit of information about Idoru! It's certainly an interesting book so far, although I've been having trouble being truly sucked into books lately thanks to various life circumstances. I will say though, out of all the books of his I've read so far, I actually most prefer the writing style of Neuromancer. His writing style is much more sleek and refined in his later Sprawl trilogy books and Idoru, but there was something special about the hallucinogenic verve of the descriptions he used in Neuromancer and Burning Chrome that, in spite of the jank or perhaps because of it, made me much more jealous as a fiction writer myself. I deeply wish I could achieve that style, but I unfortunately have a pretty solidified authorial voice already — something in the latent space of styles between Lovecraft and Alistair Reynolds :P
You probably don't want to read his post-Sprawl/Bridge books, then. ;)
In response to the fan complaining, he said something to the effect of 'I wrote Necromancer when I was a young man, and that sort of thing doesn't interest me anymore.'
His later work is far more subtle, sort of about the pervasiveness of dystopian corporate cyberpunk themes underneath modern culture and style?
If you do want more Neuromancer, I'd recommend Richard K. Morgan's trilogy [0] (for god's sake, the books, not the TV series), Ian M. Banks' Culture books [1] (although maybe start with Excession, and read the others if you like it), or go retro for the original cyberpunk short story collections [2].
> His later work is far more subtle, sort of about the pervasiveness of dystopian corporate cyberpunk themes underneath modern culture and style?
I sort of guessed that was where he went with his later work based on book descriptions, but honestly I still plan to read them because that idea is very interesting to me, and I want to read everything I can from authors I respect in order to try to learn as much about writing as possible from them, but you're right, I will probably like them less on a personal level.
For me, the appeal of cyberpunk is taking the dystopian parts of our society — surveillance capitalism, corporate omnipotence, consumerism, commodification, atomization, helplessness, poverty, all the subtle yet inescapable webs entangling us that are usually hidden beneath smiling signs and catchy slogans — and just putting it completely on the table, in full view. Cyberpunk is "hyper-real" — this painfully heightened reality writers can use as a tool to throw the hidden bones of our constructed reality into sharp relief like an X-ray, so that when the reader comes back to the regular world they can't stop seeing everything they saw, like an after image that won't go away even when you close your eyes. The sort of raw sex and drugs and hyper self-expression through transhumanism and so on, the cool factor — that's all almost like a cathartic reward for the dystopian aspects of the setting, while also integrating with those aspects and complexifying the commentary, instead of allowing you to escape it. More subtle commentary has its place, but cyberpunk as a genre is unique, and I think we need more of it.
> If you do want more Neuromancer, I'd recommend Richard K. Morgan's trilogy [0] (for god's sake, the books, not the TV series), Ian M. Banks' Culture books [1] (although maybe start with Excession, and read the others if you like it), or go retro for the original cyberpunk short story collections [2].
Thanks for the recs! All of those are very much on my tbr, although I'm struggling to get into altered carbon for personal reasons unrelated to the stuff I've mentioned previously ;P
> Do you have a link to where I can find your work?
I'm extremely flattered you ask! I haven't put any of my work up anywhere yet because most of my completed stuff is very early — when I was still finding my style and footing — and most of my mature, refined work is as of yet unfinished. I am however currently working on a cycle of novellas (titled Spectrum Fold :)) set in a sort of Gothic cyber+punk post-apocalyptic world deeply inspired by Gibson, Reynolds, R. Talosorian Games, and media like Edgerunners, Fight Club, Dark City, and The Crow. Depending on how comfortable you are with heavy queer and trauma themes (as well as the usual sex, drugs, violence, poverty, etc), if you send me an email I'll send you a link to my first novella when it's ready for release (probably later this year). I'll be publishing it as a DRM free epub on my self hosted server lol.
