Neuromancer
- 317
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
- Series 2027
- On screen
- Hugo Award for Best Novel
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Philip K. Dick Award
- 20th Century's Greatest Hits: 100 English-Language Books of Fiction
- NPR Top 100 Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
- Seiun Award for Best Translated Long Work
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
The influence of “Neuromancer” is everywhere, which is both its claim and its handicap: so much has been borrowed from it that some readers now find the original familiar and some of its 1984 assumptions dated. Gibson’s prose is dense with invented jargon and abrupt shifts, and some find it hard going and its characters thin. Best for those curious about the roots of cyberpunk and willing to work for it.
Worth knowing William Gibson’s first novel, written on a manual typewriter, came out in 1984 as an Ace paperback original and became the first book to win the Hugo, the Nebula and the Philip K. Dick Award. It popularised the word cyberspace, which Gibson had coined two years earlier in a short story. The prose is dense and plunges in without explanation, so the opening chapters take patience.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by William Gibson. Set in the near future, the narrative follows Case, a computer hacker enlisted into a crew by a powerful artificial intelligence and a traumatised former soldier to complete a high-stakes heist. It was Gibson's debut novel and, after its success, served as the first entry in the Sprawl trilogy, followed by Count Zero (1986) and Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988).
Reading order · Sprawl trilogy
Full order & progress →- Burning Chrome
7.87.8 / 10 - NeuromancerThis book
7.97.9 / 10 - Count Zero
7.87.8 / 10 - Mona Lisa Overdrive
7.87.8 / 10
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- SeriesNeuromancerIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.7 across 2,283 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 94% of the weight and the score stays at 7.9 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it. A further +0.20 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 81 | 4% |
| Hardcover | 7.7 | 2.2K | 97% |
Frequently asked
How long is Neuromancer?
It has 317 pages — shorter than 77% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.9, the closest to this book.
