William Gibson


Easton Press William Gibson books

Neuromancer - Masterpieces of Science Fiction - 1990
Neuromancer - Signed Modern Classic - 2015

 

William Gibson Biography

William Ford Gibson, born on March 17, 1948, in Conway, South Carolina, is a highly influential American-Canadian science fiction writer, often credited with pioneering the cyberpunk genre. Gibson's works are characterized by their exploration of technology, virtual reality, and the societal implications of rapid technological advancement. Growing up in the United States, Gibson developed an early interest in science fiction, particularly the works of authors like Philip K. Dick. However, his path to becoming a writer was unconventional. In his early adulthood, Gibson pursued various jobs, including stints as a draftsman, teacher, and even as a singer in a rock band.

Gibson's breakthrough came with the publication of his debut novel, Neuromancer, in 1984. The novel, a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre, envisioned a future where computer technology and virtual reality played central roles. "Neuromancer" not only won the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards but also had a profound impact on the science fiction landscape, influencing a generation of writers and shaping the way people thought about the intersection of technology and humanity. Throughout his career, Gibson continued to explore themes of technology, globalization, and the evolving nature of society in a technologically saturated world. His other notable works include Count Zero (1986), Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988), and the Bridge trilogy (Virtual Light in 1993, Idoru in 1996, and All Tomorrow's Parties in 1999).

In addition to his novels, Gibson has written numerous short stories and essays. His writing style often combines a gritty, noir sensibility with a visionary approach to the impact of technology on human culture. Beyond his contributions to literature, William Gibson is recognized for coining popular terms such as "cyberspace" and "the matrix." His ability to anticipate technological developments and explore their social and psychological consequences has solidified his reputation as a prescient and influential figure in the world of speculative fiction. William Gibson became a Canadian citizen in 1969. His impact on the science fiction genre and popular culture at large remains significant, and he is celebrated for his visionary exploration of the human experience in the age of technology.

 

Neuromancer - Sprawl Series Book 1

Case was the sharpest data thief in the Matrix, until an ex-employer crippled his nervous system. Now a new employer has recruited him for a last-chance run against an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence. With a mirror-eyed girl street-samurai riding shotgun, he's ready for the silicon-quick, bleakly prophetic adventure that upped the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

Hotwired to the leading edges of art and technology, Neuromancer is a cyberpunk, science fiction masterpiece and a classic that ranks with 1984 and Brave New World as one of the twentieth century’s most potent visions of the future.

The Matrix is a world within the world, a global consensus-hallucination, the representation of every byte of data in cyberspace...

Henry Dorsett Case was the sharpest data-thief in the business, until vengeful former employees crippled his nervous system. But now a new and very mysterious employer recruits him for a last-chance run. The target: an unthinkably powerful artificial intelligence orbiting Earth in service of the sinister Tessier-Ashpool business clan. With a dead man riding shotgun and Molly, mirror-eyed street-samurai, to watch his back, Case embarks on an adventure that ups the ante on an entire genre of fiction.

The winner of the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer was the first fully-realized glimpse of humankind’s digital future a shocking vision that has challenged our assumptions about our technology and ourselves, reinvented the way we speak and think, and forever altered the landscape of our imaginations.

William Gibson revolutionised science fiction in his 1984 debut Neuromancer. The writer who gave us the matrix and coined the term 'cyberspace' produced a first novel that won the Hugo, Nebula and Philip K. Dick Awards, and lit the fuse on the Cyberpunk movement.

More than three decades later, Gibson's text is as stylish as ever, his noir narrative still glitters like chrome in the shadows and his depictions of the rise and abuse of corporate power look more prescient every day. Part thriller, part warning, Neuromancer is a timeless classic of modern SF and one of the 20th century's most potent and compelling visions of the future.

Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society. Neuromancer's virtual reality has become real. And yet, William Gibson's gritty, sophisticated vision still manages to inspire the minds that lead mankind ever further into the future.

The Matrix movie series belongs to the cyberpunk genre of science fiction, and draws from earlier works in the genre such as the 1984 novel Neuromancer by William Gibson. For example, the film's use of the term "Matrix" is adopted from Gibson's novel, though L. P. Davies had already used the term "Matrix" fifteen years earlier for a similar concept in his 1969 novel The White Room ("It had been tried in the States some years earlier, but their 'matrix' as they called it hadn't been strong enough to hold the fictional character in place").



Here is the novel that started it all, launching the cyberpunk generation, and the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. With Neuromancer, William Gibson introduced the world to cyberspace and science fiction has never been the same.

Case was the hottest computer cowboy cruising the information superhighway jacking his consciousness into cyberspace, soaring through tactile lattices of data and logic, rustling encoded secrets for anyone with the money to buy his skills. Then he double-crossed the wrong people, who caught up with him in a big way and burned the talent out of his brain, micron by micron. Banished from cyberspace, trapped in the meat of his physical body, Case courted death in the high-tech underworld. Until a shadowy conspiracy offered him a second chance and a cure for a price....



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