Video games - Neuromancer

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	Video games - Neuromancer

Neuromancer (ISBN 0006480411), by William Gibson, is the most famous early cyberpunk novel and won the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and the Hugo Award after being published in 1984. It was Gibson's first novel and the start of the The Sprawl trilogy.

Set amidst the cities of a future world that many readers see as dystopian and find chillingly plausible, Neuromancer tells the story of Case, an out-of-work computer hacker hired by an unknown patron to participate in a seemingly-impossible crime.

The novel examines the concepts of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, genetic engineering, multinational corporations overpowering the traditional nation-state and cyberspace (a computer network called the matrix) long before these ideas were fashionable in popular culture. Gibson also explores 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, and in which the dystopian elements of society are counterbalanced by an energy and diversity that is perversely attractive (and provides some of the book's appeal).

Plot

Case was once an ace cyber-cowboy. He would jack into the digital world of computer data (known as the matrix) to hack into high-security corporate databases for his employers. When Case was caught double-crossing his employers, however, they used a Russian mycotoxin on him which severely damaged his nervous system, rendering him unable to jack into the matrix. The story begins some time later with a desperate Case working as a middle-man in the black markets of Tokyo, scared that his underworld associates are after him over various debts. He is approached by Molly, a cybernetically enhanced bodyguard and contract killer ("razorgirl"), on behalf of Armitage, a shadowy ex-military figure whose intents are unknown. Armitage offers to cure Case's neurological damage in exchange for his services as a hacker. Case has been a shell of a man since his nervous system was burned out, and he yearns to navigate the virtual, cyberspace world of the matrix again. He is not entirely sure what the job will entail, but he joins up with Armitage and Molly nonetheless, sensing that behind Armitage's offer is a backer with unprecedented money, technology, and power.

Case and Molly develop a personal relationship and secretly begin to inquire into Armitage's background. Armitage's first job for them involves a daring theft at the corporate headquarters of media conglomerate Sense/Net. A group of anarchists calling themselves "The Panther Moderns" are hired to create a massive diversion in the form of a simulated terrorist attack, allowing Molly to penetrate the building while Case directs her to the location of a priceless ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of McCoy Pauley, a deceased cyberspace jockey who, in addition to being a legendary cyber-cowboy, was also one of Case's mentors. Apparently they will need Pauley's expertise for whatever job Armitage has for them.

Case and Molly continue to investigate Armitage's background and soon discover that he was formerly known as Colonel Willis Corto, one of the only surviving veterans of a famous Cold War military operation known as Screaming Fist, a covert operation in which a glider-mounted commando force augmented with cyber-hacking capabilities was ordered to attack a Soviet military base. Unbeknownst to the commandos, however, the raid was engineered by high-ranking military commanders to examine the effect of EMP weapons against unprepared troops. Corto's men were slaughtered, but he and a few survivors commandeered a transport and fought their way over the heavily guarded Finnish border.

The trail leads Case and Molly to a powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI) known as Wintermute, constructed by the plutocratic Tessier-Ashpool clan, whose members alternate control of the family wealth and spend periods in cryogenic preservation in the family mansion at the Freeside space resort. Wintermute engineered the individual known as Armitage from the remains of Corto whose body and mind were devastated during his attack on the Soviets and subsequent escape to Finland. However, when the persona of Armitage proves to be less than stable, Wintermute is forced to open lines of communication with Case directly.

In Istanbul, the team recruits another member, Peter Riviera, an artist, thief, and drug addict who is able to project detailed holographic illusions with his mind with the aid of sophisticated cyper-implants. He is very dangerous, but is coerced by Armitage into joining the team.

It is gradually revealed that Wintermute's goal is to free himself from the hardware that keeps him bound to the Tessier-Ashpool computer system, and which prevents him from becoming a part of the larger cyber-matrix. The only way to do that is for Case to enter cyberspace and use a Chinese virus of unprecedented sophistication to hack through the advanced security measures around the Tessier-Ashpool computer system, while Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, the current leader of Tessier-Ashpool SA, speaks a code-word into an elaborately decorated computer terminal which is located in the heart of Straylight, the Tessier-Ashpool clan's fortress. It is revealed that there is another AI in the Tessier-Ashpool system named Neuromancer, a small but powerful program that seeks to prevent Wintermute from reaching its goal. As Molly and Riviera gain entrance to Straylight, Wintermute helps Case escape from the Turing Police whose job is to regulate the AI's, and who have found out about Wintermute's plan.

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Video games - Neuromancer

Plot

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