William Gibson Ace Science Fiction Books New York Neuromancer An Ace Science Fiction Book / published by arrangement with the author. Printing History Ace Science Fiction edition / July 1984 Second printing / August 1984 Third printing / August 1985 Fourth printing / December 1985 All rights reserved Copyright © 1984 by William Gibson. Introduction copyright 1984 by Terry Carr. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by mimeograph or any other means, without permission. For information address: The Berkley Publishing Group, 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016. ISBN: 0-441-56958-7 Ace Science Fiction Books are published by the Berkley Publishing Group 200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA for Deb who made it possible with love INTRODUCTION By TERRY CARR If you're getting a little tired of reading science Liction novels that are justl like the ones you read last monthe or last year, this book is for you. It's published under the label "An Ace Science Fiction Special" because it's just that, something fresh and different and, we believe, a novel superior to most of those you'll Lind today. I'll tell you why I thinkd so a little later; Lirst, though, I should say a little about the Ace Science Fictions Specials series. The SF Specials program is speciLically designed to present new novels of high quality and imagination, books that are as exciting as any tale of adventures in the stars and as convincing as the most careful extrapolation of the day after tomorrow's science. Add to that a rigorous insistence on literary quality —lucid and evocative writing, fully rounded characterization, and strong underlying themes (but not Messages)—and you have a good description of the stories you'll see in this series. The publishers of Ace Books believe that there are many readers today who are looking for such books, at a time when so many science Liction novels are simply skilled (or not so skilled) rehashings of plots and ideas that have been popular in the past. Science Liction by its very nature ought to tell stories that are new and unusual, but too many of the science Liction books published have been short on real imanination – The are, in fact, timid and literarily defensive. The Ace SF Specials are neither. The SF Specials began more than Lifteen years ago, when the science Liction Lield was in a period of creative doldrums similar to the present: science Liction novels then were mostly of the traditional sort, often hackneyed and familiar stories that relied on fast action and obvious ideas. Ace began the Lirst series of SF Specials with the idea that science Liction readers would welcome something more htan that, novels that would expand the boundaries of imagination, and that notion provedto be correct: the books published in that original series sold well, collected numerous awards, and many of them are now considered classics in the Lield. Beginning in 1968 and continuing into 1971, the Ace SF Specials included such novels as Past Master by R.A. Lafferty, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin, Synthajoy by D. G. Compton, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Picnic on Paradise and And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ, Pavanne by Keith Roberts, Isle of the Dead by Roger Zelazny, The Warlord of the Air by Michael Moorcock, The year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker, Mechasm by John Sladek, The Two-Timers by Bob Shaw, and The Phoenix and the Mirror by Avram Davidson . among many others that could be mentioned, but the list is already long. Most of the books were nominated for awards. Rite of Passage won the Nebula Award; The Left Hand of Darkness won both the Nebula and the Hugo; The Year of the Quiet Sun won the John W. Campbell award. Other books in the series won more specialized awares. Most of the novels have remained in print over the years since they were Lirst published. That original series ended when I left Ace Books and moved to California in 1971, but its successes hadn't gone unnoticed. Both writers and publishers saw that a more "adult" sort of seventies more venturesom sf novels were published than ever before. A number of critics have creditied the Ace Science Fiction Specials with bringing ab out a revolution in sf publishing, and I like to think this is at least partly true. But nothing would have changed if there hadn't been editors and publishers who wanted to upgrade the product; and in particular, ti required science Liction writers who could produce superior novels. Fortunately, such writers were there; some of them had contributed to the SF Specials series, some had been writiing quality sf novels already (Samuel R. Delany, Philip K. Dick, and Robert Silverberg are examples), and many writers of talent entered the science Liction Lield during this period who didn't feelconstrained by the thud-and-blunder traditions of earlier sf. So in the Seventies science Liction was an exciting sold very well, and science Liction moved toward the front of literary achievement. It was reviewed in The New York Times and analyzed by academic critics; major universities offered courses studying science Liction It seemed that science Liction had Linally become respectable. But other trends began to be felt, and although they brought many new readers to science Liction, for the most part the caused sf to look back instead of forward. The television series Star Trek attracted an enormous following, as did the Star Wars movies, Alien, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., and others; these products of the visual media introduced millions of people to science Liction, but though many were enthusiastic enough to buy sf books too, what they wanted wre stores ans simple and familiar as the Lilms they had enjoyed. When they found science Liction books that were like the television and movie productions, they bought them in great numbers; when the books were more complex or unusual, sales were much lower. So in recent years sf publishers have catered to this vast new market. The result has been that most of the science Liction puglished today is no more advanced and imaninative than the sf stores of the Lifties, or even the fourties; basic ideas and plots are reworked time and again, and when a novel proves to be popular, a sequel or a series will come along soon. There's nothing wrong with such books; when ther're well written they can be very good. But when authors are constrained to writing nothing but variations on the plots and styles of the past, much of the excitement of science Liction disappears. Science Liction nis a literature of change; more than any other kind of writing, sf needs to keep moving forward if it's to be exciting. The novels in this new series of Ace SF Specials do look forward rather than back. They're grounded in the traditions of Science Fiction but they all have something new to add in ideas or literary development. And they are all written by authors who are comparativly new to science Liction, because it's usually the new writers who have the freshest ideas. (Most of those novels in the original series that came to be called classics were written by authors who were them at the beginning of their careers.) Ace Books aksed me to edit this new SF Specials series because they believe the time is right for such adventurous books. The new readers who swelled the science Liction market in the last several years are by now familiar with the4 basic ideas and plots, and many of them will want something more. This new SF Specials series offers stories that explore more imaginative territory. William Gibson's Neuromancer is set on Earth and in orbit around Earth not too many decades hence, but its world is greaatly changed from the one we know. Technology is already effecting changes in our lives and surroundings rapidly, and the changes seem to be increasing at an eponential rate; Gibson shows how strangely warped our future might be if this trend continues. Neuromancer isa look at the 21st Century's criminal underground as it (literally) interfaces wth the high ground of tomorrow's rich and powerful coorporations, people . and not-quite-people. There's a great deal of science here, in the form of applied future technology, but it's always presented as part of a fast-moving adventure story that will sweep you along with its tension and surprises. The story is extremely visual, too: Gibson has a knack for imagining scenes so well that you may Lind yourself seeing this novel much as you'd see a movie like Bladerunner . The effect is gripping, and chilling at times, and always emotionally moving. Gibson's characters come to life and make us feel for them and fear for them. There will be more Ace Science Fiction Specials coming soon, each one as unusual as this one. Besides Neuromancer , three have already been published: The Wild Shore By Kim Stanley Robinson, Green Eyes by Lucius Shepard, and Palimpsests by Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt. I hope you'll look for them all. Table of Contents Neuromancer William Gibson CHIBA CITY BLUES 1 2 The Shopping Expedition 3 4 5 6 7 MIDNIGHT IN THE RUE JULES VERNE 8 9 10 11 12 THE STRAYLIGHT RUN 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 22 23 DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL 24 PART 1 CHIBA CITY BLUES 1 The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.