EASTFIST

WARNING: If your laptop case or trackpad is warped, disfigured or out of place all of a sudden, DO NOT IGNORE IT! (more…)

Neuromancer
Author: William Gibson
Published in 1984

Review By Chongchen Saelee

“Neuromancer” is the chosen template for modern sci-fi stories since it’s publication. It seems every modern sci-fi story from The Matrix, Ghost in the Shell, Akira, etc, all borrow heavily from Neuromancer. If not the exact storyline, they borrow the speculative Asian culture imagery. But masquerading around as a futuristic caper story, Neuromancer is actually more like a crime noir story, since main plot device involves protagonist Henry Dorsett Case’s lost love Linda Lee. It bookends the whole story, although executed kinda sloppily.

Overall plot revolves around “cowboy” or what we call these days “hacker” Henry Dorsett Case, a 24-year-old thin druggy white guy. He lives a dangerous lifestyle in a dangerous futuristic world that resembles modern Tokyo. Case makes a living hacking into computer systems and otherwise cyber espionage. He spends that money on drugs and prostitutes. Of course future drugs don’t just come in the form of chemical substances, for those with man-machine interface built into their heads, they can get high off of “microsoft” which is essentially programs that scramble their brains temporarily. Mind-blowing, right? (more…)