David V.'s Reviews > The Peripheral

Do you have any takers yet?

Sorry, you were the 2nd responder. The 1st one beat you by one Minute!

Aw shucks! Thanks again.

Why do you start books by authors you know you don't like and then rate them 1-star when you know that you not being part of the target audience is the root of the problem?

Certified computer geek here: We don't know what he's talking about either. Half of the words he made up in Neuromancer made no sense until you nearly finished the book, and they only made sense then due to the context, not to any kind of explicit explanation. It's part of the joy of reading his stuff - you have to roll with the mood, and it'll all come together eventually.

Yeah, his books are not for those who can't use a dictionary and imagination. Also I have no idea why you would come here and give a rating to a book of the author you already didn't like (despite the fact a LOT of people liked them, so it's obviously about you not about the book at all).

Geez, I don't know where to start with all these comments. I can use a dictionary and I do have an imagination. In fact I imagined that maybe I'd understand this new book after not having read any of his books for years, but to no avail. I'm well aware that many people love his books but keep in mind that no one book will satisfy every reader. And yes, to a certain extent, it is about me----my opinion about a book that I've read or attempted to read. That's MY opinion, not yours, and you're welcome to agree or not. That's YOUR opinion. About the dictionary---if he's giving new definitions to words, then they aren't likely to be in the dictionary, unless he wrote it. As to my reading ability, I'm currently reading my 51st book for the year(only counting the ones I finish.) I'm hoping that the person I sent the book to in San Francisco likes the book as much as some of you do.

To those complaining for the negative review, isn't the point of this giving your opinion? Or you can only write a review if you liked the book?

Thank you, Alejandra. Lovely name, by the way. I've written comments for about 160 books in the past 3-4 years on Goodreads, and they haven't all been positive.
Even ones I received directly from publishers. I'd think other readers would want honest reviews. They still have the choice to read a negatively-reviewed book, and they may like it.

We are not "complaining about the negative review". The thing is he doesn't like any Gibson's books at all and he is not writing a review. It's not a review. It's pretty much, "I don't like his books" with a vague amateurish reason for the dislike. If he wrote a review, it wouldn't be right either because he haven't actually read the book. So what is the point of his "review"? There is no point there. It's a bleah. Which people rightfully object to.

And I am not making a personal attack here, but I do object this particular style of review because it is not helpful to anyone trying to see if the book is something that might interest them or not.

I am the one who got the book, and I have to step in and defend him here. I love Gibson's work, and his jargon-heavy beat poetry madness of style - so when I saw this one star review, which boils down to "Ugh this thing's full of Gibson slang and flow and I just cannot stand it", I did not get angry - I got interested. The reasons he did not like the book are exactly what like about Gibson's writing. This review might not like those things, but it informed me that they're present, that this is Gibson true to form - and got me excited enough to ask for the ARC.

If you're mad this review will bring down the star average... check your nerd rage and priorities. It's a Gibson novel. People will know if they want to read it already, and when it does come out, it'll have so many ratings so fast that this review will be just one tiny droplet in an ocean of them. In the grand scheme of things, this review does nothing - and for me personally, it got me interested in the book, which I will probably tear through the moment it arrives.

Thanks David, by the way.

That was rather strained and weak for "coming to his defense". If you actually read any Gibson you'd know all of his books are that way and you wouldn't need this review to tell you that. As the matter of fact you say that much yourself in the last paragraph. So you kind of contradicting your whole premise here. And it makes it rather obvious that what really got you interested was that the guy was gonna give you the book.

His rating and his review were a frustration, not a rating or a review of the book, really.

A guy that commented before me thought this review/rating was something unnecessary. He or she said that. I agreed with them. If you see rage in it, fine. I don't. I do firmly believe that all is needed to appreciate his books is a dictionary and some imagination. Yes, you might find them boring because you just not into that kind of thing, but not frustrated. He is logical. There is almost always action. There is almost always a puzzle. You can't possibly get frustrated by his books if you understand them.

What I said comes from several years of tutoring experience. The frustration that comes from reading something--anything (and coincides with reading something while seemingly directed at something else) ALWAYS clears up when you find and clarify misunderstood or unknown words/objects in the said material. Observed that numerous times and it works like a charm, every single time. His review practically begs for a dictionary and I've seen this exact reaction so many times that it is hard to miss. If you think that this is nerd rage, I am sorry for you.

It's weak because most of my point and focus really are that while yes, this negative review isn't actually of the book as a story, and it's fairly shallow in scope, the degree to which people are bothered and get defensive over something like this is just as confusingly silly.

Yeah, he didn't actually review the book proper, but instead vented a frustration - but why does that matter all that much? What does it do to anyone's quality of life?

My defense isn't because he sent me the book, either. I haven't read any /recent/ Gibson, only his earlier works, so it's entirely possible he'd have fallen out of form or lost his edge (as some long-running fiction authors do) - seeing someone frustratedly throwing aside the book because of jargon tells me that hasn't happened. When Gibson's doing his thing right, that reaction's inevitable from some. It told me he's still got it, in a roundabout way.

Sometimes, a low-substance negative review actually tells me more of what I want to know about if I'll like something than any well thought out positive review could.

That said, I find Gibson places his bespoke jargon in context so well that you can easily infer what words mean, even if you're never explicitly told, and I've never been given pause. Neuromancer for example never explains "joeboys", but it's made clear very quickly from context that joeboys are the strength-augmented muscle/enforcers of the underworld. We never find out /why/ they're called that, but it doesn't actually matter.
For me, I cannot even begin to empathize with someone who is an avid reader struggling to process Gibson - it's always been effortless. I still think "I found the prose utterly undigestable, did not finish" is a valid review, shallow may it be.

Now, this I can understand. I am still pretty sure that dictionary could have helped digesting it.

Joeboy is anyone working for you or hired muscle. In another place in the book a joeboy pulled trodes off Dixie when he flatlined. There are examples of this usage in other books.

David. I am sure someone pointed this out, but Gibson creates words and associations with the intent on creating a new language or rather labels to create a sense of being ahead of the current language idioms. It is an attempt to create a different world or ideal that is foreign or futuristic. The reader has to define the word through careful reading and interpretation of the writing. it is difficult and challenging but that is what make Gibson a literary genius.

One Goodreads "tradition" that needs to die is the common practice of giving a book you haven't finished reading a star-rating.

I agree, Roman. Some new symbol other than a star. The only thing I've given this book is publicity. But I'm almost done reading my 57th book this year.

I have no problems with negative reviews, but I'm curious about this line: 'If you're not a computer geek or a gamer, then you don't know what the hell he's talking about.' I would be interested for this theory to be tested as it doesn't sound at all correct to me, although the term 'computer geek' is so nebulous these days as to be close to meaningless. Anyone in this thread finished the book and enjoyed it who wouldn't describe themselves using either epithet?

Did not read this book yet - but read, enjoyed (and even loved some) all previous Gibson's books. I'm not computer geek (although - what that even means?) and/or a gamer; I'm 65 year old woman with an art history degree and very non-technical work history. Not sure what it proves or disproves, but so far - I always knew "what the hell he's talking about".

I am both a computer geek and a gamer and I had no clue what was going on.

By now I've read and finished the book. Liked it - a lot, at least 4.5 stars. Agree with Chris, who said it very eloquently in an earlier comment: "It is an attempt to create a different world or ideal that is foreign or futuristic." The language change with time (obviously), I find it entertaining to try to figure out the "New World" through these expressions that bothered you. You know when I have no clue what's going on? I live abroad from my native country, and the idioms and slang changed so much in 25 years that hardly can understand my nephews' posts on Facebook.

I pity you

Totally with you on this David. It's a relief to see I'm not the only one. I'm 60 odd pages in and have barely understood what is supposed to be going on. I'm also trying to decide wether to persevere as I have plenty of other stuff I could be reading instead. I hate not finishing books, and funnily enough one of maybe only 2 I've never finished was Neuromancer. This is coming from someone who is a computer geek and loves sci fi.

It's frustrating as I'm seeing all these other great reviews, and totally get that I'm the odd one out here. I really hoped reading his book this time would be different.

David, I haven't read this one yet but I'm still planning on giving it a shot. Please continue to give your opinion! The review portion of Goodreads is not for everyone to just give another synopsis. Sometimes my reviews are only a few sentences even if I liked it, and I always give one star to a book I couldn't finish.

Peter and Penny, Thanks for your comments. I appreciated them. I read about 60 books a year for pleasure and enlightenment. There are so many books and so little time, and life is too short to get bogged down with one that isn't satisfying. But that's a personal decision.

Funnily enough, everything seemed to change straight after my last comment. Around 70 pages in the story becomes much clearer (and obviously more enjoyable). I'm about half way through the book now, and very interested to see how it pans out.

It does have me wondering about the first part though - may even go back and have another go and see if it makes more sense now.

Jeez, maybe I should re-try it too.

FWIW, I didn't start enjoying the book until ~ 20% of the way into it.

it took a bit for me to really get into it, but once i did it REALLY paid off, and i loved it. it's worth pushing through at least until the first Big Twist.

You shouldn't even consider reviewing a book that you gave up reading because you didn't get the neologisms.

You're right. Since this review in 2014, whenever I stopped reading a book (which were very few), I did not give it a rating. I did explain why I quit reading it though.

I think a lot of people like books that let you read them in a way that feels like walking down a pleasant sunny forest path - you know where you're going, and everything's beautiful along the way. In contrast, reading Gibson is like walking through a back alley in a downtown area in a thunderstorm. Things are less clear, and you tend to be a bit more on edge the whole time, but damn, you see some interesting shit.

FWIW, my original comment wasn't disagreeing with the review. I haven't even read this book, but I've read a lot of Gibson's other work. I understand why people wouldn't like it. I was just trying to point out that the lack of clarity can be seen as a point of attraction for some of us :)

naught101 wrote: "I think a lot of people like books that let you read them in a way that feels like walking down a pleasant sunny forest path - you know where you're going, and everything's beautiful along the way...."

The discussion about this book and my comment has been going on for 4 years. I used to give a book 100 pages to "grab" me. I'm now 74; I won't live long enough to read everything I want to read. :-) So now it's 30 pages unless somebody I trust says that I should stick with the book because it gets better. And that has happened, such as the Dragon Tattoo series(first book). Almost gave up on that one and glad I didn't. I'm happy to keep this discussion going for more years, but keep in mind that I'm too impatient for slow and ponderous books that are supposed to be fun; I gave up being tested about my reading many years ago after leaving college. I used to read mostly science fiction but for the last 18 years I've worked in a bookstore so my reading horizons have expanded to almost every genre. Goodreads has also helped that expansion.

So you “remembered” that you don’t like Gibson’s writing, and that’s fine. But giving the book one star after dropping it 24 pages in and making a big dramatic production complaining about not liking a book by an author whose work you just said you don’t like is a bit....redundant. Were you surprised that Gibson did not change his writing style to suit your taste?

I regularly drop books that I can’t get into but I don’t give them a star rating and do not see the point in spending energy vehemently, and pretentiously, expressing my dislike. Doing so says more about the complainer than the book he or she is complaining about.

Roman wrote: "So you “remembered” that you don’t like Gibson’s writing, and that’s fine. But giving the book one star after dropping it 24 pages in and making a big dramatic production complaining about not liki..."

Please read my comment dated April 4, 2018.

Thank you for your review. It helped me not feel guilty about not having a clue about what's going on in this book. I am one of those people who do appreciate an honest negative review (in fact, I always prefer to read the negative reviews in order to be prepared for the worst one might expect from a book and thus never be too disappointed). One star ratings like that are exactly what people who "don't really care about certain authors" need in order to make an informed decision about reading the book in question - or not reading it.

Thanks for your comment. If you read the earlier ones, then you know how much trouble I got into for my honest review. I actually enjoyed the months-long arguments. At least I knew people were reading the book reviews, and I wasn't wasting my time writing it. I've written hundreds of book reviews during the last 10 years, but this caused the most criticism.

I did read the previous comments, and that's exactly the reason I felt compelled to comment myself. Not only do I believe that people are entitled to their (sometimes negative) opinions, but I actually expect that your one star review helped the overall rating of the book to remain quite high, helping people like you and me who don't really appreciate or comprehend Gibson's writing to avoid this particular work.

For the record, eventually I chose to read it, but thanks to your honest opinion I have no great expectations from this iconic writer, and thus won't be disappointed if at the end I simply don't really like the book.

So, thank you.

I’m reading this (another 2 years later) and I’m thinking I do not understand what is happening. I feel like I actually cannot read. But I’m not a gamer or a computer geek so maybe it’s that
I’m close to dnfing but I’m determined to get to to 10% at LEAST.

I used to give a book 100 pages to grab me, but I realized that I won't live long enough to read everything I want to read, so now it's 30 pages! I'm reading for fun, and if it's not fun then forget it and move on. If a trusted source tells me to continue ("It gets better"), then I will, but otherwise......

I’m about 35 pages into this book and was starting to wonder if I’d suddenly forgotten how to read English. I usually read about 40-50 books a year so this really started frustrating me. With each new chapter I kept thinking, okay this will be the chapter where the jargon starts making sense to me. I finally got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore. Had to come on Goodreads and check if I was the only one not getting it, or if there was some sort of special “thing” I was supposed to know before reading this author (it’s my first Gibson book).

Ur review was the first 1 star one I came across and I’m actually really glad I did. I usually agree with all these type of people criticizing u for giving a rating to a book u didn’t even finish, that always irks me, but this is the first instance where it’s actually been beneficial! I’ve enjoyed reading this entire comments thread 100 times more than I’ve enjoyed reading this book so far. And more importantly, discovered thru all the comments what I wanted to know…..what this author is about. It’s intrigued me enough to wanna keep going and hopefully get to a breakthrough point like one of the previous commenters, where a lightbulb comes on and I start enjoying the book and start “getting it”.
So thanks for ur honest opinions. Helped me out in the long run (even 8 years after ur first post) and also kinda changed my mind about rating books u haven’t finished.

Andres wrote: "I’m about 35 pages into this book and was starting to wonder if I’d suddenly forgotten how to read English. I usually read about 40-50 books a year so this really started frustrating me. With each ..."

I had more critical responses to this review than I had to any of my other hundreds of reviews. It was kind of fun to see other people's opinions of me and of this book. I have since then changed my system of stars for books I haven't finished. I now give them no stars and just label them as Did Not Finish (DNF) and explain why I gave them a DNF. It seems more fair that way. I've finished almost every book I've started. Good luck on completing this book.