Of course, then there is the technique of going to your favorite bookstore - looking at which Gibson books are there, scanning through them, and just picking one.

Worked for me.

Jackson

Yes, Burning Chrome is where a newcomer should start. Ironically, I'd read all of Gibson's published work except that one until buying it last month.

I was going to recommend Neuromancer (which is where I started) but the short stories in Chrome really create a stronger foundation for Gibson's later work. It was also cool to read the "real" Johnny Mnemonic story (which is referenced in Neuromancer).

For some reason, I can't get the Gernsback Continuum out of my mind. After seeing Sky Captain today its relevance is front and center.

Watch this too. "Tomorrow Calling" which is based on WG's 'The Gernsback Continuum'.

A recommendation, then an amusing anecdote. Then another recommendation. I write this just after seeing Peacehammer's post (and, as an aside, I am really looking forward to seeing Sky Captain too, but, living in Australia, the film probably won't be here for months. Damn).

Of all the WG books that I have read and reread, Burning Chrome is the one that I come back to least (excluding The Difference Engine, which I'll leave to one side as it was co-written). Some of the stories are great, but the book as a whole doesn't grip me the way the others do. As a new reader, I wouldn't start there. Neuromancer really got me kicked off, which is where I'd recommend anyone else to start.

Many, many years ago I bought Virtual Light second hand, read it, thought it was OK, and then lent it to a friend. Said friend develops paranoid schizophrenia, excacerbated by drug use and other factors. Several years pass. I never get it back. One day, as a present, out of the blue, he gives me Neuromancer. I read it. Hooked. Go back to friend.

"This book is great" I say. "Yeah" says he.

"I've been meaning to show you something."

He then reaches into his backpack (I've never seen him without it) and pulls out the copy of Virtual Light from several years ago. It's battered beyond description - sticky tape, rubber bands, paper clips, the whole nine yards. Opens it up.

Passages underlined, writing in the margins, dozens of bookmarks, Post-It notes, pages of hand written notes on A4 paper throughout the thing . Looks like something out of A Beautiful Mind. Proceeds to tell me that the book was his sigil, his compass through his illness and much of his adult life. "Thank you" he says, with the non blinking stare of the heavily medicated.

I have since bought all the Gibson books, and read then reread them compulsively.

The moral of the story?

Don't start with Virtual Light.

The above post was really something and I appreciate you sharing it with me and us.

I started with Neuromancer and have read all the rest of his works (except the dual authored one that I just could not get engaged in) although out of sequence, but would probably suggest starting at Neuromancer.

Has anyone read the works as ebooks??? I just suggested William Gibson to a friend and he purchased the ebook version...I like a book book and holding that, but with his laptop, he explained his reading he has the ability to google items in the text, make notes, etc...it made a huge amount of sense to me, because I am constantly looking words up, spinning off on some topic, footnote or a referenced book and then starting that and all of a sudden I have 12 books that I am reading. My friend indicated that the book took a bit to get involved with because, and I am paraphrasing/speculating, you are being introduced to this new world and attempting to clearly understand it, but no matter.

I do enjoy his stories and how characters/concepts are revealed and then later developed in the books very similar to James Ellroy, Raymond Chandler, and a host of other authors. I also enjoy Gibson's development of characters from book to book...enough praise I suppose for now.

I am glad to be a part of this little community and enjoy reading the various posts and the comments...would suggest to anyone reading Wisdom of the Crowd and looking at how this 'internet' fosters that sort of intelligence.

for now,
be seeing you.

star with agrippa if you can find it (try googling "cyberpunk library" maybe its still online) it's a little know work of his, but after reading it you should get a sense of style, if you manage to understand it none of his other books should be a problem, save possibly difference engine which is quite dense.

blah googled it, no longer on cyberpunk library, though the library is still up.
anyway I found the text at
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/SF-Archives/Misc/Agrippa

For that matter, it is also available on this site:
http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/source/agrippa.asp

Sounds like every conceivable combination has been mentioned.

Definitely start with Neuromancer. No matter how tough a read it is for you, it will definitely give context to the entire movement into the information age.

Neuromancer was quite literally thrust at me by my younger brother, who I seem to get many of my favourite books from, he had to read it for his english class at university. I was suddenly into computers and cyborgs and stuff and he say, here read this it's really cool. So I did, and, while I loved what I read, the flavour of the words, I didn't really get it so I read it again and again and again, and since then about once a year I read through every and all my WG books. They are friends in these countries I live in where English is not the native language and travelling, time zones and that 'mirror universe thing' are more real than not.

quote:

Originally posted by Airbornedoc:
Sounds like every conceivable combination has been mentioned.

[pedant]I don't think anyone suggested starting with All Tomorrow's Parties or Mona Lisa Overdrive, or even Count Zero.[/pedant]

quote:

Thanks for the SNOW CRASH tip. Any others?

Well, you get into a whole other mindset with Neal Stephenson, but I think ALL of his books are absolutely amazing. Snow Crash is Gibsonesque in a way, as its the most cyberpunk in tone, but takes the nilist unravelling beginning/ending concept a lot further which is both interesting and a little frustrating.

For BIG IDEAS, however, look at the Diamond Age, his second book - to me the best Stephenson novel and one which works for both science fiction geeks and people like my girlfriend, who isn't necessarily into SF for the sake of it.

As you will notice, if you go to a bookstore well stocked with Neal Stephenson novels and look at them CHRONOLOGICALLY, they just about double in size each time he publishes a book. BE WARNED - every one of them is as readable as the previous one, but may take you away from friends, family and work for a longer and longer time. Finally, like Gibson with PR, he has stopped being a science fiction writer as of Cryptonomicon. The rest is history... ;-)

..... Me???, .... I would get & listen to the tapes...there a bunch of them out there - I was lucky to win a 5 cd set of Neuromancer on Ebay just this week that I listen to going back and forth to work. - great fun to hear Gibsons books in Gibsons OWN voice!!