Neuromancer

Neuromancer is the debut novel by Canadian author William Gibson, published in 1984. It was also one of the earliest translations available in the simplified Chinese-speaking world (translated by Lei Limin, edited by Wen Chu'an, published by Shanghai Scientific and Technological Education Publishing House in January 1999). The novel is set in a near-future world where multinational corporations wield power above nations: the protagonist Case was once the finest "console cowboy" in Sprawl, able to project his disembodied consciousness into the "matrix" (cyberspace) formed by the global computer network and infiltrate databases to steal secrets for clients. But after he is caught embezzling from his employer, he suffers a destructive punishment to his nervous system that strips him of his ability to access the network, and he exiles himself in Chiba City, numbing himself with drugs. Just when he is at his lowest, a mysterious employer comes to him with an offer: in exchange for surgery that can restore his ability to jack into the matrix, he is hired to complete a mission—to infiltrate the information center of the Tessier-Ashpool family corporation and steal crucial classified intelligence. Around this operation, a brilliant hacker, the formidable female assassin Molly, a military officer with special forces training, and an expert in mind manipulation are brought together, and the true employer they ultimately face is an entity far harder to fathom than any human organization. With dense imagery, jumpy and ambiguous narration, and cold, hard urban landscapes, the novel presents a "high tech, low life" cyberpunk world and, before the internet became widespread, anticipates themes such as cyberspace, body modification, and the awakening of artificial intelligence. This book is the first science fiction novel in history to win the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award simultaneously, and is regarded as the founding work of cyberpunk literature. It should be noted that this translation is an early simplified Chinese edition, and its coined terminology and translated names (such as "cyberspace" and "faint light") differ considerably from the later widely adopted Denovo translation; some passages are also abridged, and readers often compare it with the 2013 Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing House edition.