No fancy image for this post yet. I’m trying something new.
First published: September 5, 2025 by Paul W. Romero
Preface: This was originally written from July 12, 2023 through August 1, 2023 in a series of discussion posts for my MFA Creative Writing program. I compiled them into what I hope is a coherent review.
It was inevitable that I needed to read the grandfather of all cyberpunk novels, Neuromancer by William Gibson; the novel that started it all. One interesting note about the author that I didn’t know, if my math is correct, is that William Gibson having been born in 1948 and having published Neuromancer in 1984, means that he was 36 when he officially published his first novel. So there is still time for late bloomers such as myself.
Gibson’s main protagonist, Henry Case, is believable to me as a troubled young adult, a “hustler” as Gibson put it, who tries to get by each day by making extra money however he can to survive and support his drug addiction. His hanging out in bars with low lives, going from hotel to hotel, and watching his back, as depicted in the first few chapters, are all indications of Case’s character traits.
Gibson writes, “All the speed he took, all the turns he’d taken and the corners he’d cut in Night City, and still he’d see the matrix in his sleep, bright lattices of logic unfolding across that colorless void…” (Gibson 5). Gibson adds, “Just another hustler, trying to make it through” (Gibson 5). Gibson also writes, “Case was twenty-four. At twenty-two, he’d been a cowboy, a rustler, one of the best in the Sprawl…He’d operated on an almost permanent adrenaline high, a byproduct of youth and proficiency…” (Gibson 6). Gibson continues on to describe Case as, “A thief, he’d worked for other, wealthier thieves, employers who provided the exotic software required to penetrate the bright walls of corporate systems, opening windows into rich fields of data” (Gibson 6). Moreover, Gibson writes, “He’d made the classic mistake, the one he’d sworn he’d never make. He stole from his employers” (Gibson 6). Later, Gibson gives us examples of Case’s dialect in which he writes Case as stating, “I need one now, man. Got anything right now,” “Sh*t. I don’t need that. I need a gun. Like I maybe wanna shoot somebody, understand,” and “Got some joeboys with him? One of ‘em thin, dark hair, maybe a black jacket” (Gibson 20-22).
I think Case’s main virtue is his love for his girl, Linda Lee, but his flaws are his addictions and how they are stronger than his morals. He’d rather steal from his employers than follow rules and order. He’d rather be on the run as a hustler than stick to anything routine. For me, this resonates with a society where people go from job to job, paycheck to paycheck and side hustle to side hustle. I can empathize with this character on that level. Case sounds like a young individual who’s had bad luck but is still trying to make ends meet. He doesn’t ask for pity or sympathy from anyone. Instead, he goes about things his own way and does things how he sees fit all while struggling with his vices such as drugs and theft.
My opinion: The main protagonist, Henry Case struggles with addictions that are stronger than his morals.
The main character’s biggest problem is his addiction. In filling his addiction, he completes side hustles which eventually lead him to a character named Armitage who offers to fix his broken-down body in exchange for helping him with a job. Case agrees which leads him down a rabbit hole for future extortion. His biggest challenge goes from his addiction to escaping the rabbit hole, and the entities who are trying to blackmail him and keep him working for their group. His objectives change throughout the novel from side hustles to the mission with Armitage, to figuring out how to stop and free himself from the grips of an A.I. program named Wintermute.
Gibson gives a plethora of descriptions as he sets up a new cyberpunk genre and world for the reader that hadn’t previously existed before his book. His colorful descriptions of the characters are vivid thanks to his use of craft elements such as character description, conflict, dialect, dialogue, motivation, style, theme, and world building. Gibson sets up a conflict and motivation that are both primal for Case: an addiction and a need to feed that addiction which gets him into trouble. Gibson writes various types of dialects through dialogue that show how each character is different and comes from different backgrounds such as the Atlantic suburbs, the Sprawl or Night City. His style and themes resonate with the future of artificial intelligence and the outcomes of the interweaving of advanced technology and human culture which also feeds into his world building thus creating the new genre of cyberpunk which we know today.
Gibson sets up a conflict and motivation that are both primal for Case: an addiction and a need to feed that addiction which gets him into trouble.
Case’s mindset remains the same. He’s all about what’s in it for him while watching out for his own backside. His outlook remains the same, just getting by day by day with his side hustles to support his addictions. His emotional state slightly varies with each scene. He’s still the same person, but he starts off in a bar with his carefree attitude which turns to paranoia as he feels someone is trying to pull a hit on him which causes him to ask around if anyone knows anything which eventually leads him to a group who offers him a proposition in exchange for a job. This in turn will lead him to fuel his addiction even harder than before since now his body will allow him to take even more drugs thanks to the body enhancements the group has provided him in exchange for conducting the mission they need.
Betrayal, confusion, and enlightenment will be Case’s range of emotional states throughout the novel. Gibson doesn’t write exactly what Case is feeling in any given moment or really dwell deep into what he is thinking. Instead he shows this through Case’s actions and how Case can see the world through other eyes such as Molly’s eyes as he jacks into cyberspace and sees and feels what she sees. He also conveys transitions by the dialogue exchanged between Case and other characters. Lastly, Gibson shows the transitions by vivid detailed descriptions of the world.
“The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.” – Opening line to Neuromancer by William Gibson
Gibson’s famous first line of the story reads, “The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel” (Gibson 3). Gibson also titles Part One of his novel “Chiba City Blues” signifying the place that Case has made his home and how he feels about it as being melancholy and mundane. This contrasts with later locations such as when Case meets Molly and Armitage in which Gibson writes, “After a year of coffins, the room on the twenty-fifth floor of the Chiba Hilton seemed enormous” (Gibson 36).
In a conversation with Armitage, Gibson writes Case as stating, “You got zip to do with me and my kind, buddy. You’re rich enough to hire expensive razorgirls to haul my ass up here, is all. I’m never gonna punch any deck again, not for you or anybody else” (Gibson 38). Case is referring to jacking into the matrix and Armitage’s proposition to fix Case’s worn-down body in exchange for a mission. By fixing Case’s body, Case could essentially take unlimited drugs without restriction. Armitage asks Case about his proposition, to which Gibson writes various responses from Case that go in the order of, “I’d say you were full of shit,” to “Then I’d ask what your terms were,” to “Terms…and now…Right now” (Gibson 39).
Case has the potential to be a character who doesn’t change much and returns to the status quo at the end of the novel. If he’s truly unchangeable in his ways, and a prisoner to his own addictions and his body, unless some major life altering event occurs to him, there will not be much change in his overall character arc. Hardy asks, “How much does the character need to suffer to achieve this change” to which she answers, “But for real change you need real incentives. So if your protagonist is going to evolve in a major way, the events that forced that change are likely to be equally major” (Hardy, “Grow Up Already: Creating Character Arcs”). Gerke writes, “People don’t like to change. It’s so much easier to stay as we are, even if it’s hurting us. In fiction, as in life, people resist change. Right up until the moment when it hurts too much. People dislike change, but they dislike unacceptable pain and consequences even more” (Gerke, “How to Write a Character From Start to Finish”).
Considering all that has transpired so far, Case will most certainly walk away a little smarter than when he started as he soon realizes the consequences of each action he takes, and just how gritty side hustles can be, especially when unknown entities (human and A.I. alike) make promises that are too good to be true. Case is probably going to go through some twists and turns, but it will be the final twist (if there is one) that will ultimately determine how big of a character arc he will have and if he will change for better or worse, or if he will return back to his status quo addictions and lifestyle.
Works Cited
Gerke, Jeff. “How to Write a Character From Start to Finish.” Writer’s Digest, https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/how-to-write-a-character-from-start-to-finish. Accessed 17 Jul. 2023.
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. New York, Penguin Group, 1984.
Hardy, Janice. “Grow Up Already: Creating Character Arcs.” Janice Hardy’s Fiction University, http://blog.janicehardy.com/2011/01/find-your-plot-friday-grow-up-already.html. Accessed 17 Jul. 2023.
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Paul W Romero 