I may owe it a third try as well.
*EDIT:* There's also the CD version somewhere out there. Here's a Reddit post where someone ripped it (but didn't make it available): https://www.reddit.com/r/Neuromancer/comments/1gr7k4n/audiob...
Edit: I read above that these particular MP3s are corrupted, so they have a serious enjoyability issue.
Examples in the following file http://bearcave.com/bookrev/neuromancer/Tape1a.mp3 :
0:40, 1:04, 1:13, 1:21, 2:18 ... I mean.. the files are basically ruined :\
I can uploaded it somewhere if you'd like.
Edit: Here you go: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MvEQd-V3Ma86XMnQYpCa...
Please share this far & wide. I have a busy night ahead of me or I'd take the time to upload it to IA.
I think the mp3 might have to do for now. :) Thanks for sharing.
Normally I wouldn't do this, but there's no way other reasonable way to acquire them now.
For whatever reason, if someone were interested in knowing exactly which bits were on the CDs, my copy wouldn't suffice.
Trust me, I know I wouldn't be able to hear the difference in an ABX test.
Trust me, I know very well that I would not be able to hear the difference in an ABX test, even with incredible equipment.
I uploaded your MP3s to Internet Archive for all to enjoy: https://archive.org/details/william-gibson-neuromancer-abrid...
Can you please edit the metadata to mention that it's from the CD?
Giblophile so encountered this years ago...definitely worth a watch.
This is an abridged version, so maybe it streamlines some aspects of the narrative, so take that into account.
Talk radio is ok, sports radio. I’ve listened to more radio plays with multiple speakers. Those are ok.
But books on tape, nope. Too dangerous for me.
And truth be told, I probably will read it again, although it might not be tomorrow. :-)
There's something magical about a strongly consistent fictional world where all the characters understand the world and what's happening but the reader is baffled. It elevates the experience of visiting a strange new place to a new level of immersion.
It is excellent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89BHnaxULo
I haven't listened to the audio book of Neuromancer but I re-read it a few weeks back. The audio play I still go back to once in a while as well.
Then I read the plot summary on Wikipedia and realized how much I missed or misunderstood.
After that I read the book again and enjoyed it.
I think this book needs at least two passes because there's a lot of in-universe jargon to pick up and for me it really only began to fall into place towards the end half. I also asked ChatGPT to summarise each chapter for me after I'd read it - that really helped me fill in the gaps of what I'd missed or misunderstood. In addition, I had it generate me a spoiler-free glossary of all the main terminology used in the book.
It was an old church, with acoustics that worked pre-electronics. At the start of the talk, Dawkins remarked, something like, being up there, he now understands why some preachers speak the way they do.
The book store would borrow the church as a venue for author talks, and it was only a funny coincidence that Dawkins's book that time was, IIRC, "The God Delusion".
(I'll have to see whether I still have it on an old computer, then contact the hosting venue, to see whether this can be preserved in a respectful way, on archive.org. Or they might already/still have a better recording.)
William Gibson reads Neuromancer, from tape to mp3 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14021369 - April 2017 (3 comments)
Re. the date:
- The original book was published in 1984
- This abridged audio reading seems to have been published in 1994
- This article was published in 2004
[0] https://haujobb.bandcamp.com/track/penetration-fuck-the-floo... at 2m45s
Hopefully they renew it eventually
https://x.com/GreatDismal/status/19401301262028394451. There is a reason 'reader of audiobooks' is a profession - it is stupid difficult. I will never do it again.
2. I loved this tape so much. It does such interesting things with its soundscape (from memory - if it actually is just Gibson reading it, then he must have embedded those memories through the sheer brilliance of his performance.
3. My fiancee is partially-sighted (I see her as an investment that will appreciate as biohacking becomes more and more prevalent) and she reads mostly by audiobook.
It's not really how I prefer to read - I get distracted too easily - but I've been appalled at the production quality of what I've overheard. While Gibson's work is a special case, an audiobook is only one dimension away from a film adaptation.
4. Literally all my millennial-Gen-Z-cusp friends who are non-readers opted for the audiobook of my book, not the book-book. Anecdata, but interesting. They would just switch Rogan or whatever out during their commute until they felt they'd listened to (what I assume as) enough of it to be socially acceptable.
5. I have no market knowledge other than that I signed my audiobook rights away to my publishers in the industry-standard way.
6. I'm sure it'd be very easy to procure data that made a case for audio fiction that was well-produced and incorporated soundscape-like elements, being incredibly commercially successful. It strikes me as a form that is ripe for innovation. And everyone loves books on tape.
7. There has been so much really interesting innovation in 'aural mood amendment' over the last decade or two. Some of it seems like pseudoscience, some of it seems legit - I wish I had sources to share. Apologies that I don't.
8. I assume someone has already built this concept - well-produced, soundscape-driven longform audio fiction - I'm not a consumer of that market well enough to know it. It'd be a really, really fun project. I'm sure it'd be very tough to get profitable, but it's almost too fun to care. This could be another reason it doesn't exist.
9. Gibson's 2003(?) novel Pattern Recognition is insanely underrated - probably not by people here - but I think the prose is better, and in a decade or two it will feel just as (if not more) prescient. It's a really, really good example of a literary classic that didn't get attention from book dweebs because it's from a 'genre' guy. If you like Neuromancer, and want to think about the next couple of decades in a similar way, you will really love it. I always thought it'd make a great double-bill with the movie Children of Men .
The best author narrated books, by far, are narrated by Douglas Adams. He's recorded all his books, and they're all great. There's something special hearing the words coming straight from the genius himself.
Hearing it from start to finish, all in one go was very emmersive. I just needed a little bit of nicotine gum to stay awake through Gibson's drawling voice and U2's dub accompaniment.
The return trip was Einstein's Dreams on cassette read by Michael York. That voice is a treat.for the ears.
Soundbooth Theater does exactly that with music and sound effects
I stopped somewhere half way. Someone spoiled the plot so I know it should get epic at some point but I just can't get there. Am I the only one?
It's tempting to write off Case's behavior as just a realistic portrayal of a washed up addict, but thematically there's a strong and likely intentional parallel between the way he's coming apart and the way one of the main AIs in the story is coming apart. If you add in Linda Lee and the other AI, what Gibson was trying to do becomes a lot clearer. I'm intentionally being vague to avoid spoilers.
Was that read by Gibson himself?
JK I found it -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIDVvhy9Z0I
https://bafybeifvyimyhbmn4ml3ewleepiaahaultucbs6nnzu6qwswld6...
babblingfish•4mo ago
stevenwoo•4mo ago
hamonrye34•4mo ago
Ayn Rand Institute will shelf Atlas en-mass to public libaries.