I have read “Neuromancer” and “Count Zero” and I consider myself a fan of William Gibson’s. I decided it was time to dig into the third and final book of his cyberpunk “Sprawl trilogy”.SUMMARYLike the previous two books, a number of separate stories, each with their own viewpoint character, converge over the course of the novel.Kumiko is the teenage daughter of a Yakuza crime boss in Japan. She is sent away to London during a gang war, where she meets (and is protected by a woman named Sally Shears. This is actually Molly Millions from the first book.Slick Henry is an ex-con who lives an isolated lifestyle working on his hobby; remote-controlled robots. An underworld contact (who he owes a favor to) arrives one day and asks him to keep and protect a man who is unconscious on a portable hospital bed. This man (Bobby Newmark from the second novel) is plugged into a bizarre piece of cyberspace hardware, and has paid money to ensure he is not bothered (woken up) while working.Angie Mitchell (also from the second book) is now a media star, but is recovering from drug addiction. The implants that her father put in her brain allow her to interface cyberspace without any computer equipment, and she is again in contact with mysterious entities while someone is plotting to murder or abduct her.Finally, Mona is a prostitute addicted to drugs who looks somewhat like media star Angie. She and her boyfriend are hired for a special job. Mona realizes that she is being groomed to look like Angie, and assumes it is part of a snuff film that her boyfriend/pimp either doesn’t know about or isn’t telling her.OVERALL: 3.4 out of 5I liked this book a lot, but my rating system of the past demonstrates that I either have a bad memory or it needs to be reworked; I think “Count Zero” was better than this book, but it’s rated lower.There is no question as to why this book helped define the modern conception of “cyberpunk”, and there’s a lot here to enjoy. There’s also a lot of material that doesn’t feel very pertinent, and the character of Kumiko seems to exist only so that she can observe and report (although she does take proactive steps on a few things, they don’t seem to make any difference).This book is more character heavy than the first two, but there is less action. There is mystery, but I didn’t care about it as much; there aren’t enough strong, central threads to really carry the story to proper climax. I still don’t completely understand the ending (particularly the whole point of what happens to Bobby Newmark and Angie Mitchell), but I think the author wanted to end things with a few questions, rather than explain everything.Ultimately, after a long chase and twisting, individual storylines, I don’t feel like this book offered up anything new at the ending. In fact, it felt like “Neuromancer Ending Redux”. In the fifteen years between books, nothing seemed to change.RATINGS BY CATEGORYCHARACTERS: 4 out of 5I liked all the characters, though I particularly liked the character of Slick Henry. An ex-con who suffers memory loss whenever something happens related to his criminal past, he is a pragmatist in an insane world.Mona is also a good character. She is uneducated, illiterate, and her limited life experiences are evident in how she thinks... but I had sympathy for the character and enjoyed her observations on events happening around her.Molly is the star of the trilogy though. She is fifteen years older since the first book, and as deadly as ever. She is a take-charge person who seems to always know what to do, but her human side is on display in this book as well. She makes inquiries about Case (her lover in the first book), and has compassion for certain characters despite her hard, razor-sharp edge.PACE: 3 out of 5There are fast and slow parts of this story. Many of the sections where Kumiko is the viewpoint character dragged for me, and there are other parts that were blazing fast. The author’s writing style, in which things aren’t always adequately described, both helps and hurts the pacing in different places.STORY: 3 out of 5I am not sure what the central idea of this book is. It’s a more human story than the others, lacking the revolutionary feel of “Neuromancer” and the stronger action scenes of “Count Zero”. This is a story filled with mysteries and plots, though it’s not easy to understand who is motivated to do what, even after I finished it.The atmosphere is still perfect. I particularly liked the parts with Slick Henry and his home (a deserted place called “Dog Solitude”). Mona’s segments also present a living, interesting world that I wanted to get lost in.I am dissatisfied because the ending doesn’t tread any new ground. I am not sure what I was expecting, but the “payoff” is nothing new. In fact, it’s nearly identical to the closing parts of the first book, with an identical “revelation”. The exact role that Angie Mitchell and Bobby Newmark played is a mystery to me. The author may have meant it that way, but it was unfulfilling.DIALOGUE: 4 out of 5I love the dialogue in this book. Many of the characters speak in short, clipped sentences that obviously rely a lot on context, body language, and shared prior knowledge that the reader may or may not be privy to (or must simply catch onto through their own deductions), but it still works.STYLE/TECHNICAL: 3 out of 5I think Gibson is genius in his way, and most of the book is clearer than his other cyberpunk works, but the ending starts moving too fast. Important bits of exposition are left out (with the understanding that the reader should be able to piece things together), some actions are only hinted at (though they’re quite clear to the characters who witness them), and I don’t think I understand the ending. This is both a story element, but also one of technical execution.
Curious name - 'Mona Lisa Overdrive'. The name has nothing to do with the painting, but it's a nice name. Catchy. The kind of name that makes you think - "What kind of a name is that? I have to read this!" So I guess that's a win for the marketing sector. Mona Lisa Overdrive is the sequel to both Neuromancer and Count Zero. Concepts introduced and threads left dangling from both books are dealt in this one, favourite characters make an appearance, and the story is so much better than Count Zero. While it lacks the number of action-packed and thrilling scenes of Neuromancer (or confusing prose of Count Zero), it’s certainly a very enjoyable book. Like its predecessor, there are different threads of stories which are closely tied to one another, and takes place seven years after its predecessor. The first follows Kumiko Yanaka, daughter of a Yakuza boss, who was sent away to London for safekeeping, because the Yakuza in Japan is facing a civil war of sorts. Her father, knowing that he could not keep her completely safe, sends her to a member of the London mob who owes him a debt. Kumiko’s mother was a crazy delusional woman who suicided, and that has left her scarred inside. She makes acquaintance with Sally Shears – who happens to be Molly from Neuromancer, operating under the pseudonym. And though she finds that Sally-Molly has an aura that would make people run – and those bug-eyed insets don’t help at all – she is better company than the others available.She is not completely alone though. Her father left her with a little ghost for a companion – a mini-AI of sorts who calls himself (itself?) Colin. Colin is stored in a miniature unit (small enough to hold in her fist) and only she can see and hear him, as long as she is in physical with the unit. While initially annoyed by Colin, and doubtful of him, she finds that the unit is pretty knowledgeable when needed, can function as a personal guide, and Kumiko realises how useful and resourceful Colin is.Angela Mitchell, thankfully enough, is not so annoying and useless and redundant as she has been in Count Zero. She had risen in the ladders of life and is now a star of Sense/Net - a celebrity who everyone wants to be or be with. As a child, her father had implanted something in her head that allows her to access the cyberspace without a deck. It also allows the AI-gods to take direct control of her body. In the seven years that have passed, she has gained a greater understanding with these so-called gods.The AI-gods had helped her become the celebrity she is, but soon after she became a victim to a designer drug. As it is explained, there is no sense of being ‘high’ caused by this drug; rather, it impaired her ability to access the cyberspace directly (and reduced the AI-gods’ control over her, and lessened the voices she heard.) An attempt to feel normal. Now, she has returned from rehab – cured and recovered – and is ready to take on the world again. But of course, not everything is write. Bobby (the Count Zero, and her boyfriend) has left, and she has no idea why. While the rest of the world saw only Angie the star, Bobby had been the only person who had known who she had been. Henry Slick lives in a wasteland of a place called Dog Solitude. He was a convicted car thief. As punishment, he was repetitively brainwashed. Because of this, he experiences time losses, from time to time, and returns to consciousness to find that he had constructed a large robotic sculpture. One day, a certain Kid Afrika comes calling. Years ago, he had been rescued by Afrika and it was time to pay back his debt. The terms are rather simple – he has to give shelter to a certain Count Zero. But Bobby Newmark looks nothing like a count, lying on a stretcher with tubes attached here and there, and jacked into a strange object with electrodes – looking to be barely alive. If Kid Afrika could be believed, then the Count was paying to be kept in this condition, whatever his reasons were. Suffice to say, it's not a pretty sight, but a debt must be paid. The only problem is, the owner of Dog Solitude - Gentry, his name is - does not like strangers, and Slick is pretty sure that he will not agree.And then there’s Mona Lisa, a sixteen year old prostitute. She’s one of those born without a Single Identification Number (and is sometimes called SINless Mona.) People have always told her that she had an uncanny similarity to Angie (no, this is not one of those lost-sister-stories.) One day, her pimp/boyfriend drags her into an odd job, one that promises a grand pay and has to do something with Mona’s appearance. (view spoiler)[ Before she even gets to have a say, she finds herself tangled in a job to kidnap Angie Mitchell. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Mona Lisa Overdrive (1989)?
It’s common to accuse a writer of writing the same thing over again. In many cases this merely means the writer sticks to variations on a theme. Sometimes, though, it feels like each novel is another installment in an iterative process designed to get at a central idea. As I continue to read William Gibson’s novels, I continue to get a better idea of the novel he is trying to write. Mona Lisa Overdrive mixes the legacy of the previous two Sprawl books with a corporate espionage–fuelled plot worthy of Spook Country. The result is a novel that bridges these two aspects of Gibson’s writing, providing a pivot around which his work revolves.Neuromancer was fundamentally a caper. Fondly remembered now for introducing cyberspace and cyberpunk, it’s an adventure across the world and into low-Earth orbit at the beck and call of an AI seeking to escape from itself. In contrast, Count Zero is almost more grounded in the petty machinations of we lowly humans. Mona Lisa Overdrive reconciles these two universes: in the years since the events of Neuromancer, something strange has been happening in the matrix. People have noticed, and they are trying to find out. But Angie Mitchell—daughter of the late Christopher Mitchell from the previous book—has risen to no small fame of her own, and her interesting abilities with the Sense/Net have made her a target. Mona is likewise a target—because she looks like Angie. Kumiko? Doesn’t look like Angie, but as the daughter of a powerful Japanese businessman, she is a target all the same.I love how Gibson writes excellent women characters. I mentioned this a little in my review of Pattern Recognition. Can we take a moment to stop and reflect on the fact that Gibson features great women in all of his novels? Molly/Sally, Chevette, Marly, Chia, Hollis, and Cayce (my fav). It’s not a fluke. Gibson is proof that a white man can not only write women like they are people (because they are), but he can do it over, and over, and still write good books. And he’s been doing it since the 1980s.This is relevant to Mona Lisa Overdrive in particular because of how three main characters are targets, as I explained above. Angie and Mona are being constantly manipulated, one by her corporation and the other by the people plotting to kidnap her. Kumiko (who is 12) has been shipped off to London—literally halfway around the world—because it should be safer for her, yet she gets embroiled in the power plays there and finds herself on the streets with a semi-sentient biochip personality guiding her. (I don’t think it’s an accident that the youngest of these three women also fares the best and, in the end, exhibits the most independence and resilience.)Gibson once again shows his ability to quickly establish a character with some broad but careful strokes. Mona in particular spends time ruminating on her days in Cleveland, and we quickly get a sense of the experiences that have shaped her as a person. I wish we had more time to spend with her; of all the characters in the book, hers feels like it had the least time to develop. Kumiko learns a great deal in London; Angie is gradually coming out of her shell; Slick is shocked, I would say, out of the torpor he has fallen into in Dog Solitude. Mona, arguably eponymous, is afforded only the briefest of opportunities to shine.The ending is both open-ended and curious. I’m fascinated by the dual culmination: Mona becoming Angie, Angie joining Colin and the Finn and Bobby, echoes and whispers again of that Centauri intelligence first hinted at in Neuromancer. Gibson frustratingly refuses the play the game: there’s so much more story he could tell, but he leaves off—that’s not the story he’s telling here. This is not a book about AI evolution or posthumanism so much as it is a book about the way that people’s lives can be influenced by the most esoteric and indirect events. There are times when Gibson’s characters, though always with agency, seem to lack much power. Even Sally—aka the venerable Molly Millions—is manipulated, by someone else who is himself manipulated by a higher power. Where does it stop? It probably doesn’t, is the implication. And so even as our technologies advance and we hurtle forward towards our bright and grimy future, we continue manipulating each other at the same fundamental levels we have for thousands of years.I enjoyed Mona Lisa Overdrive as an adventure. It’s fast-paced, a little emotional and brutal, and very engaging. It’s not as adept as some of Gibson’s other novels at portraying the strange, usually unanticipated consequences of our exploration of digital technology and cyberspace. That’s OK, though. I don’t mean to discount this novel for that, only underline that within the margins of tolerance that define a “Gibson” novel, this one adheres to some parameters more than others.My reviews of the Sprawl trilogy:← Count Zero
—Ben Babcock
"Continuity stava scrivendo un libro. Robin Lanier gliene aveva parlato, e lei aveva chiesto di che argomento trattasse. Lui le aveva risposto che non trattava proprio di un argomento particolare. Il libro si avvolgeva su se stesso e cambiava in continuazione: Continuity lo scriveva perennemente. Lei gli chiese il perché, ma Robin aveva già perso ogni interesse: perché Continuity era un'IA, e si sa che le IA fanno cose strane."Il migliore della Trilogia dello Sprawl, e sorprendentemente (e forse proprio per questo il migliore), il più lucido e comprensibile, nonostante la grane portata delle sue visioni più fantasmagoriche.Allontanandosi dalle atmosfere noir, sci-fi hard e thriller di Neuromante, dall'intreccio complesso e dal linguaggio criptico, in Monna Lisa Cyberpunk Gibson si fa più luminoso, più chiaro; forse perché ha ammorbidito il suo stile, forse perché il lettore ormai ci ha fatto l'abitudine, o forse perché, essendo l'episodio conclusivo della trilogia, tutti i nodi vengon al pettine e al lettore si manifesta finalmente un disegno trasparente e ampio. Nel gran calderone narrativo di questo romanzo Gibson dà il meglio di sé, mettendovi dentro il meglio di sé, ripesca personaggi dalla sua opera prima (la raccolta di racconti La notte che bruciammo Chrome), svela i fili invisibili tracciati nei precedenti libri della trilogia, e letteralmente riempie il suo vasto ciberspazio di nuove e misteriose entità: tra loa virtuali, autocoscienza della matrice, biochip capaci di racchiudere una realtà intera, e ancora fantasmi che continuano a vivere nel virtuale e, chissà, persino entità aliene, la sua fantasia è senza limiti.Il finale è davvero sorprendente, uno strappo che squarcia i confini del cyberpunk e tende il braccio ai generi più classici della fantascienza: e che sia maledetto, perché che finisce sul più bello!
—T4ncr3d1
A much more accessible version of Gibson's cyberpunk stylings, Mona Lisa Overdrive is a pretty straight forward espionage thriller in comparison to what came before, and as such I found it that much more enjoyable.Instead of technical information and a sentient AI point of view or endless discussions about what makes us human, the effects of technology on society and freewill we're treated to the lives of four characters in sequential chapters whose lives are on a fateful collision course plotted by unseen powers in a typical example of a cyberpunk future - chrome, imaginative technological advances, massive dichotomy between the rich and the poor, crazy new synthetic drugs, mirrorshades, a truly global society.It's seedy and complex and Gibson writes compelling intrigue; dropping you in to the middle of these characters lives and never explaining what's going on or how the world came to be the way it is. You're led to understand what a specific piece of technology is as it's used, not explicitly just inferred, the same can be said about relationships between characters and even the way MLO ties in to the previous books in the sequence. It's impressively done and a solidly entertaining read. I always note this with Gibson and yet I continue to be surprised that it is the case.
—Tfitoby
