Name: Mona Lisa overdrive
Rating: 3.647727272727273 (44 reviews)
ISBN: 9788789974415

William Gibson

Arne Herløv Petersen

cyberpunk-roman

Mona Lisa overdrive

里森

The ghost was her father's parting gift, presented by a black-clad secretary in a departure lounge at Narita.. Mona is a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future whose life is turned upside down when her pimp sells her to a plastic surgeon in New York and overnight she's turned into someone else. Angie Mitchell is a famous Hollywood Sense/Net star with a special talent. And despite the efforts of studio bosses to keep her in ignorance, Angie's started remembering things. Soon she'll discover who she really is . . . and why she doesn't need a deck in order to enter cyberspace. From inside the matrix, plots are set in motion and human beings are being played like pieces on a board. And behind the intrigue lurks the shadowy Yazuka, the powerful Japanese underworld, whose leaders ruthlessly manipulate people and events to suit their own purposes. Or so they think . . .

Mona Lisa Overdrive

ikkychan

The idea of death and humanity's feeble attempt to escape it are fascinating concepts to me, simply because I can't completely relate to them. I have long accepted the fact that death is a part of life itself, though I do understand that the fear of pain and the unknown in the afterlife might play a huge part in the whole ordeal. However, I can't help but think that, for some, this so-called trepidation might be akin to a form of fascination—a call to unravel the mysteries of existence itself. If you consider it, the journey from a single-cell microorganism in the vast sea of primordial soup to becoming bipedal beings with enough intelligence to communicate and procreate apparently isn't enough for us. In a span of thousands of years, we've created entirely different civilizations, constantly seeking to recreate and reinvent our actualization as humankind. It's not uncommon that the desire to escape our mortal bodies and transcend into a higher being is manifested in various ways, as we continually explore new paths and routes to reinvent and rediscover new ways of life, simply to prolong our existence and escape death. From the tall tales of the philosopher's stone, elixir of life, or fountain of youth from days of yore, to recent cryonics and telomere research, we see a continuous trend of seeking immortality through technological advancement. We have undoubtedly come a long way, but to what end? Perhaps William Gibson’s ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’ could draw some speculation for you. The story continues from where it left off in Count Zero, approximately 7 years after the deaths of Joseph Virek and Christopher Mitchell. Angela 'Angie' Mitchell, Christopher’s daughter, lives with Bobby Newmark for a while before she becomes a Simstar, a kind of internet celebrity who allows people to live vicariously through her jet-set life in simstim. As her lifestyle diverges further and further from what they had before, she and Bobby part ways, with him reviving an old pursuit as a console cowboy. Realizing that there is a palpable change in the landscape of cyberspace, Bobby is determined to find out what really happened. Kumiko Yanaka finds herself seated alone in the first-class cabin of an airplane bound for London. Her father, one of the most notorious yakuza, has sent her to his underling, Swaine, for safekeeping amid the civil war in Tokyo. Alone and wary, she encounters a tough woman named Sally Shears and is unconsciously drawn to her. Little does she know, Sally Shears plays a significant role in shaping the history of the matrix, and Kumiko will further descend down the rabbit hole by becoming entangled with her. Deep in the vast, barren plain in the rustbelt of the USA called Dog Solitude, Slick Henry is weighing the cost of refusing to pay the debt to an old benefactor or taking care of an unknown, unconscious man that seems close to death any day now. He has a hard time discerning the fact that the latter outweighs the former. This is not only because this whole ordeal reeks of illegal conduct, acknowledging the fact that Kid Africa, his old benefactor who extended a helping hand to him in the past, is not exactly a law-abiding citizen, but also because Gentry, his landlord, is not going to welcome a stranger amicably to his house, Factory. With his back against the wall, he has no option but to accept the man on the stretcher Kid calls ‘Count’ and his med-tech nurse, Cherry. Life has not been so great lately for Mona Lisa, a 16-year-old prostitute from Cleveland. Abused and mistreated by her boyfriend/pimp Eddy, she dreams of escaping, going out of the door and never looking back. Though she has prepared a go-bag, a suitcase hidden in her wardrobe, there hasn’t been a day where she mustered enough courage to do so. She tenderly resign to her fate and prepares to be stuck in this rut for a long time before life decides to throw her a giant curveball, when she was recruited by Prior and Geralt, a cosmetic surgeon, who saw her likeness with the giant simstar Angie and thinking of huge profit they can procure using that. One of the most memorable scene — and the most hilarious — is when Mona, who is extremely overwhelmed by Lady 3Jane’s underlings’ constant bombardment around the Factory, decided to crush some tablets and snort them right there and then, not forgetting to ask for understanding first to her fellow passengers, who witness her whole action with wide eyes but fully comprehend where she is coming from. Not to mention that she, being a casual civilian, has to suddenly undergo a high-risk tactical deployment to an unknown location with wholly questionable individuals, resulting in her feeling completely out of her depth and failing to comprehend every single word that the people around her utter. I will never not laugh at her obvious confusions and think that the ‘marriage’ that Angie talks about in her trance with Grande Brigitte is something to do with Robin Lanier, Angie’s love interest in her simstim videos. It never fails to crack me up. What I value most in Gibson's books is simply his prowess in writing, and he undoubtedly possesses remarkable ability in that regard. He has both a strong vision, a theme that he consistently carries on, and a voice—a way with language that allows him to adeptly wield words and phrases to craft entire cultures of the said vision. His characters come across as authentic, each possessing compelling and diverse voices, be it Cash, Molly/Sally, Bobby, or even a minor figure like the Finn, Lucas or even Maelcum. Gibson establishes a common vocabulary and dialect, but the inflection and idiom always remain unique to each character. As a whole, his one-of-a-kind talent allows him to shape novels that evoke miniature universes of the distant future, giving us glimpses of the most avant-garde technological advancements and their societal impact. One of the impacts portrayed in his stories is technological transcendence through digital consciousness, where the narratives explore the idea of uploading human consciousness into digital or virtual environments. This would theoretically allow individuals to exist beyond the limitations of the human body, potentially achieving a form of digital immortality. This concept is depicted by characters such as Joseph Virek, Bobby Newmark, and Lady 3Jane. Virek, growing tired of the shackles of his mortal flesh and the boredom of reality, desires to alter his being into that of an A.I. in Cyberspace. Bobby, aiming to uncover the truth behind the onset of When It Changed, purposefully steals the aleph, the soul-catcher, from Lady 3Jane, in order to reveal the secret of changing one's soul for a construct. Simultaneously, Lady 3Jane's motivation is partly driven by her desire to continue the legacy of her mother, Marie France Tessier, whose vision gave birth to Wintermute and Neuromancer. Although these three characters initially have very different underlying reasons behind their actions, their fates become intertwined in the mutual quest to transcend the limitations of mortality. Fascinatingly, their unwavering pursuit reflects a deep-seated human curiosity about life, consciousness, and the vast universe. In ancient times, there was a belief that uncovering the secret to eternal life not only promised personal immortality but also the revelation of profound insights into existence itself. Fast forward to the modern era, Gibson reflects this age-old quest with his books, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence and digital consciousness. The desire to upload human consciousness into digital realms can be seen as a fresh take on the ancient aspiration to unravel life's mysteries and achieve a form of transcendence. Ultimately, the pursuit of immortality is not just about evading death but also about a deeper, innate desire to comprehend the profound questions that surround our existence. At the same time, though the book undoubtedly talks about complex ideas, Gibson has never used didactic tone to convey it nor has he presented it in such a heavy-handed way. Instead, his narrative unfolds with a subtlety that allows readers to engage with the complexities organically, encouraging them to draw their own conclusions and interpretations from the intricate layers he weaves into the storyline. While ‘Mona Lisa Overdrive’ might not be my favorite of his, I will not deny the fact that this is one of the best conclusions of a sci-fi trilogy, and I can’t wait to read more of his books.

William Gibson (unspecified)

Frederik De Bosschere

Even though the whole Sprawl-trilogy oozes cool like a polygon Lambo, it is by no means a breeze to read. By book three, it seems Gibson is aware of this, as he lets one of his characters note: "[...] once Gentry got going, he used words and constructions that Slick had trouble understanding, [...] the trick was in pulling some kind of meaning out of the overall flow." The self-awareness also reflects in a later quote: "The world hadn't ever had so many moving parts or so few labels." That said, and despite Gibson introducing different narratives in Count Zero and Mona Lisa Ovredrive (which is a good thing), the cyberpunk extravaganza does get easier to follow in these later books, as the author skillfully weaves the strands together, culminating in a nice apotheosis for the series.

Barry Hess

I did a terrible job reading Count Zero. This time I slowed way down and enjoyed myself. Took a while, but at least I understood more than 1/4 of the book. :)

Martin McCallion

See my blog post: https://devilgate.org/blog/2021/11/12/mona-lisa-overdrive-by-william-gibson-books-2021-22/

Stephan Happe

Mike Engel

Lee Herman

Nigel Legg

Dennis Bor

Patrik Järnefelt

Sherry

John Manoogian III

Pierre

Vanda

Coleman McCormick

Chris Wilcox

Sang Park

Yuvraj Jha

Daniel Lauzon

Garrett Jansen

Patrick Hof

Gibson revisits the Cyberpunk future he created in his Necromancer and Count Space, a future of world-dominating, multi-national corporations, the vast computer-generated world of cyberspace, and high-tech outlaws using both to their advantage.

Asmaa Mohurji

Milan Aleksić

J. Nystad

Mona Lisa overdrive cyberpunk-roman

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