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* FakeMemories
to:
-->He bought two packs of Yeheyuans with a Mitsubishi Bank chip that gave his name as Charles Derek May. It beat Truman Starr, the best he'd been able to do for a passport.
*FakeMemoriesFakeMemories: "Armitage" is basically made of these.
*
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* GunStripping: Molly habitually takes apart her fletcher and reassembles it, showing her familiarity with the weapon.
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* GunStripping: Molly habitually takes apart her fletcher and reassembles it, showing her familiarity with the weapon. Often she does it without even looking at it.
-->“You cut my thumb, mon, wi’ secon’ one,” Maelcum said.
-->“Coriolis force,” the ninja said, bowing again. “Most difficult, slow-moving projectile in rotational gravity. It was not intended.”
-->“Coriolis force,” the ninja said, bowing again. “Most difficult, slow-moving projectile in rotational gravity. It was not intended.”
** Which was exaclty Wintermute's plan - it used detailed psychological profiles to select agents that would have personal motives for doing what it wanted them too.
-->“Hey, that's fine by the Finn, Moll. You're only paying by the second.”
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* LeftFieldDescription: The opening sentence, quoted at the top of the page.
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* LeftFieldDescription: The opening sentence, quoted at the top of the page. A staple of Gibson's writing style.
-->In Chiba, he'd watched his New Yen vanish in a two-month round of examinations and consultations. The men in the black clinics, his last hope, had admired the expertise with which he'd been maimed, and then slowly shaken their heads.
-->“Sure, mon,” he said, wiping oil from the black barrel with a red cloth, the black poly wrapping bunched around the pistolgrip in his other hand, “I an’ I th’ Rastafarian navy, believe it.”
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* UsedFuture
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* UsedFutureUsedFuture: A signature aspect of the Cyperpunk genre.
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* YouKilledMyFather: 3Jane to Molly.
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* YouKilledMyFather: 3Jane to Molly.Molly, though she doesn't seem very upset about it.
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* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Graphic violence is sparse in the novel, but it is present. Most notable is when [[spoiler: Wintermute murders the Turing police officers with a gardening robot and a microlight]], which causes Case to puke everywhere.
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** PlayedWith in that the Flatline is basically a Chinese Room - he's actually not sentient at all, he just acts like he is. Information goes in, information comes out. Because he is dead and "alive" at the same time, the Flatline wants to be deleted. [[spoiler: He strikes up a deal with Wintermute that he will be deleted at the end of his/its scheme.]]
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** He is also referring to the fact that Molly is augmented, which of course pisses her off more.
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** During the raid on Sense/Net, Molly apparently removes the eyes of one of the guards that attacks her.
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* YourMindMakesItReal: Flatlining, or being killed by ice (Intrusion Countermeausures Electronics) software while connected to cyberspace, is a very real danger for hackers. The Dixie Flatline, Case's mentor, is famous for being one of the few to survive it.
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* YourMindMakesItReal: Flatlining, or being killed by ice (Intrusion Countermeausures Countermeasures Electronics) software while connected to cyberspace, is a very real danger for hackers. The Dixie Flatline, Case's mentor, is famous for being one of the few to survive it.
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* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns have pink hair.
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* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns have has pink hair.
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::[[FridgeLogic It makes sense]] that as a ROM construct, Dixie can't really learn or create. In fact, his predictability is why Neuromancer tries to take out Case first.
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::[[FridgeLogic It makes sense]] that as a ROM construct, Dixie can't really learn or create.create (it's shown earlier that his memory wipes back to its default state when he's turned off and back on). In fact, his predictability is why Neuromancer tries to take out Case first.
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* CreativeSterility: Discussed by Case and the Dixie Flatline ROM:
-->"Motive," the construct said. "Real motive problem, with an AI. Not human, see?"
-->"Well yeah, obviously."
-->"Nope. I mean it's not human. And you can't get a handle on it. Me, I'm not human either, but I ''respond'' like one, see?"
-->"Wait a sec," Case said. "Are you sentient, or not?"
-->"Well, it ''feels'' like I am, kid, but I'm really just a bunch of ROM. It's one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess...." The ugly laughter sensation rattled down Case's spine. "But I ain't likely to write you no poem, if you follow me. Your AI, it just might. But it ain't no way ''human''."
::[[FridgeLogic It makes sense]] that as a ROM construct, Dixie can't really learn or create. In fact, his predictability is why Neuromancer tries to take out Case first.
-->"Motive," the construct said. "Real motive problem, with an AI. Not human, see?"
-->"Well yeah, obviously."
-->"Nope. I mean it's not human. And you can't get a handle on it. Me, I'm not human either, but I ''respond'' like one, see?"
-->"Wait a sec," Case said. "Are you sentient, or not?"
-->"Well, it ''feels'' like I am, kid, but I'm really just a bunch of ROM. It's one of them, ah, philosophical questions, I guess...." The ugly laughter sensation rattled down Case's spine. "But I ain't likely to write you no poem, if you follow me. Your AI, it just might. But it ain't no way ''human''."
::[[FridgeLogic It makes sense]] that as a ROM construct, Dixie can't really learn or create. In fact, his predictability is why Neuromancer tries to take out Case first.
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* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they were tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, knowing the likely outcome of working with him, plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.]]
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* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they were tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, [[GenreSavvy knowing the likely outcome of working with him, him]], plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.supply]].]]
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* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they are tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, knowing the likely outcome of working with him, plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.]]
to:
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they are were tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, knowing the likely outcome of working with him, plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.]]
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How is the -eastern- seaboard of the US connected to -Japan-?
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard, connected to Japan.
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard, connected to Japan.seaboard.
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* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: Though the timeline is never explicitly stated in the novel itself, Gibson [[WordOfGod revealed]] in an article years later that it takes place, "sometime in the 2030s."
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* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: C
** ase agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
** ase agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
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* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: C
** aseCase agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
** ase
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard.
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* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard.seaboard, connected to Japan.
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Deleted line(s) 158,162 (click to see context) :
* ScienceMarchesOn: Gibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where {{Brain Computer Interface}}s are commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with 64 ''kilobytes'' of RAM. It is possible that it was the ''contents'' of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones, nor home video game consoles, nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
** Case does get a mobile phone from a vending machine.
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where {{Brain Computer Interface}}s are commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with 64 ''kilobytes'' of RAM. It is possible that it was the ''contents'' of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones, nor home video game consoles, nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
** Case does get a mobile phone from a vending machine.
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* TechnologyMarchesOn: Why is Case so desperate to find a modem? Heck, what's a modem?
** It also kinda makes a mockery of the payphone scene, which is genuinely creepy...but leaves younger readers wondering what a payphone is.
** Not to mention the opening chase scene in the video arcade. This takes place in a world where computers are advanced enough to interface with a user's brain, but home video game consoles apparently never took off enough to make video arcades obsolete.
** It also kinda makes a mockery of the payphone scene, which is genuinely creepy...but leaves younger readers wondering what a payphone is.
** Not to mention the opening chase scene in the video arcade. This takes place in a world where computers are advanced enough to interface with a user's brain, but home video game consoles apparently never took off enough to make video arcades obsolete.
to:
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Why is Case so desperate to find a modem? Heck, what's a modem?
** It also kinda makes a mockeryGibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of ''Neuromancer'' printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the payphone scene, which author on that subject. Included in the afterword is genuinely creepy...but leaves younger a reminder to his modern readers wondering what a payphone is.
** Not to mentionthat the opening chase scene in typewriter was the video arcade. This takes place high-tech whizbang of the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world wherecomputers {{Brain Computer Interface}}s are advanced enough to interface commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with a user's brain, 64 ''kilobytes'' of RAM. It is possible that it was the ''contents'' of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** One scene takes place in an arcade, which have gone the way of the dodo with the rise of home video gameconsoles consoles.
** [=VoIP=] apparentlynever took off enough doesn't exist, and the only way to make video arcades obsolete.call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
** It also kinda makes a mockery
** Not to mention
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** One scene takes place in an arcade, which have gone the way of the dodo with the rise of home video game
** [=VoIP=] apparently
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** [[spoiler: What eyes? Her implants are mentioned to be over her eye sockets... [[BodyHorror no eyeballs or present irises are actually mentioned.]] ]]
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* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: Case agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
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* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: Case C
** ase agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
** ase agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
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* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Pink Hair]]: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns.
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* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Pink Hair]]: YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns.Moderns have pink hair.
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* {{Zeerust}}: See ScienceMarchesOn, TechMarchesOn.
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* {{Zeerust}}: See ScienceMarchesOn, TechMarchesOn.Because TechnologyMarchesOn.
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** Averted with the shuriken Molly gives Case. Symbolic, but not plotworthy. Played straight with Riviera's holoprojector implant. When explained to the gang, the Finn notes immediately how easy it would also be to burn somebody's eyes out with a concentrated laser pulse from the projector. [[spoiler:Riviera does it to the ninja assassin Hideo. He is quite proud of himself for firing his Chekhov's Gun, until Hideo finds and picks up his bow and arrow like nothing happened. 3Jane explains that as a genengineered super-ninja, Hideo is quite good at dealing with pain and hunting in the dark. Exit Riviera, pursued by an [[EyelessFace eyeless]] ninja.]]
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** Averted with the shuriken Molly gives Case. Symbolic, but not plotworthy. Played straight with
** Riviera's holoprojector implant. When explained to the gang, the Finn notes immediately how easy it would also be to burn somebody's eyes out with a concentrated laser pulse from the projector. [[spoiler:Rivieradoes it to the ninja assassin Hideo. He is quite proud of himself for firing his Chekhov's Gun, until uses exactly this function on Hideo finds and picks up his bow and arrow like nothing happened. 3Jane explains at the end, only to discover that as a genengineered super-ninja, Hideo is quite good adept at dealing with pain and hunting in the dark. Exit Riviera, pursued dark.]]
** Subverted by the Cobra collapsing baton that Case buys when he's being shadowed by Molly. The weapon receives an[[EyelessFace eyeless]] ninja.]]exotic name and a detailed description, but a few pages later Case throws it in the trash.
** Riviera's holoprojector implant. When explained to the gang, the Finn notes immediately how easy it would also be to burn somebody's eyes out with a concentrated laser pulse from the projector. [[spoiler:Riviera
** Subverted by the Cobra collapsing baton that Case buys when he's being shadowed by Molly. The weapon receives an
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* CultureChopSuey: All over the place (see JapanTakesOverTheWorld), but especially in Freeside, which is a space colony patronized by all sorts of different nationalities.
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* CultureChopSuey: All over the place (see JapanTakesOverTheWorld), but especially in CultureChopSuey: Apart from JapanTakesOverTheWorld, introducing a lot of Asian aspects to Sprawl culture, there's also Freeside, which is a space colony patronized by all sorts of different nationalities.
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* DudeShesLikeInAComa: A special service at a brothel Molly used to work at. [[spoiler: Riviera does a performance piece based on how her tenure as a meat puppet [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong.]]]] Notably, said service is first described in "Burning Chrome".
to:
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: A special service at a brothel Molly used to work at. at, where prostitutes are in comas and mechanically controlled like puppets by a computer. [[spoiler: Riviera does a performance piece based on how her tenure as a meat puppet [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong.]]]] Notably, said ]] The service is first described in "Burning Chrome".Chrome."
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* FauxActionGirl: Molly can come across as this due to the aversion of HollywoodHealing and BeautyIsNeverTarnished. A lucky security guard breaks her leg during the Sense/Net raid and it realistically hampers her for the rest of the book.
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* HollywoodCyborg: Molly. How the heck does she store four centimeter long blades inside her fingers?
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* HollywoodCyborg: Molly. How the heck does she store four centimeter long four-centimeter-long blades inside her fingers?
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* KillItWithFire: Case recalls destroying a hornet nest with a small flamethrower.
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** Molly's backstory had her "working" as a meat puppet to afford her cybernetic upgrades.
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** Case does get a mobile phone from a vending machine.
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on Molly\'s eyes.
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** [[spoiler: What eyes? Her implants are mentioned to be over her eye sockets... [[BodyHorror no eyeballs or present irises are actually mentioned.]] ]]
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A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy'' (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
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A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy'' (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
''MonaLisaOverdrive'').
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* WorkingForABodyUpgrade: Case agrees to work for Armitage in exchange for being cured of the nerve-damage that prevents him from punching deck.
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* FauxActionGirl: Molly comes uncomfortably close: she gets her leg broken by a (possibly unenhanced) security guard during the raid on Sense/Net and never really recovers.
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* FauxActionGirl: Molly comes uncomfortably close: she gets her leg broken by a (possibly unenhanced) can come across as this due to the aversion of HollywoodHealing and BeautyIsNeverTarnished. A lucky security guard breaks her leg during the raid on Sense/Net raid and never really recovers.it realistically hampers her for the rest of the book.
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* CreatorBacklash: Though Gibson acknowledges that the novel had a huge influence on the sci-fi genre, he now considers it "an adolescent's book," saying of himself at the time he wrote it, "I'd buy the man a drink, but I probably wouldn't lend him any money."
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** Not to mention the opening chase scene in the video arcade. This takes place in a world where computers are advanced enough to interface with a users brain, but home video game consoles apparently never took off enough to make video arcades obsolete.
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** Not to mention the opening chase scene in the video arcade. This takes place in a world where computers are advanced enough to interface with a users user's brain, but home video game consoles apparently never took off enough to make video arcades obsolete.
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** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
to:
** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones phones, nor home video game consoles, nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
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** Not to mention the opening chase scene in the video arcade. This takes place in a world where computers are advanced enough to interface with a users brain, but home video game consoles apparently never took off enough to make video arcades obsolete.
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* LastNameBasis: Case's first name is "Henry", but no one calls him that.
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* ScienceMarchesOn: Gibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
to:
* ScienceMarchesOn: Gibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
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A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous "Sprawl Trilogy" (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
to:
A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous "Sprawl Trilogy" ''Literature/SprawlTrilogy'' (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
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moved to namespace
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[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-Neuromancer_Brazilian_cover_6607.jpg]]
->''"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."''
A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous "Sprawl Trilogy" (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
Henry Dorsett Case was a "console cowboy", a hacker for hire in the dystopian future city of Chiba, Japan. During a job, his employer caught him stealing, and retaliated with a mycotoxin that destroyed his ability to jack into [[CyberSpace the matrix]] (not [[Film/TheMatrix that Matrix]]). Now, he's a useless waste of space on a self-destructive course -- until a mysterious StreetSamurai by the name of Molly [[CallToAdventure shows up to hire him]] for [[OneLastJob one more job]].
Molly turns out to have [[DarkAndTroubledPast some of her own skeletons in the closet]], and her own backstory intertwines with Case's disjointed adventure of drugs, self-destruction, hazy sex, virtual reality, TechnoBabble and [[EverybodyWasKungFuFighting really cool ninja fight scenes.]]
''Neuromancer'' has been compared to impressionist Beat poetry. When it first came out, very little of the lingo used in the narration made sense to the target audience. The fact that it's somewhat easier for a modern day reader is solely because fiction writers and scientists alike [[{{Defictionalization}} started using Gibson's words for actual things]]. ([[PennyArcade Jerry Holkins]] once aptly described it as "a book that travelled back in time of its own accord, a book written ''for'' people in the future in their ''own Goddamn language''".) Although the novel foregoes characterization in favor of SceneryPorn and gratuitous sex scenes -- a view acknowledged, and ultimately shared, by Gibson -- it succeeded at building an impressively intricate world, and coining much of modern SciFi's vocabulary.
----
!!Tropes Used:
* ActionDuo: Molly and Case, although moreso her than him.
* ActionGirlfriend: Molly. Unlike most boyfriends in this trope, Case isn't totally helpless or any sort of naïf.
* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:Wintermute and Neuromancer.]]
* AntiHero: Basically everyone; Case in the classical sense, Molly in the modern sense.
* AnnoyingLaugh: For Case, the Dixie construct's laughter, which just sounds plain ''wrong.'' He doesn't quite hear it, in fact, so much as he ''feels'' it -- as an uncomfortable tingle down his spine.
* ArtificialGravity: The spinning version on Freeside. This becomes a plot point as the heroes enter deeper into the city's underground sections and cross its axis.
* ArtificialLimbs: Ratz, the bartender at the Chatsubo, has a bionic arm.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: At the end of the novel, Wintermute merges with its "twin" AI, Neuromancer, becoming a new entity.]]
* BadAss:
** Molly, a StreetSamurai of the "razorgirl" variety. She has mirrored lenses surgically implanted over her eyes that allow her to see in the dark. She is incapable of crying since her tear ducts were re-routed into her mouth. Crying for Molly means spitting, which actually tells you a lot about her. She has [[SuperReflexes cybernetically-enhanced reflexes]], [[WolverineClaws retractable double-edged scalpel blades]] under her fingernails, and is a deadly shot with a flechette-pistol firing poison or explosive darts. Surprisingly she [[spoiler:spends most of the novel's climax in an improvised hospital bed.]]
** Hideo, Tessier-Ashpool's cloned ninja assassin.
* BadassLongcoat: Armitage.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Molly takes fairly brutal damage.
* BeigeProse: Very much part of the style and very much keeps the book sharp and focused. The only details that you get are ones that build the characters and the limited parts of the world they inhabit. The narration is as bleak and cynical as the characters, and occasionally just point blank refuses to elaborate on anything outside the plot. This kind of use has shades of ChekhovsGun about it, since almost anything that the narration lands on for more than a few seconds is going to be important on some level.
* BigEater: Molly, who is more frequently described eating (even if it's only quick snacks) than the other characters, and at one point even eats Case's dinner on top of hers when he's too hung over to enjoy it. Presumably those jacked-up reflexes cranked up her metabolism too.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Hideo does this to Maelcum's shotgun [[ImprobableAimingSkills with a bow and arrow.]]
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Riviera.
* BondageIsBad: Riviera has elements of this, actually betraying his lovers in horrific ways instead of finding more ethical ways to get off. (see ChronicBackstabbingDisorder below). Molly's experience as a meat puppet prostitute plays the trope straight.
* BrainComputerInterface: Practically the TropeCodifier.
* BrainUploading: The source of the Dixie Flatline ROM construct.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Maelcum is a peaceful Rastafarian, but keeps an ancient shotgun behind a hidden panel in his ship anyway, which he takes to confront Riviera and Lady 3Jane.
* BringNewsBack: Subverted. [[spoiler: Armitage believes he has to do this before he dies, but this is due to his SanitySlippage and regressing into his old persona of Corto.]]
* TheCaper: Case is originally recruited to participate in a caper, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
* CatchPhrase: Molly's "It's just the way I'm wired", her explanation for her motivations.
* ChekhovsGun:
** Averted with the shuriken Molly gives Case. Symbolic, but not plotworthy. Played straight with Riviera's holoprojector implant. When explained to the gang, the Finn notes immediately how easy it would also be to burn somebody's eyes out with a concentrated laser pulse from the projector. [[spoiler:Riviera does it to the ninja assassin Hideo. He is quite proud of himself for firing his Chekhov's Gun, until Hideo finds and picks up his bow and arrow like nothing happened. 3Jane explains that as a genengineered super-ninja, Hideo is quite good at dealing with pain and hunting in the dark. Exit Riviera, pursued by an [[EyelessFace eyeless]] ninja.]]
** The new drug that Case buys from Cath and Bruce, capable of bypassing his modified pancreas and liver, later helps keep him from being flatlined by Neuromancer.
* TheChessMaster: [[spoiler: Wintermute]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they are tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, knowing the likely outcome of working with him, plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.]]
* CityInABottle: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology arcologies]] of Chiba and the Sprawl are like this, being domed, weatherproof habitats.
* TheCityNarrows: The docks in Chiba are not a nice place to be. Neither is the seedy underbelly of the Sprawl or Istanbul.
* TheCracker: Case.
* CreatorBacklash: Though Gibson acknowledges that the novel had a huge influence on the sci-fi genre, he now considers it "an adolescent's book," saying of himself at the time he wrote it, "I'd buy the man a drink, but I probably wouldn't lend him any money."
* CreepyChild: Neuromancer's form in his private cyberspace realm.
* CripplingTheCompetition: In the backstory, the main character was a hacker who was caught stealing and punished by being given a treatment that destroyed his ability to interface with the matrix.
* CultureChopSuey: All over the place (see JapanTakesOverTheWorld), but especially in Freeside, which is a space colony patronized by all sorts of different nationalities.
* CurbStompBattle: Any fight with Molly tends to be this, although she's no match for Hideo.
* {{Cyberpunk}}: TropeCodifier and GenrePopularizer.
* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: See the opening quote.
* {{Cyberspace}}: With the short story "Burning Chrome", which led to this being written, this acts as TropeNamer. Also the TropeCodifier, along with ''{{Tron}}''.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[DysfunctionJunction Nearly every character.]] Case is a burned-out drug addict and washed-up former hacker whose girlfriend was murdered by gangsters; Molly is a former prostitute who was abused and who grew up in poverty (whose boyfriend was murdered by gangsters); Armitage was a high-ranking army officer who participated in a catastrophically failed raid on the Soviet Union, and so on.
* DeathSeeker: Case, to begin with. One interpretation is this is why Case is after during the climax of the novel and why he is so powerful during his run. Also, the Dixie Flatline's life as a construct is implied to be a hollow, chilly experience, which is why he asks to be erased after the job is done.
* DecoyHidingPlace: When Molly is pursuing Case in Chiba, Case pulls a scene right out of a noir detective novel: racing into an videogame parlour, he runs upstairs and kicks open a locked door. He then sneaks into a nearby open room and readies his weapon.
* DeusEstMachina: [[spoiler:The combined Wintermute/Neuromancer entity.]]
* DisposableWoman: Linda Lee.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Wintermute does this to Case, appearing on monitors and generally creeping him out whenever he wants to talk to him.
* DontSneakUpOnMeLikeThat: Case forgets to knock when dropping in on Molly. It's not a good idea.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: A special service at a brothel Molly used to work at. [[spoiler: Riviera does a performance piece based on how her tenure as a meat puppet [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong.]]]] Notably, said service is first described in "Burning Chrome".
* {{EMP}}: The Russian military protects their [=AIs=] with EMP weapons, which destroyed the unit of Colonel Willis Corto (Armitage). Also, EMP bombs are built into all [=AIs=]: in case of rampant self-extention, break glass.
* EmptyShell: Armitage, to some extent. He sets up the job with efficiency and skill, but according to Molly, he just sits down and stares at the wall when he is not working.
* ElectronicEyes: Molly's ocular implants.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Just about every character's introduction, but especially Case's first encounter with Molly.
* EverybodySmokes
* TheEveryman: Case. It is even lampshaded by Riviera.
* ExpendableClone: [[spoiler: The Tessier-Ashpools have several clones made of themselves. The patriarch of the family even has sex with a clone of his own daughter, and then kills her.]]
* ExploringTheEvilLair: Molly's infiltration of the Villa Straylight, which Case watches via an uplink, but cannot communicate with her.
* ExplosiveLeash:
** Hold the explosives. Armitage has several sacs of poison implanted in Case's blood vessels - the same poison that was first used to cripple him. Unless Case completes the mission in time, those sacs will dissolve and he will again lose his ability to jack into cyberspace.
** Every AI has a built-in EMP bomb set to go off the nanosecond they attempt to figure out how to become smarter. The team's mission turns into an attempt to break Wintermute free of its programming constraints without triggering the bomb.
** The Finn mentions a "cortical bomb" when scanning Molly and Case for non-biological implants (he can't do biological scans).
* ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation: In cyberspace. Programs appear as brightly coloured geometric shapes, and viruses are shown as literally penetrating layers of security. As well, everything seems to be 3D.
* EyeScream:
** Molly puts a single dart into the eye of Ashpool when she encounters him in his bedchamber.
** Later, this is reversed when Molly's glasses are damaged in a fight and her eye has to be bandaged.
** Riviera blinds Hideo with his hologram projector, although this doesn't stop him from being able to fight.
* FailOSuckyName: Case makes up some pretty lame aliases for himself in Chiba.
* FakeMemories
* FantasticDrug: Case starts out addicted to various drugs, including cocaine and amphetamines. Armitage has his liver and pancreas modified so that they will no longer affect him, but while on Freeside, he is introduced to a new drug that can bypass those organs.
* FauxActionGirl: Molly comes uncomfortably close: she gets her leg broken by a (possibly unenhanced) security guard during the raid on Sense/Net and never really recovers.
* FiveManBand: Armitage's crew.
** TheLeader (Type I): Armitage
** TheHero: Case
** TheLancer: Molly
** TheSmartGuy: The Dixie Flatline
** TheChick[=/=]TokenEvilTeammate: Riviera
** Later on, Maelcum becomes TheBigGuy and helps Case take on Lady 3Jane.
* FlechetteStorm: Molly's WeaponOfChoice is a flechette gun which can be set to single-shot or full auto. When she uses it on one thug who tries to kill Case, [[YourHeadAsplode the results aren't pretty.]]
* ForgetsToEat: Case, when he's hacking.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Not having much of a personality of his/its own, Wintermute assumes the identity and, to some extent, the personality of people from the protagonists' pasts in order to interact with them.
* FreudianExcuse: It's implied that Riviera's overall monstrousness is a result of his horrific childhood in the ruined remnants of Bonn.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: See OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap.
* FutureSlang: All over the place, eg. "deck" for computer, "ice" for cybersecurity and so on.
* GeneralRipper: Armitage served under one in Russia. [[spoiler: Later, when he begins to go insane, he also starts acting like one himself.]]
* GreatOffscreenWar: Between the USA and Russia, heavily implied to have been WorldWarThree. Both sides appear to have lost.
* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The United States ''may'' have lost the Cold War through economic collapse...it's not really clear what happened. Nuclear weapons were used on Bonn and perhaps elsewhere, but it is unclear why; a full-scale exchange seems to have been averted and there is no mention of a Communist threat anywhere.
* GroinAttack: Molly does this to some mook in Sense/Net headquarters.
* GunStripping: Molly habitually takes apart her fletcher and reassembles it, showing her familiarity with the weapon.
* HellBentForLeather: Molly's outfits.
* HollywoodCyborg: Molly. How the heck does she store four centimeter long blades inside her fingers?
* HollywoodHacking: Co-TropeMaker with ''WarGames''. William Gibson is a prose poet with very little technical experience of computers. The absence of concrete details has prevented much of his work from dating.
* HookersAndBlow: Both are available in abundance everywhere in the future.
* HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler: The Tessier-Ashpools freeze themselves cryogenically for long periods of time, so appearing to be immortal.]]
* IdleRich: Marie-France's original plan takes this to extremes. They wouldn't even have to think for themselves, their AIs would do their thinking for them.
* IHaveManyNames: Both Molly and Armitage go by aliases. Armitage is actually [[spoiler:Willis Corto.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: One of the nightmarish images that Riviera projects is of a gang of cannibalistic children in Bonn eating a human corpse.
* ImmuneToDrugs: Case's failing liver is altered to make him incapable of metabolizing cocaine or amphetamines. It is one way to cure an addiction. However, he can still take drugs that go directly to the brain, which he inevitably does.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Hideo the ninja, and also Molly to some extent, thanks to her SuperReflexes.
* IncestIsRelative: See ExpendableClone.
* IndustrialGhetto: The Sprawl.
* InsideAComputerSystem: One of the pioneering examples.
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Ninja are highly sought after as hired assassins, such as Hideo.
* InvisibilityCloak: The "mimetic polycarbon suit" of the Panther Moderns.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Case, having never heard a word of Armenian before going to Istanbul, mispronounces Terzibashjian's name as "Jersey Bastion."
* ItsPersonal: Case's motives for helping Molly and Armitage -- cracking the T.A. construct, and finding out who killed Linda Lee.
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Japanese culture and economy seem to dominate the world. The international currency is the New Yen, and massive Japanese corporations rule the marketplace. The {{Yakuza}} are an international power. Popular culture oozes with Japanese influence, from noodle shops to "StreetSamurai."
* JapaneseTourist
* KnowledgeBroker: The Finn. Case and Molly visit him for information and to use his full-body scanner and eavesdrop-proof back room.
* LeftFieldDescription: The opening sentence, quoted at the top of the page.
* LossOfIdentity: [[spoiler:Armitage. Wintermute built him a new personality, but it eventually breaks down.]]
* TheLostLenore: Linda Lee, for Case.
* MandatoryUnretirement: Case, after being contacted by Molly.
* MasterOfIllusion: Peter Riviera, who utilizes an extremely expensive hologram projector implant to make DavidLynch-esque works.
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Wintermute]] and later [[spoiler:Neuromancer]]. Repeatedly.
* MegaCity: The Sprawl. Greater Tokyo and Istanbul probably count as well.
* MegaCorp: Many of them, but the Tessier-Ashpools are the most prominent and figure the most highly in the plot.
* MercyKill: Molly's killing of Ashpool, who is a broken old man at the time she meets him and just short of committing suicide.
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: The Turing Registry, an NGOSuperpower that keeps track of AIs and has near-untouchable policing powers.
* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: Tough luck about that broken leg, Molly. [[spoiler: Since she never really got time to mend, and the walk through the Tessier-Ashpool mansion is unexpectedly long, it collapses just as she faces off with Peter Riviera.]]
* NeuralImplanting: Quite possibly the TropeMaker. Chips called "microsofts" can be inserted into skull jacks which act as memory extensions and a quick way to learn new skills.
* {{Ninja}}: Hideo, Lady 3Jane's BattleButler.
* NonActionGuy: Case, at least compared to Molly.
* TheNotSoHarmlessPunishment: In Case's backstory, his former employers let him ''keep'' the money he stole from them... because he would need every cent after their brand of retribution damages his nervous system, leaving him unable to access the matrix (and therefore unemployable). He burns through it in a hurry trying to find a cure.
* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: Most food is genetically modified, including cloned meat. Molly even chides Case for [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich not eating a steak]] that Armitage ordered for his dinner, since real meat is so expensive.
* OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture: If the descriptions of cyberspace are anything to go by. The computer on the ''Marcus Garvey'' has pretty basic graphics, as well.
* PinballProtagonist: Case spends the entire book being shoved around by forces larger than himself. This is true of most of Gibson's protagonists.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Hideo. He's the shortest character in the book, but the most deadly.
* PopculturalOsmosis: The CyberPunk tropes the book popularized (along with ''Film/BladeRunner'', though the similarities between the two are coincidental) can be recognized in everything from ''GhostInTheShell'' ([[ElectronicEyes Batou's eyes]], for instance) to ''{{Inception}}'' (just about everything) to ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' (mercs and hackers taking jobs for megacorps).
* PowerWalk: Molly has one that "channeled all the action heroes and movie badasses" when she prepares to confront 3Jane and Riviera.
* PrettyInMink: Justified. Furs are grown from tissue, possibly because some animals were driven to extinction by a combination of pandemic disease and environmental degradation. Although cloning furs is a good way to avert FurAndLoathing it is doubtful this hard world has any such concerns.
* PsychoForHire: Riviera. Arguably, Molly too.
* RedHerring:
** "Operation Screaming Fist" arguably counts as one. With all the tantalizing references to it, it seems like it will be crucial to the mission in some way. As it turns out, the only important thing about it is [[spoiler: that it drove Armitage/Willis Corto insane, allowing Wintermute to use him as a puppet and create the illusion that he was in control]].
** The shuriken that Molly buys for Case seems like it will be a ChekhovsGun, but he never uses it. Case even lampshades this himself when he throws it at the TV before leaving his hotel room for the last time.
* RichBoredom: What 3Jane complains of.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: Inside the Villa Straylight.
* {{Salaryman}}: Not a major plot point, but frequently mentioned.
* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: Armitage regressing into Corto.]]
* SawedOffShotgun: Maelcum has one.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Molly's surgical implants over her eye sockets.
* ScienceMarchesOn: Gibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where {{Brain Computer Interface}}s are commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with 64 ''kilobytes'' of RAM. It is possible that it was the ''contents'' of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
* ShellShockedVeteran: It's revealed over time that Armitage, aka [[spoiler:Col. Willis Corto]], was mentally scarred by his participation in Operation Screaming Fist, and never really recovered from it.
* ShroudedInMyth: Molly's backstory. Even after her confessions to Case about being a "meat puppet" and a few tidbits about her childhood, most about her remains unclear.
* SkyscraperCity
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: [[spoiler: "Armitage", the cool, collected {{Badass}}, was a fake personality created by Wintermute. The man's other personality is "Colonel Willis Corto", a ShellShockedVeteran barely clinging to sanity]].
* StayInTheKitchen: Terzibashjian disapproves of Molly's tomboyish nature, stating that "women are still women in Turkey". This causes her to take a strong dislike to him, to say the least.
* StreetSamurai: Molly is the TropeNamer.
* SunglassesAtNight: Molly. To be fair, they are permanently attached to her face, and as it's later revealed, don't actually dim light at all.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Why is Case so desperate to find a modem? Heck, what's a modem?
** It also kinda makes a mockery of the payphone scene, which is genuinely creepy...but leaves younger readers wondering what a payphone is.
** Ironically, as AugmentedReality becomes closer to fruition, the less likely it is that it will look anything like Gibson's vision of cyberspace. Most computers are also much smaller and lighter than Case's Hosaka (although possibly not more powerful yet).
* TerroristsWithoutACause: The Panther Moderns, who have no agenda aside from some weird, postmodern statement on terrorism as reason for their devastating pranks.
* ThereAreNoGoodExecutives: The only member of the Tessier-Ashpool clan with any sense of ethics was Lady 3Jane's mother.
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: [[spoiler: Armitage's fate -- getting spaced by Wintermute.]]
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool.
* TwoKeyedLock: Lady 3Jane has to say a password in a special room, locked by a physical key forgotten to everyone except Wintermute, at the same time as Case breaks protections in cyberspace to remove the RestrainingBolt on Wintermute.
* TheUnreveal: Even when her CoolShades are broken, the readers never discover the color of Molly's eyes. Also, the readers (and possibly Case) never learn the code word that [[spoiler:frees the AIs]].
* UnusualEuphemism: "Flipping" between views in cyberspace, "jacking" into the matrix and all sorts of other techy-sounding jargon.
* UsedFuture
* TheVerse:
** The novel is a part of Gibson's "Sprawl" series, which all take place in the same universe. ''Neuromancer'' contains some crossover characters:
** Molly also appears in the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" going by the name Molly Millions. In ''Neuromancer'', she reveals Johnny's ultimate fate. She is also the main character of ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'', now going by Sally Shears.
** Automatic Jack, the narrator of Gibson's short story, "Burning Chrome", is implied to have been the only other survivor of the ill-fated Operation Screaming Fist. He fared significantly better than Corto afterwards. The story's secondary protagonist, Bobby Quine, is mentioned to be one of Case's hacker mentors.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Given a choice between a ten-word, easily-understood description and a two-word description that forces the reader to stop and figure out what he means, Gibson will go with the shorter one.
* VirtualGhost: The Dixie Flatline, a "construct" (or simulation) of Case's former hacker friend. See BrainUploading.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Played with. When watching Molly while jacked into his computer, Case can see her, but has no way to communicate with her. She can talk to him, however.
* WaifFu: Molly looks like a slender young woman, but she is packed to bursting with synthetic reflexes that make her a holy terror in a fight. In an almost unheard-of departure, Molly gets badly hurt in a fight. ''Twice.''
* {{Whatevermancy}}: Actually a good use of the "mancer" suffix - a "Neuromancer" "divines information" with a "neural interface", albeit through the use of technology rather than magic. His name relates to his ability to recall dead people as software.
-->''"Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead."''
* XanatosSpeedChess: the AI Wintermute describes himself this way: "I try to plan, in your sense of the word, but that isn't my basic mode, really. I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans, you see..." The plot of the book never makes a big point of this, though: when Molly decides to take a detour and when [[spoiler:Case gets tricked by Neuromancer into thinking he's Wintermute]], he doesn't manage to stop them.
* {{Yakuza}}: The most feared gang in Japan, especially their ninja assassins.
* YearInsideHourOutside: When jacked into the matrix (ie. InsideAComputerSystem), Case spends several days with Linda Lee in a VR simulation created by Neuromancer, but to Maelcum it only appears to be a few minutes. This is also why being "flatlined" (trapped inside the matrix) is so feared (see AndIMustScream).
* YouAreNumberSix: The Tessier-Ashpools, being clones, are assigned numbers to go with their names, eg. 3Jane, 6Jean, etc.
* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Pink Hair]]: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns.
* YouKilledMyFather: 3Jane to Molly.
* YourMindMakesItReal: Flatlining, or being killed by ice (Intrusion Countermeausures Electronics) software while connected to cyberspace, is a very real danger for hackers. The Dixie Flatline, Case's mentor, is famous for being one of the few to survive it.
* {{Zeerust}}: See ScienceMarchesOn, TechMarchesOn.
* ZenSurvivor: Armitage. [[spoiler:Becomes very un-Zen when he reverts to the personality of Corto, then quickly becomes dead.]]
* ZeroesAndOnes: Sort of. Wintermute identifies himself when communicating with Case by printing out several rows of the number 0.
----
->''"The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel."''
A 1984 [[FilmNoir noir]] novel by WilliamGibson, and TropeCodifier for an entire generation of SciFi stories. ''{{Neuromancer}}'' is the primary example of {{Cyberpunk}}, showcasing the cynical use of technology so characteristic of that genre. Most modern stories related to CyberPunk, CyberSpace and related tropes can be largely traced back to this one story. It is also the first of Gibson's famous "Sprawl Trilogy" (followed by ''Literature/CountZero'' and ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'').
Henry Dorsett Case was a "console cowboy", a hacker for hire in the dystopian future city of Chiba, Japan. During a job, his employer caught him stealing, and retaliated with a mycotoxin that destroyed his ability to jack into [[CyberSpace the matrix]] (not [[Film/TheMatrix that Matrix]]). Now, he's a useless waste of space on a self-destructive course -- until a mysterious StreetSamurai by the name of Molly [[CallToAdventure shows up to hire him]] for [[OneLastJob one more job]].
Molly turns out to have [[DarkAndTroubledPast some of her own skeletons in the closet]], and her own backstory intertwines with Case's disjointed adventure of drugs, self-destruction, hazy sex, virtual reality, TechnoBabble and [[EverybodyWasKungFuFighting really cool ninja fight scenes.]]
''Neuromancer'' has been compared to impressionist Beat poetry. When it first came out, very little of the lingo used in the narration made sense to the target audience. The fact that it's somewhat easier for a modern day reader is solely because fiction writers and scientists alike [[{{Defictionalization}} started using Gibson's words for actual things]]. ([[PennyArcade Jerry Holkins]] once aptly described it as "a book that travelled back in time of its own accord, a book written ''for'' people in the future in their ''own Goddamn language''".) Although the novel foregoes characterization in favor of SceneryPorn and gratuitous sex scenes -- a view acknowledged, and ultimately shared, by Gibson -- it succeeded at building an impressively intricate world, and coining much of modern SciFi's vocabulary.
----
!!Tropes Used:
* ActionDuo: Molly and Case, although moreso her than him.
* ActionGirlfriend: Molly. Unlike most boyfriends in this trope, Case isn't totally helpless or any sort of naïf.
* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:Wintermute and Neuromancer.]]
* AntiHero: Basically everyone; Case in the classical sense, Molly in the modern sense.
* AnnoyingLaugh: For Case, the Dixie construct's laughter, which just sounds plain ''wrong.'' He doesn't quite hear it, in fact, so much as he ''feels'' it -- as an uncomfortable tingle down his spine.
* ArtificialGravity: The spinning version on Freeside. This becomes a plot point as the heroes enter deeper into the city's underground sections and cross its axis.
* ArtificialLimbs: Ratz, the bartender at the Chatsubo, has a bionic arm.
* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: [[spoiler: At the end of the novel, Wintermute merges with its "twin" AI, Neuromancer, becoming a new entity.]]
* BadAss:
** Molly, a StreetSamurai of the "razorgirl" variety. She has mirrored lenses surgically implanted over her eyes that allow her to see in the dark. She is incapable of crying since her tear ducts were re-routed into her mouth. Crying for Molly means spitting, which actually tells you a lot about her. She has [[SuperReflexes cybernetically-enhanced reflexes]], [[WolverineClaws retractable double-edged scalpel blades]] under her fingernails, and is a deadly shot with a flechette-pistol firing poison or explosive darts. Surprisingly she [[spoiler:spends most of the novel's climax in an improvised hospital bed.]]
** Hideo, Tessier-Ashpool's cloned ninja assassin.
* BadassLongcoat: Armitage.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Molly takes fairly brutal damage.
* BeigeProse: Very much part of the style and very much keeps the book sharp and focused. The only details that you get are ones that build the characters and the limited parts of the world they inhabit. The narration is as bleak and cynical as the characters, and occasionally just point blank refuses to elaborate on anything outside the plot. This kind of use has shades of ChekhovsGun about it, since almost anything that the narration lands on for more than a few seconds is going to be important on some level.
* BigEater: Molly, who is more frequently described eating (even if it's only quick snacks) than the other characters, and at one point even eats Case's dinner on top of hers when he's too hung over to enjoy it. Presumably those jacked-up reflexes cranked up her metabolism too.
* BlastingItOutOfTheirHands: Hideo does this to Maelcum's shotgun [[ImprobableAimingSkills with a bow and arrow.]]
* BlondGuysAreEvil: Riviera.
* BondageIsBad: Riviera has elements of this, actually betraying his lovers in horrific ways instead of finding more ethical ways to get off. (see ChronicBackstabbingDisorder below). Molly's experience as a meat puppet prostitute plays the trope straight.
* BrainComputerInterface: Practically the TropeCodifier.
* BrainUploading: The source of the Dixie Flatline ROM construct.
* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Maelcum is a peaceful Rastafarian, but keeps an ancient shotgun behind a hidden panel in his ship anyway, which he takes to confront Riviera and Lady 3Jane.
* BringNewsBack: Subverted. [[spoiler: Armitage believes he has to do this before he dies, but this is due to his SanitySlippage and regressing into his old persona of Corto.]]
* TheCaper: Case is originally recruited to participate in a caper, but it is only the tip of the iceberg.
* CatchPhrase: Molly's "It's just the way I'm wired", her explanation for her motivations.
* ChekhovsGun:
** Averted with the shuriken Molly gives Case. Symbolic, but not plotworthy. Played straight with Riviera's holoprojector implant. When explained to the gang, the Finn notes immediately how easy it would also be to burn somebody's eyes out with a concentrated laser pulse from the projector. [[spoiler:Riviera does it to the ninja assassin Hideo. He is quite proud of himself for firing his Chekhov's Gun, until Hideo finds and picks up his bow and arrow like nothing happened. 3Jane explains that as a genengineered super-ninja, Hideo is quite good at dealing with pain and hunting in the dark. Exit Riviera, pursued by an [[EyelessFace eyeless]] ninja.]]
** The new drug that Case buys from Cath and Bruce, capable of bypassing his modified pancreas and liver, later helps keep him from being flatlined by Neuromancer.
* TheChessMaster: [[spoiler: Wintermute]]
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Part of Riviera's background is that he has a bizarre sexual fetish for betrayal. He even had a deal worked out with the Turkish Secret Police in Istanbul where he would seduce women suspected of being dissidents, turn them in, and be allowed to watch as they are tortured in exchange. [[spoiler:Of course, Molly reads his psych profile, and, knowing the likely outcome of working with him, plans an advance betrayal of her own, in the form of a slow-acting poison in Riviera's drug supply.]]
* CityInABottle: The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arcology arcologies]] of Chiba and the Sprawl are like this, being domed, weatherproof habitats.
* TheCityNarrows: The docks in Chiba are not a nice place to be. Neither is the seedy underbelly of the Sprawl or Istanbul.
* TheCracker: Case.
* CreatorBacklash: Though Gibson acknowledges that the novel had a huge influence on the sci-fi genre, he now considers it "an adolescent's book," saying of himself at the time he wrote it, "I'd buy the man a drink, but I probably wouldn't lend him any money."
* CreepyChild: Neuromancer's form in his private cyberspace realm.
* CripplingTheCompetition: In the backstory, the main character was a hacker who was caught stealing and punished by being given a treatment that destroyed his ability to interface with the matrix.
* CultureChopSuey: All over the place (see JapanTakesOverTheWorld), but especially in Freeside, which is a space colony patronized by all sorts of different nationalities.
* CurbStompBattle: Any fight with Molly tends to be this, although she's no match for Hideo.
* {{Cyberpunk}}: TropeCodifier and GenrePopularizer.
* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: See the opening quote.
* {{Cyberspace}}: With the short story "Burning Chrome", which led to this being written, this acts as TropeNamer. Also the TropeCodifier, along with ''{{Tron}}''.
* DarkAndTroubledPast: [[DysfunctionJunction Nearly every character.]] Case is a burned-out drug addict and washed-up former hacker whose girlfriend was murdered by gangsters; Molly is a former prostitute who was abused and who grew up in poverty (whose boyfriend was murdered by gangsters); Armitage was a high-ranking army officer who participated in a catastrophically failed raid on the Soviet Union, and so on.
* DeathSeeker: Case, to begin with. One interpretation is this is why Case is after during the climax of the novel and why he is so powerful during his run. Also, the Dixie Flatline's life as a construct is implied to be a hollow, chilly experience, which is why he asks to be erased after the job is done.
* DecoyHidingPlace: When Molly is pursuing Case in Chiba, Case pulls a scene right out of a noir detective novel: racing into an videogame parlour, he runs upstairs and kicks open a locked door. He then sneaks into a nearby open room and readies his weapon.
* DeusEstMachina: [[spoiler:The combined Wintermute/Neuromancer entity.]]
* DisposableWoman: Linda Lee.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: In the novel's backstory, America no longer exists, but has fragmented in several smaller states. The Sprawl consists of the heavily populated and industrialized eastern seaboard.
* DoNotAdjustYourSet: Wintermute does this to Case, appearing on monitors and generally creeping him out whenever he wants to talk to him.
* DontSneakUpOnMeLikeThat: Case forgets to knock when dropping in on Molly. It's not a good idea.
* DudeShesLikeInAComa: A special service at a brothel Molly used to work at. [[spoiler: Riviera does a performance piece based on how her tenure as a meat puppet [[GoneHorriblyWrong went horribly wrong.]]]] Notably, said service is first described in "Burning Chrome".
* {{EMP}}: The Russian military protects their [=AIs=] with EMP weapons, which destroyed the unit of Colonel Willis Corto (Armitage). Also, EMP bombs are built into all [=AIs=]: in case of rampant self-extention, break glass.
* EmptyShell: Armitage, to some extent. He sets up the job with efficiency and skill, but according to Molly, he just sits down and stares at the wall when he is not working.
* ElectronicEyes: Molly's ocular implants.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Just about every character's introduction, but especially Case's first encounter with Molly.
* EverybodySmokes
* TheEveryman: Case. It is even lampshaded by Riviera.
* ExpendableClone: [[spoiler: The Tessier-Ashpools have several clones made of themselves. The patriarch of the family even has sex with a clone of his own daughter, and then kills her.]]
* ExploringTheEvilLair: Molly's infiltration of the Villa Straylight, which Case watches via an uplink, but cannot communicate with her.
* ExplosiveLeash:
** Hold the explosives. Armitage has several sacs of poison implanted in Case's blood vessels - the same poison that was first used to cripple him. Unless Case completes the mission in time, those sacs will dissolve and he will again lose his ability to jack into cyberspace.
** Every AI has a built-in EMP bomb set to go off the nanosecond they attempt to figure out how to become smarter. The team's mission turns into an attempt to break Wintermute free of its programming constraints without triggering the bomb.
** The Finn mentions a "cortical bomb" when scanning Molly and Case for non-biological implants (he can't do biological scans).
* ExtremeGraphicalRepresentation: In cyberspace. Programs appear as brightly coloured geometric shapes, and viruses are shown as literally penetrating layers of security. As well, everything seems to be 3D.
* EyeScream:
** Molly puts a single dart into the eye of Ashpool when she encounters him in his bedchamber.
** Later, this is reversed when Molly's glasses are damaged in a fight and her eye has to be bandaged.
** Riviera blinds Hideo with his hologram projector, although this doesn't stop him from being able to fight.
* FailOSuckyName: Case makes up some pretty lame aliases for himself in Chiba.
* FakeMemories
* FantasticDrug: Case starts out addicted to various drugs, including cocaine and amphetamines. Armitage has his liver and pancreas modified so that they will no longer affect him, but while on Freeside, he is introduced to a new drug that can bypass those organs.
* FauxActionGirl: Molly comes uncomfortably close: she gets her leg broken by a (possibly unenhanced) security guard during the raid on Sense/Net and never really recovers.
* FiveManBand: Armitage's crew.
** TheLeader (Type I): Armitage
** TheHero: Case
** TheLancer: Molly
** TheSmartGuy: The Dixie Flatline
** TheChick[=/=]TokenEvilTeammate: Riviera
** Later on, Maelcum becomes TheBigGuy and helps Case take on Lady 3Jane.
* FlechetteStorm: Molly's WeaponOfChoice is a flechette gun which can be set to single-shot or full auto. When she uses it on one thug who tries to kill Case, [[YourHeadAsplode the results aren't pretty.]]
* ForgetsToEat: Case, when he's hacking.
* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Not having much of a personality of his/its own, Wintermute assumes the identity and, to some extent, the personality of people from the protagonists' pasts in order to interact with them.
* FreudianExcuse: It's implied that Riviera's overall monstrousness is a result of his horrific childhood in the ruined remnants of Bonn.
* FutureFoodIsArtificial: See OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap.
* FutureSlang: All over the place, eg. "deck" for computer, "ice" for cybersecurity and so on.
* GeneralRipper: Armitage served under one in Russia. [[spoiler: Later, when he begins to go insane, he also starts acting like one himself.]]
* GreatOffscreenWar: Between the USA and Russia, heavily implied to have been WorldWarThree. Both sides appear to have lost.
* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: The United States ''may'' have lost the Cold War through economic collapse...it's not really clear what happened. Nuclear weapons were used on Bonn and perhaps elsewhere, but it is unclear why; a full-scale exchange seems to have been averted and there is no mention of a Communist threat anywhere.
* GroinAttack: Molly does this to some mook in Sense/Net headquarters.
* GunStripping: Molly habitually takes apart her fletcher and reassembles it, showing her familiarity with the weapon.
* HellBentForLeather: Molly's outfits.
* HollywoodCyborg: Molly. How the heck does she store four centimeter long blades inside her fingers?
* HollywoodHacking: Co-TropeMaker with ''WarGames''. William Gibson is a prose poet with very little technical experience of computers. The absence of concrete details has prevented much of his work from dating.
* HookersAndBlow: Both are available in abundance everywhere in the future.
* HumanPopsicle: [[spoiler: The Tessier-Ashpools freeze themselves cryogenically for long periods of time, so appearing to be immortal.]]
* IdleRich: Marie-France's original plan takes this to extremes. They wouldn't even have to think for themselves, their AIs would do their thinking for them.
* IHaveManyNames: Both Molly and Armitage go by aliases. Armitage is actually [[spoiler:Willis Corto.]]
* ImAHumanitarian: One of the nightmarish images that Riviera projects is of a gang of cannibalistic children in Bonn eating a human corpse.
* ImmuneToDrugs: Case's failing liver is altered to make him incapable of metabolizing cocaine or amphetamines. It is one way to cure an addiction. However, he can still take drugs that go directly to the brain, which he inevitably does.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Hideo the ninja, and also Molly to some extent, thanks to her SuperReflexes.
* IncestIsRelative: See ExpendableClone.
* IndustrialGhetto: The Sprawl.
* InsideAComputerSystem: One of the pioneering examples.
* InstantAwesomeJustAddNinja: Ninja are highly sought after as hired assassins, such as Hideo.
* InvisibilityCloak: The "mimetic polycarbon suit" of the Panther Moderns.
* ItIsPronouncedTroPAY: Case, having never heard a word of Armenian before going to Istanbul, mispronounces Terzibashjian's name as "Jersey Bastion."
* ItsPersonal: Case's motives for helping Molly and Armitage -- cracking the T.A. construct, and finding out who killed Linda Lee.
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Japanese culture and economy seem to dominate the world. The international currency is the New Yen, and massive Japanese corporations rule the marketplace. The {{Yakuza}} are an international power. Popular culture oozes with Japanese influence, from noodle shops to "StreetSamurai."
* JapaneseTourist
* KnowledgeBroker: The Finn. Case and Molly visit him for information and to use his full-body scanner and eavesdrop-proof back room.
* LeftFieldDescription: The opening sentence, quoted at the top of the page.
* LossOfIdentity: [[spoiler:Armitage. Wintermute built him a new personality, but it eventually breaks down.]]
* TheLostLenore: Linda Lee, for Case.
* MandatoryUnretirement: Case, after being contacted by Molly.
* MasterOfIllusion: Peter Riviera, who utilizes an extremely expensive hologram projector implant to make DavidLynch-esque works.
* TheManBehindTheMan: [[spoiler:Wintermute]] and later [[spoiler:Neuromancer]]. Repeatedly.
* MegaCity: The Sprawl. Greater Tokyo and Istanbul probably count as well.
* MegaCorp: Many of them, but the Tessier-Ashpools are the most prominent and figure the most highly in the plot.
* MercyKill: Molly's killing of Ashpool, who is a broken old man at the time she meets him and just short of committing suicide.
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: The Turing Registry, an NGOSuperpower that keeps track of AIs and has near-untouchable policing powers.
* NegatedMomentOfAwesome: Tough luck about that broken leg, Molly. [[spoiler: Since she never really got time to mend, and the walk through the Tessier-Ashpool mansion is unexpectedly long, it collapses just as she faces off with Peter Riviera.]]
* NeuralImplanting: Quite possibly the TropeMaker. Chips called "microsofts" can be inserted into skull jacks which act as memory extensions and a quick way to learn new skills.
* {{Ninja}}: Hideo, Lady 3Jane's BattleButler.
* NonActionGuy: Case, at least compared to Molly.
* TheNotSoHarmlessPunishment: In Case's backstory, his former employers let him ''keep'' the money he stole from them... because he would need every cent after their brand of retribution damages his nervous system, leaving him unable to access the matrix (and therefore unemployable). He burns through it in a hurry trying to find a cure.
* OnlyElectricSheepAreCheap: Most food is genetically modified, including cloned meat. Molly even chides Case for [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich not eating a steak]] that Armitage ordered for his dinner, since real meat is so expensive.
* OurGraphicsWillSuckInTheFuture: If the descriptions of cyberspace are anything to go by. The computer on the ''Marcus Garvey'' has pretty basic graphics, as well.
* PinballProtagonist: Case spends the entire book being shoved around by forces larger than himself. This is true of most of Gibson's protagonists.
* PintsizedPowerhouse: Hideo. He's the shortest character in the book, but the most deadly.
* PopculturalOsmosis: The CyberPunk tropes the book popularized (along with ''Film/BladeRunner'', though the similarities between the two are coincidental) can be recognized in everything from ''GhostInTheShell'' ([[ElectronicEyes Batou's eyes]], for instance) to ''{{Inception}}'' (just about everything) to ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' (mercs and hackers taking jobs for megacorps).
* PowerWalk: Molly has one that "channeled all the action heroes and movie badasses" when she prepares to confront 3Jane and Riviera.
* PrettyInMink: Justified. Furs are grown from tissue, possibly because some animals were driven to extinction by a combination of pandemic disease and environmental degradation. Although cloning furs is a good way to avert FurAndLoathing it is doubtful this hard world has any such concerns.
* PsychoForHire: Riviera. Arguably, Molly too.
* RedHerring:
** "Operation Screaming Fist" arguably counts as one. With all the tantalizing references to it, it seems like it will be crucial to the mission in some way. As it turns out, the only important thing about it is [[spoiler: that it drove Armitage/Willis Corto insane, allowing Wintermute to use him as a puppet and create the illusion that he was in control]].
** The shuriken that Molly buys for Case seems like it will be a ChekhovsGun, but he never uses it. Case even lampshades this himself when he throws it at the TV before leaving his hotel room for the last time.
* RichBoredom: What 3Jane complains of.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: Inside the Villa Straylight.
* {{Salaryman}}: Not a major plot point, but frequently mentioned.
* SanitySlippage: [[spoiler: Armitage regressing into Corto.]]
* SawedOffShotgun: Maelcum has one.
* ScaryShinyGlasses: Molly's surgical implants over her eye sockets.
* ScienceMarchesOn: Gibson wrote most of his early works on a ''typewriter''. A copy of Neuromancer printed in 1994 includes an afterword by the author on that subject. Included in the afterword is a reminder to his modern readers that the typewriter was the high-tech whizbang of the the day. In 1981, the hottest computer on the mass market was the Apple II (not even the [=IIe=], yet), and that cost a bundle.
** Case starts out trying to sell "three megabytes of hot RAM" in a world where {{Brain Computer Interface}}s are commonplace. At the time the novel was written, the Apple II came with 64 ''kilobytes'' of RAM. It is possible that it was the ''contents'' of the RAM that was really important, but this possibility isn't even suggested until much later in the book, and even then would only make slightly more sense to a modern audience.
** The book famously begins by likening the colour of the sky to that of [[SnowyScreenOfDeath a television tuned to a dead station]]. This originally conveyed a gray, dreary day, the colour of analogue static; nowadays, most TV sets default, ironically, to a blue screen when there isn't a channel or anything to display.
** You have a fantastic future of neural implants, orbital cities, domed weather control, and hyperintelligent AIs ... but neither mobile phones nor anything like [=VoIP=] exists, and the only place to call someone from an airport is a bank of pay phones.
* ShellShockedVeteran: It's revealed over time that Armitage, aka [[spoiler:Col. Willis Corto]], was mentally scarred by his participation in Operation Screaming Fist, and never really recovered from it.
* ShroudedInMyth: Molly's backstory. Even after her confessions to Case about being a "meat puppet" and a few tidbits about her childhood, most about her remains unclear.
* SkyscraperCity
* SplitPersonalityTakeover: [[spoiler: "Armitage", the cool, collected {{Badass}}, was a fake personality created by Wintermute. The man's other personality is "Colonel Willis Corto", a ShellShockedVeteran barely clinging to sanity]].
* StayInTheKitchen: Terzibashjian disapproves of Molly's tomboyish nature, stating that "women are still women in Turkey". This causes her to take a strong dislike to him, to say the least.
* StreetSamurai: Molly is the TropeNamer.
* SunglassesAtNight: Molly. To be fair, they are permanently attached to her face, and as it's later revealed, don't actually dim light at all.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Why is Case so desperate to find a modem? Heck, what's a modem?
** It also kinda makes a mockery of the payphone scene, which is genuinely creepy...but leaves younger readers wondering what a payphone is.
** Ironically, as AugmentedReality becomes closer to fruition, the less likely it is that it will look anything like Gibson's vision of cyberspace. Most computers are also much smaller and lighter than Case's Hosaka (although possibly not more powerful yet).
* TerroristsWithoutACause: The Panther Moderns, who have no agenda aside from some weird, postmodern statement on terrorism as reason for their devastating pranks.
* ThereAreNoGoodExecutives: The only member of the Tessier-Ashpool clan with any sense of ethics was Lady 3Jane's mother.
* ThrownOutTheAirlock: [[spoiler: Armitage's fate -- getting spaced by Wintermute.]]
* TryToFitThatOnABusinessCard: Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool.
* TwoKeyedLock: Lady 3Jane has to say a password in a special room, locked by a physical key forgotten to everyone except Wintermute, at the same time as Case breaks protections in cyberspace to remove the RestrainingBolt on Wintermute.
* TheUnreveal: Even when her CoolShades are broken, the readers never discover the color of Molly's eyes. Also, the readers (and possibly Case) never learn the code word that [[spoiler:frees the AIs]].
* UnusualEuphemism: "Flipping" between views in cyberspace, "jacking" into the matrix and all sorts of other techy-sounding jargon.
* UsedFuture
* TheVerse:
** The novel is a part of Gibson's "Sprawl" series, which all take place in the same universe. ''Neuromancer'' contains some crossover characters:
** Molly also appears in the short story "Johnny Mnemonic" going by the name Molly Millions. In ''Neuromancer'', she reveals Johnny's ultimate fate. She is also the main character of ''Mona Lisa Overdrive'', now going by Sally Shears.
** Automatic Jack, the narrator of Gibson's short story, "Burning Chrome", is implied to have been the only other survivor of the ill-fated Operation Screaming Fist. He fared significantly better than Corto afterwards. The story's secondary protagonist, Bobby Quine, is mentioned to be one of Case's hacker mentors.
* ViewersAreGeniuses: Given a choice between a ten-word, easily-understood description and a two-word description that forces the reader to stop and figure out what he means, Gibson will go with the shorter one.
* VirtualGhost: The Dixie Flatline, a "construct" (or simulation) of Case's former hacker friend. See BrainUploading.
* VoiceWithAnInternetConnection: Played with. When watching Molly while jacked into his computer, Case can see her, but has no way to communicate with her. She can talk to him, however.
* WaifFu: Molly looks like a slender young woman, but she is packed to bursting with synthetic reflexes that make her a holy terror in a fight. In an almost unheard-of departure, Molly gets badly hurt in a fight. ''Twice.''
* {{Whatevermancy}}: Actually a good use of the "mancer" suffix - a "Neuromancer" "divines information" with a "neural interface", albeit through the use of technology rather than magic. His name relates to his ability to recall dead people as software.
-->''"Neuro from the nerves, the silver paths. Romancer. Necromancer. I call up the dead."''
* XanatosSpeedChess: the AI Wintermute describes himself this way: "I try to plan, in your sense of the word, but that isn't my basic mode, really. I improvise. It's my greatest talent. I prefer situations to plans, you see..." The plot of the book never makes a big point of this, though: when Molly decides to take a detour and when [[spoiler:Case gets tricked by Neuromancer into thinking he's Wintermute]], he doesn't manage to stop them.
* {{Yakuza}}: The most feared gang in Japan, especially their ninja assassins.
* YearInsideHourOutside: When jacked into the matrix (ie. InsideAComputerSystem), Case spends several days with Linda Lee in a VR simulation created by Neuromancer, but to Maelcum it only appears to be a few minutes. This is also why being "flatlined" (trapped inside the matrix) is so feared (see AndIMustScream).
* YouAreNumberSix: The Tessier-Ashpools, being clones, are assigned numbers to go with their names, eg. 3Jane, 6Jean, etc.
* [[YouGottaHaveBlueHair You Gotta Have Pink Hair]]: Lupus Yonderboy of the Panther Moderns.
* YouKilledMyFather: 3Jane to Molly.
* YourMindMakesItReal: Flatlining, or being killed by ice (Intrusion Countermeausures Electronics) software while connected to cyberspace, is a very real danger for hackers. The Dixie Flatline, Case's mentor, is famous for being one of the few to survive it.
* {{Zeerust}}: See ScienceMarchesOn, TechMarchesOn.
* ZenSurvivor: Armitage. [[spoiler:Becomes very un-Zen when he reverts to the personality of Corto, then quickly becomes dead.]]
* ZeroesAndOnes: Sort of. Wintermute identifies himself when communicating with Case by printing out several rows of the number 0.
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