Mona Lisa Overdrive

Reread of a classic in the relatively new genre of Cyberpunk. First read this in the mid 80s and was pretty impressed.

William Gibson, essentially a luddite in his early career, banged this story out on a 1927 portable typewriter, olive green. This sort of descriptive imagery and style are exactly what his stories were liberally dosed with. The trick is, he was writing about computer stuff that was just around the corner. My fellow techies didn't have particular names for things, so adopting Gibson technospeak like deck, construct, and icebreaker was par for the course. Reading this book 30 years later, the majority of the technobabble is still a reasonably good fit - though I can see how some would be lost.

The story itself is a heist, a favorite situation to read or watch. Case experiences a lot of character growth, especially since he was near bottom at the start. If the overly flowery imagery (and occasional gaffes) don't slow you down, the story is hard to put down. Very deserving of the 3 awards (and many more nominations) received, not to mention genre-defining.