I listened to Neuromancer on a long drive one time, and I will say that it's a wonderful book but not one that's particularly suited to the audiobook medium. It's hard to follow at times because it avoids a lot of big picture narrative and instead focuses on very small scale scenes of events happening within a broader story. It means that it can be confusing at times, as you are often as in the dark as the characters are.

This is an abridged version, so maybe it streamlines some aspects of the narrative, so take that into account.

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sien 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There is a BBC Audio drama of Neuromancer that is 1:56 long.

It is excellent.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S89BHnaxULo

I haven't listened to the audio book of Neuromancer but I re-read it a few weeks back. The audio play I still go back to once in a while as well.

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LiquidSky 14 hours ago | parent [-]

Two minutes hardly seems enough time to do the story justice.

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emil-lp 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

1:56 here refers to the aspect ratio, meaning 1 high and 56 long. So it is actually really long.

	▲	slow_typist 6 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Actually it is 1 wide and 56 high, as in 16:9.

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throwawayben 10 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

it's 2 hours

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narrator 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You might have to slow it down to 0.75x on the audiobook so you can savor and have time to construct the visuals of the scenes in your head. For fluff business books I listen at 1.25x or even higher if it is garbage, but for very difficult but worthwhile prose like Borges I slow things down to 0.75 and enjoy and savor the brilliance of the author.

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jbstack 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had the opposite experience. Really struggled with reading it. Switched to the audiobook and enjoyed it a lot more. The voice acting really brought the characters and atmosphere to life for me and enabled me to pay more attention to what was going on. I listened to the version narrated by Robertson Dean and think he did a great job.

I think this book needs at least two passes because there's a lot of in-universe jargon to pick up and for me it really only began to fall into place towards the end half. I also asked ChatGPT to summarise each chapter for me after I'd read it - that really helped me fill in the gaps of what I'd missed or misunderstood. In addition, I had it generate me a spoiler-free glossary of all the main terminology used in the book.

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guerrilla 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I also listened to it as an audiobook and while I very much got the vibe, I have no idea what was going on, which is kinda rare (I listen to a lot of audiobooks). It's as if I didn't even read it... buy kinda did. I duno.

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reportingsjr 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I had the same experience reading neuromancer in the last year. I felt like I got the vibe of what was going on, but struggled to understand the details and figure out what was actually happening in the story.

	▲	0_____0 an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I've read it probably four times over the decades, most recently this year. I think I more or less have a handle on the story now, but after the first read I remember having been sort of confused.
	▲	shmerl 15 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think ambiguity is somewhat intended. It also is continued in the rest of the trilogy. Some things are clearly left for the reader to guess or to interpret. It does make it a not very easy read.

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GuinansEyebrows 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

i've read neuromancer at least five times and i still feel like i never actually read it. it's a weirdly-written book with little environmental exposition - but i still love it.

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phrotoma 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Every time I read it I catch something I missed previously. Feels true of all the sprawl and bridge books.

There's something magical about a strongly consistent fictional world where all the characters understand the world and what's happening but the reader is baffled. It elevates the experience of visiting a strange new place to a new level of immersion.

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prettyblocks 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Came to say exactly this. It's my favorite, but I still feel like I haven't read it after like 5 reads.

	▲	mindcrime 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Same. I've probably read it 7 times now, counting a recent listen to the audiobook version on Youtube mentioned above. And I could still read it again tomorrow and I think I'd feel like it was a brand new story. And truth be told, I probably will read it again, although it might not be tomorrow. :-)

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kogus 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I had to read Neuromancer twice; once to learn the world, then once to actually enjoy the story.

	▲	criddell 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Same here. First read through I picked up a little bit but finished mostly confused. I basically powered through the last half of the book. Then I read the plot summary on Wikipedia and realized how much I missed or misunderstood. After that I read the book again and enjoyed it.

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kovac 14 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I thought it was just me. I gave up on reading the book midway,because I was confused most of the time, and found it hard to engage.

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whartung 17 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I’ve tried to listen to a book on tape on a long drive twice. And each time I was lucky to not drive into an abutment. For whatever reason, the droning just knocks me unconscious.

Talk radio is ok, sports radio. I’ve listened to more radio plays with multiple speakers. Those are ok.

But books on tape, nope. Too dangerous for me.