So very tough to rate this book, as I suppose it's tough with everything that you consider a classic. Neuromancer is -the- classic cyberpunk novel. When I read this I had flashbacks of playing Shadowrun and reading Shadowrun novels. I had no idea how closely the RPG really stuck with this world of deckers who fight ICE in the matrix. Its influence is outstanding.

The story itself is not that easy to read, not always captivating. Our protagonist is Case, a drug addict and former hacker who had the ability to access cyberspace removed when he tried to cheat his former boss. He's now a substance-abusing wreck living in Japan who does criminal jobs. A street samurai called Molly locates him and offers him a job working for an ex-military guy in a mysterious hacking project. If he joined the team, he'd get his cyberspace access back. Case joins and eventually ends up in Freeside, a space habitat for the rich, where the powerful Tessier-Ashpool dynasty resides. Their job is to infiltrate the residence.

Case is not exactly an easy protagonist to care for, and I was far more interested in Molly, the razor girl, than Case. The build-up to the showdown in Freeside is slow but once events get rolling, it is hard to put the book down. But there are also stretches that were unbelievably boring or confusing.

Anyone interested in cyberpunk should probably read the book that established the genre, but don't expect it to be a super-smooth read these days.