*EDIT:* There's also the CD version somewhere out there. Here's a Reddit post where someone ripped it (but didn't make it available): https://www.reddit.com/r/Neuromancer/comments/1gr7k4n/audiob...

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

William Gibson reads Neuromancer, from tape to mp3 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14021369 - April 2017 (3 comments)

Re. the date:

- The original book was published in 1984

- This abridged audio reading seems to have been published in 1994

- This article was published in 2004

https://bafybeifvyimyhbmn4ml3ewleepiaahaultucbs6nnzu6qwswld6...

Hopefully they renew it eventually

Hearing it from start to finish, all in one go was very emmersive. I just needed a little bit of nicotine gum to stay awake through Gibson's drawling voice and U2's dub accompaniment.

The return trip was Einstein's Dreams on cassette read by Michael York. That voice is a treat.for the ears.

[0] https://haujobb.bandcamp.com/track/penetration-fuck-the-floo... at 2m45s

Was that read by Gibson himself?

JK I found it -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIDVvhy9Z0I

I stopped somewhere half way. Someone spoiled the plot so I know it should get epic at some point but I just can't get there. Am I the only one?

1. There is a reason 'reader of audiobooks' is a profession - it is stupid difficult. I will never do it again.

2. I loved this tape so much. It does such interesting things with its soundscape (from memory - if it actually is just Gibson reading it, then he must have embedded those memories through the sheer brilliance of his performance.

3. My fiancee is partially-sighted (I see her as an investment that will appreciate as biohacking becomes more and more prevalent) and she reads mostly by audiobook.

It's not really how I prefer to read - I get distracted too easily - but I've been appalled at the production quality of what I've overheard. While Gibson's work is a special case, an audiobook is only one dimension away from a film adaptation.

4. Literally all my millennial-Gen-Z-cusp friends who are non-readers opted for the audiobook of my book, not the book-book. Anecdata, but interesting. They would just switch Rogan or whatever out during their commute until they felt they'd listened to (what I assume as) enough of it to be socially acceptable.

5. I have no market knowledge other than that I signed my audiobook rights away to my publishers in the industry-standard way.

6. I'm sure it'd be very easy to procure data that made a case for audio fiction that was well-produced and incorporated soundscape-like elements, being incredibly commercially successful. It strikes me as a form that is ripe for innovation. And everyone loves books on tape.

7. There has been so much really interesting innovation in 'aural mood amendment' over the last decade or two. Some of it seems like pseudoscience, some of it seems legit - I wish I had sources to share. Apologies that I don't.

8. I assume someone has already built this concept - well-produced, soundscape-driven longform audio fiction - I'm not a consumer of that market well enough to know it. It'd be a really, really fun project. I'm sure it'd be very tough to get profitable, but it's almost too fun to care. This could be another reason it doesn't exist.

9. Gibson's 2003(?) novel Pattern Recognition is insanely underrated - probably not by people here - but I think the prose is better, and in a decade or two it will feel just as (if not more) prescient. It's a really, really good example of a literary classic that didn't get attention from book dweebs because it's from a 'genre' guy. If you like Neuromancer, and want to think about the next couple of decades in a similar way, you will really love it. I always thought it'd make a great double-bill with the movie Children of Men .