Original artwork, not a still
Neuromancer · 1984
The sky above the port was the color of television, tuned to a dead channel.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
One sentence does the work of a whole production design: a television with nothing on it, an empty glow for a world where the real channel has moved into cyberspace. It reads as grey static to some readers and a blue no-signal screen to others, which is part of why people argue about it. It is regularly named among the best opening lines in science fiction, and it quietly announced that cyberpunk would be written in the language of consumer technology gone wrong.
Context reviewed
In context
Spoilers for NeuromancerShow the scene
This is the first sentence of William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984), opening Chapter 1 of Part One, "Chiba City Blues". The book was Gibson's debut novel, commissioned by editor Terry Carr for Ace Science Fiction Specials, and it begins in the Japanese port city of Chiba, where washed-up hacker Case is scraping a living as a low-level hustler after a former employer damaged his nervous system and cut him off from cyberspace. The sentence sets the book's tone before any plot starts: a bleak, noir-flavoured near future.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: NeuromancerNeuromancer (1984), Part One: Chiba City BluesReference checked
- Wikipedia: NeuromancerLead, Background and Plot sectionsReference checked
Context reviewed
