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DuaneDibbley t1_iy6w0tw wrote

I feel like the language (slang, technology) might be difficult for someone completely new to the genre or who read it early on. Now though I think a lot of the cyberpunk concepts have become familiar to the general public. Stuff like hacking, VR, jacking in, cybernetics, cyber crime etc. we've been seeing on TV and big budget movies for decades now. The plot and characters are pretty straightforward from what I remember

EDIT: Thinking more on it I'm really curious what a first reading would be like for someone with truly fresh eyes (especially upon release when cyberpunk wasn't really even a thing). Seeing movies lie The Matrix, Bladerunner, Akira made me want to start reading cyberpunk and I had by then for sure absorbed many more of the concepts from other media too.

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Standard-Counter-422 t1_iy7xz7u wrote

This was my thought exactly! I can't imagine being a new reader when it first came out and trying to visualise virtual spaces and cyberpunk landscapes without any visual lexicon to guide you. It would be so free, but also potentially so confusing!

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swedish_librarian t1_iy8afyy wrote

I read it back in 1987-88 when it was first published in swedish. I had read a lot of classic SF like Heinlein and Clarke before that so I think thats why I picked up Gibson at my local library.

I mostly remember being blown away by the world he created. If I recall correctly my vision of cyberspace was heavily influenced by Tron. This was pre internet so that was probably the closest thing to Gibsons digital world i could reference.

I played a lot of RPGs back then and I remember trying to fit some version to cyberspace into my Traveller campaign. I never really got it to work sadly.

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