In this Columbo world, there is always one more thing. I thought I had finished writing about William Gibson and Neuromancer (1984). But serendipity (or weird) had something else in mind for me when I found a collection of science fiction stories at a local secondhand store a few weeks ago. It's called The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection, and it was published in 1985 by Bluejay Books of New York. The editor was Gardner Dozois (1947-2018).
The late Mr. Dozois entitled his introduction "Summation: 1984." Yes, this book is about 1984, the year in which George Orwell's novel of 1949 is set and the year in which Neuromancer was published. Gardner Dozois obviously admired Mr. Gibson and his book. Mr. Dozois mentioned them at least a couple of times in his introduction, beginning with this:
As I explained in last year's anthology, new talent seems to enter the SF world in waves, discrete generational groupings, usually at five-to-ten-year intervals. Now, at the beginning of the '80s, we are clearly in the process of assimilating yet another generational wave of hot new writers, and in the years to come you will be hearing a whole lot more about writers such as William Gibson, Michael Swanwick, Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, Greg Bear [. . .]
and so on. (Boldface added.) (p. 11)
I have been writing about generations and waves. Now here they are together in the same place. In the very next paragraph, the term and concept cyberpunk makes its appearance. The editor referred to a group of writers--"Sterling, Gibson, Shiner, Cadigan, Bear"--as "cyberpunks." I can't say just when the idea that certain authors were "cyberpunks" began, but this must have been an early occurrence.
Mr. Dozois listed the books he had read during 1984. He wrote: "I was most impressed by: Neuromancer [by] William Gibson," and then went on into a long list. But Neuromancer was first. Mr. Gibson's story in this collection is "New Rose Hotel," originally in Omni in July 1984. In his introduction to "New Rose Hotel," the editor expressed his admiration again for William Gibson and his work. He described the story as "a typically fast-paced and hard-edged tour through the decadent high-tech underworld of the future." (p. 207) I have added emphasis to the word decadent, as I have also been writing on that topic lately.
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As I was looking over this new-old addition to my library, I studied the illustration on the front cover. (See below.) Something caught my attention. "What is that?" I said out loud. "What is that?" You might say the same thing when you look at the upper left of the illustration, for there you will see an explosion at the top of one of the twin towers. Just what is happening there, I can't say. Maybe it's an event from one of the stories in the book. Or maybe the illustrator, Thomas Kidd, had a vision of the future.
Original text copyright 2026 Terence E. Hanley
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