Does the lack of submachine guns in the Iliad bother you too, Mr. Picky?

The Iliad isn't set in the future. Also, it wasn't an Anachronism Pedant gripe, it was a jarring response to the imagery - which worked very consciously to create metaphors out of new technology.

Didn't Gibson write Neuromancer on a typewriter?

Either way, I don't feel young enough to not remember static (I can see and hear it right now, if I try just a little). Science fiction written five years ago has similar problems -- I've never understood why people loved that one to pick on so much.

Didn't Gibson write Neuromancer on a typewriter?

He did.

I've never understood why people loved that one to pick on so much.

Because Gibson very specifically crafted the language, metaphors and imagery in technology. And that one got so obsolete so fast it's not the right phrase anymore. And it was the perfect phrase of its time.

The other jarring thing about Neuromancer is that it sorta kinda posits the continuation of the Cold War. Which in 1989 looked wrong, but now the way things are swinging (Putin taking an iron hand, the Ukrainian election subject to wacky KGB style poisoning tricks etc.) seems plausible again.

Because Gibson very specifically crafted the language, metaphors and imagery in technology.

Which is fair, and the job of a good writer. I'd rather read a book set firmly and confidently in the imagery of the time, instead of hedging its bets against tomorrow. If it's a novel, that is -- otherwise I'll look for science writing.

My television still makes gray snow if I'm on an empty channel and the VCR and DVD are off.

Think how much shorter it would be with submachine guns!

Yeah, but they're not terribly accurate, just effective. You might lose all that time again trying to pop a cap in Achilles' heel while the bullets were bouncing off everywhere else.

I really liked Lady Teldra, and it was kind of shocking how Brust expanded her role only to do what he did. I thought she was being set up as a new love interest, then BLAMMO!

Ginger, so does mine. Right now, on the coax station with no input.

Will a new generation of kids suddenly understand the metaphor?

You might lose all that time again trying to pop a cap in Achilles' heel while the bullets were bouncing off everywhere else

Pfft. When everyone else is dead, Achilles is much easier to work with. Think of the collateral damage of all those bullets ricocheting into his countrymen.

Wow, I'm managing to agree with both ita and Hec on this one. I always and only see/feel grey static when I read that line, but it also makes me think of TVs with knobs and such and I instantly remember that Neuromancer is an old book.

However, my gripe with Gaiman's response is that I'm not sure that's "arguably the most famous opening line in SF." I'm not sure what I'd put in it's place, but I think "In the week before their departure to Arrakis" would spring to mind first. Dunno. Thoughts?

I think the Gibson line is pretty famous, and works well for me still.

How about: " It is the colour of a bleached skull, his flesh; and the long hair which flows below his shoulders is milk-white."

The other jarring thing about Neuromancer is that it sorta kinda posits the continuation of the Cold War

IIRC it posits it getting hot. I'd never thought of the television thing - prob'ly cos I have an old telly.

Neuromancer is probably the third most famous, after “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” and "No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man's and yet as mortal as his own; ".