By the end of Mona Lisa Overdrive we are so far from where The Sprawl Trilogy began that we might as well not be in the same universe. Mr. Gibson has churned through so many characters that it feels like it's been forever and a day since Case and Molly were prowling the Sprawl, readying themselves for their battle in orbit. On one hand, it's a wonderful achievement to have covered so much ground in 700 pages spread across three novels. There's a conciseness of language and of plot here which propels the story ahead with a minimum of lagtime. On the other hand, what continuity does exist between the books in the trilogy is weak at best. And though the overall themes -- the rise of artificial intelligence, the corporate interests, the onward march of technological advancement -- hold, and though they are embodied by the series' characters, Mr. Gibson doesn't quite sell the evolution from Neuromancer to Mona Lisa Overdrive, not as he did in the The Bridge Trilogy anyway.
Once again, the novel's narrative is fragmented into three primary parts. Mona, a prostitute who bears a striking resemblance to Angie Mitchell from the previous novel, is tricked into being part of a plot to kidnap her famous look'a'like. Kumico, a young, Japanese girl sent by her gangland father to live safely in London while he fights an underworld war in Japan, finds herself entangled in old rivalries left over from Neuromancer. Slick Henry, who is perhaps the most sad and depressing character in the entire trilogy, is living out his punitive existence in an industrial wasteland when Bobby from Count Zero comes into his care. As the story advances to a conclusion and the narratives come together, Slick finds himself at the heart of something that he was never equipped to understand. And yet his fidelity of purpose belies the criminal recidivism that has plagued him for so long. As the novel slides towards its inevitable conclusion foreshadowed in Neuromancer, all three threads intertwine satisfyingly if not as spectacularly as one would have hoped.
This is the least likeable of the Sprawl novels for it reveals the least about the world of the Sprawl itself. The mythology in which Mr. Gibson indulged in in Count Zero threatens to consume Mona Lisa Overdrive and while one perfectly understands why, given the mythology's impact on the story, This is far less interesting than the characters of the piece who feel like shadows compared to the casts from the first two novels. It was gratifying to see Molly back in the picture. She is surely in my list of top three coolest heroines of all time, but this does little to enliven the rest. Mona Lisa Overdrive feels self-indulgent, a story that did not need to be told. The conclusions drawn here could have been added onto Count Zero without extending that book by more than 50 pages.
I will always owe a debt of gratitude to The Sprawl Trilogy for delivering a wonderful world and an equally wonderful genre, but I will always remember it as Neuromancer towering over the other two novels like a much older sibling might his two, scrawny brothers. And though that was probably always inevitable given the extent to which Neuromancer is beloved, it still leaves me with a sense of disappointment. (2/5 Stars)
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