The most common answer to this question is that there was no precedent for the type of future that Gibson presented. Gibson revealed a future in which the human-machine interface was so widespread that human and machine became almost indistinguishable. The use of such technology led to the entropy of civilization and even the concept of reality. Gibson's style and content were considered the beginning of a new category of science fiction called 'cyberpunk.' This cyberpunk was said to be the new voice of punk computer-gamers and hackers. But what's interesting about this is the lack of any claim by these computer punks for the literature that supposedly represents them. These individuals do little reading outside of comic books. When they do read other work, it's often more entertaining and storytelling prose than the dense and abstract style of Gibson. The popularity of Gibson's writing can be accounted for by academic interests. What is interesting about Neuromancer is that it was not in and of itself very unique or sensational, but it was used to give voice, willing or not, to the mysterious and strange punk culture.

The story behind the one told in Neuromancer is far more interesting than the fairly flat characters the book has us follow. The world that Gibson creates, the story within the frame, is what is so unique about Gibson's writing. By ignoring the actions of the characters on the page, who we find uninteresting and difficult to relate to, the reader can establish an understanding of Gibson's themes.

The main theme in Neuromancer is the degradation of civilization. At the time that Gibson was conceiving his work, many people experienced, first- and second-hand, a steep rise in crime and corruption followed closely by deterioration in the urban landscape. Through passing details, we learn that Europe experienced some kind of nuclear attack. We also learn that resort towns like Freeside are a conglomeration of artificial backdrops because the real resort towns are too polluted or run down to beckon vacationers.

The comparison of nature and technology throughout the first part of the novel alludes to Gibson's other theme: human-machine relations. In the world of Neuromancer, human-machine interaction is used as a means to enhance biological functions. Molly's ocular device and nail-blade implants, Julius Dean's longevity, and Riviera's hallucination-inducing cortical implant, are just a few examples of how people have become dependent on machine technology as well as the importance of the non-physical world of 'the matrix' to the functioning of society. People like the Cowboys will spend hours on end jacked into the matrix, hacking into corporate and government systems. But much of Gibson's front story glosses over these details that are far more intriguing than the diehard antics of cameo characters in an overdone, hard-boiled motif.

The world presented in the book is rife with environmental, urban, and social decay. Technology dictates how people live their lives, leaving hardly a trace of humanity among the multitudes of people who mill around looking for their next push, next fix, until the 'case' of flesh fails. This entropy, or deterioration of society, is borrowed from the nineteenth century idea that humanity and nature will eventually degrade. Whether for good or bad, we live in a dynamic system that will constantly change.

The idea that humanity will fall into violent entropy is not new. Despite the rave reviews calling Gibson's writing unprecedented and completely revolutionary, H.G. Wells was one of the first to write about a decline in humanity. Wells' short story, The Time Machine, was produced during an age when Darwin and Huxley introduced the possibility that humanity was still evolving and developing. The industrial revolution and the huge technological advancements at the time certainly supported this theory. Wells took this idea to the opposite extreme: What if humanity was directing itself towards a degenerative existence? Wells described his own vision of a degraded human race 800,000 years in the future. Gibson painted a world in much the same vein only with humans as slaves to technology instead of Eloi, in Wells' work, as food for the Morlocks. The parallel is actually quite striking; the technology presented in Gibson's world lives off of the efforts of humanity, feeds in fact, on its efforts to the point where humanity is sacrificed for technological advancements. This need to merge with technology is so strong that maintaining the body becomes arduous. Similar to Wells' idea that humanity evolved itself into two separate degenerative species; the civilization in Gibson's world evolved into a mockery of its former self; becoming more and more half-bred with drugs and technology to become less and less human.

All in all, the reviewers who praised Gibson's ingenuity and uniqueness and who went so far as to claim that a new category of science fiction had been born should go read Wells' The Time Machine. Added to the fact that real cyberpunks wouldn't look at Neuromancer twice, the world presented to us by Gibson was nothing special, especially after the huge leaps in creative science fiction writing during the 1960's and 70's. The dense prose also made it difficult to become invested in Gibson's characters. Their personalities seemed forced for the purpose of creating the meager plot.

What Gibson can be credited for is his ingenuity in combining a futuristic science fiction theme with the classic hard-boiled detective motif. There is not much of that seen in science fiction.