Neuromancer

Neuromancer is a science fiction novel by the American-Canadian writer William Gibson, published in 1984 as his debut novel and the first book of his Sprawl trilogy. It follows Case, a washed-up computer hacker whose nervous system has been damaged as punishment for a past betrayal, who is recruited by a mysterious former special-forces operative named Armitage, acting on behalf of a powerful artificial intelligence called Wintermute, and offered a cure in exchange for pulling off a dangerous data heist. Case, alongside the augmented street-samurai bodyguard Molly Millions, is drawn into a scheme to infiltrate the orbital habitat Villa Straylight on the space station Freeside, where the plan turns out to be helping Wintermute merge with a second, rival AI named Neuromancer, against a backdrop of corporate espionage, criminal syndicates, and the immersive virtual environment Gibson calls cyberspace. Released with little promotional push, the novel became an underground sensation through word of mouth and went on to win the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award, the only novel ever to sweep all three, while also popularizing terms and concepts, including cyberspace itself and jacking in, that became foundational vocabulary for the cyberpunk genre it is now credited with founding.