When you read a novel packed with such vivid characters and worlds, seeing it brought to live on the screen almost exactly as you imagined it to be a special feeling. The only thing that can take away that feeling is when you realise that the story you read and the story youre seeing are actually supposed to be two different stories entirely. William Gibsons brilliant 1984 novel Neuromancer is full of brilliant plots and places that The Wachowskis used for The Matrix, including the term Matrix itself and also its counterpart Zion, which in Gibsons book is a place of artificial light and zero gravity occupied by Rastas. His Neo, who goes by the name Case, is a computer hacker who jacks-in to cyberspace so he can attack big organisations, something that brings him to the attention of Molly and Armitage Trinity and Morpheus. Even Cases appearance (tall and dark with high, narrow shoulders) is similar to that of Neos, and they both live alone in seedy apartments on the wrong side of the tracks. Both are unassuming loners who come to understand their true potential once they realise they are capable of entering a digital world and altering reality, a world where Case meets Neuromancer and Neo faces off against Agent Smith. Gibson's novel is considered a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre, and was the first to win the so-called science fiction triple crown - the Philip K Dick Award, the Nebula Award and the Hugo Award.
