Mona Lisa Overdrive

Mona Lisa Overdrive
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	William Gibson
Country	United States
Series	the Sprawl trilogy
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publisher	Victor Gollancz Ltd
Publication date	1988
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback)
Pages	251 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-553-05250-0 ISBN 0-553-28174-7
OCLC Number	17876008
Dewey Decimal	813/.54 19
LC Classification	PS3557.I2264 M65 1988
Preceded by	Count Zero

Mona Lisa Overdrive is a cyberpunk novel by William Gibson published in 1988 and the final novel of the Sprawl trilogy, following Neuromancer and Count Zero. It takes place eight years after the events of Count Zero and is set, as were its predecessors, in The Sprawl. The novel was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel in 1989.^[1]

Plot summary

Taking place eight years after the events of Count Zero and fifteen years after Neuromancer, the story is formed from several interconnecting plot threads, and also features characters from Gibson's previous works (such as Molly Millions, the razor-fingered mercenary street samurai from Neuromancer).

One of the plot threads concerns Mona, an innocent young prostitute who has a more-than-passing resemblance to famed Simstim superstar Angie Mitchell. Mona is hired by shady individuals for a "gig" which later turns out to be part of a plot to abduct Angie.

The second story focuses on a young Japanese girl named Kumiko, daughter of a Yakuza boss sent to London to keep her safe while her father engages in a gang war with other top Yakuza leaders. In London she is cared for by one of her father's retainers, who is also a powerful member of the London Mob. She meets Molly Millions (having altered her appearance and now calling herself "Sally Shears," in order to conceal her identity from hostile parties who are implied to be pursuing her), who takes the girl under her wing.

The third story thread follows a reclusive artist named Slick Henry, who lives in the "Rust Belt," a large, poisoned expanse of deserted factories and dumps somewhere between Cleveland and Chicago, and who is a convicted (and punished) car thief. As a result of the repetitive brainwashing nature of his punishment, he spends his days creating large robotic sculptures and periodically suffers episodes of time loss, returning to consciousness afterward with no memory of what he did during the blackout. He is hired by an acquaintance to look after the comatose "Count" (Bobby Newmark from the second novel, "Count Zero," who has hooked himself into a super-capacity cyber-harddrive called an Aleph). A theoretical "Aleph" would have the RAM memory capacity to literally contain all the data of reality. Enough that a memory construct of a person to contain the complete personality of the individual, and allow it to learn, grow and act independently.

The final plot line follows Angela Mitchell, famous simstim star and the girl from the second Sprawl novel Count Zero. Angie, thanks to brain manipulations by her father when she was a child, has always had the ability to access cyberspace directly (without a cyberspace deck), but drugs provided by her production company Sense/Net have severely impeded this ability.

The story of the reclusive artist that makes cybernetic sculptures is a reference to Mark Pauline of Survival Research Labs.^[2]

Allusions to the novel in popular culture

The name Mona Lisa Overdrive has been used in several musical contexts:

• A piece on The Matrix Reloaded soundtrack, performed by Juno Reactor at request and under the supervision of the Wachowski brothers.
• An early 1990s American industrial band.
• An emerging Australian Garage-Psychedelic band.
• An album by the Japanese group Buck-Tick.
• A song performed by the band Sigue Sigue Sputnik.
• A song performed by the band Head Candy on the Mad Love movie soundtrack.
• A song composed by Hiroki Kikuta on the Lost Files soundtrack.
• A song composed by Daisuke Asakura for the album 'Violet Meme'.
• A song by British India for the album Thieves
• A bolted rock climb at the Solar Collector Wall in the Red River Gorge area of Kentucky

References

External links

• Mona Lisa Overdrive at Worlds Without End

v • d • e William Gibson List of works · Awards and nominations The Sprawl trilogy: Neuromancer · Count Zero · Mona Lisa Overdrive The Bridge trilogy: Virtual Light · Idoru · All Tomorrow's Parties Other novels: The Difference Engine (with Bruce Sterling) · Pattern Recognition · Spook Country · Zero History Burning Chrome short story collection "Johnny Mnemonic" · "The Gernsback Continuum" · "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" · "The Belonging Kind" · "Hinterlands" · "Red Star, Winter Orbit" · "New Rose Hotel" · "The Winter Market" · "Burning Chrome" · "Dogfight" Characters: Tessier-Ashpool · Molly Millions · Bobby Newmark · Rei Toei · Konrad · Hubertus Bigend Miscellanea: Agrippa (a book of the dead) · "Disneyland with the Death Penalty" · "Skinner's Room" · Neuromancer video game · Johnny Mnemonic film · New Rose Hotel film · No Maps for These Territories · Node Magazine · "Kill Switch" · "First Person Shooter" Story elements: Cyberspace · Megacorporation · Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics · The Sprawl · Raygun Gothic · Gender-bait