OK, I'll start
Neuromancer by William Gibson
This is not my favorite book, far from it. I like this book. I re-read it, every once in awhile, if I'm in the mood. A dark mood. It's great, but it is not my favorite. But there is a scene...
The first time I read this, I was trying to get to the end of a chapter, so I could go to sleep. I was kind of bored, actually. I liked the story, and loved the concept. But, I didn't like the characters. I wasn't hooked.
At the end of part two, Case is getting ready to go with the crew to start the big operation against Wintermute, the Artificial Intelligence that is the enemy. He stops to buys some cigarettes from a vending machine. Then:
*quoting from Neuromancer:
He fumbled through a pocketful of lirasi, slotting the small dull alloy coins one after another, vaguely amused by the anachronism of the process. The phone nearest him rang.
Automatically, he picked it up.
"Yeah?"
Faint harmonics, tiny inaudible voices rattling across some orbital link, and then a sound like wind.
"Hello. Case."
A fifty-lirasi coin fell from his hand, bounced, and rolled out of sight across Hilton carpeting.
"Wintermute, Case. It's time we talk."
It was a chip voice.
"Don't you want to talk, Case?"
He hung up.
On his way back to the lobby, his cigarettes forgotten, he had to walk the length of the ranked phones. Each rang in turn, but only once, as he passed.
*end quote*
That scene replayed itself in my dreams, for many days afterwards. Sometmes, it does still. The final sentence in the chapter sent
chills up my spine. Still does.
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The RudeDawg
Known in these Forgotten Realms as Perin LightEyes
and my girlfriends, Pamila and Pfil
[This message has been edited by RudeDawg (edited 05-16-2001).]