Mona Lisa Overdrive

Gibson, William. Mona Lisa Overdrive. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. For translations and other bibliographical information see Internet Speculative Fiction Database, as of April 2023 here[1] and here.[2]

Last book of the Neuromancer "Sprawl" trilogy (see in this Category Neuromancer and Count Zero). Ends romantic-comically, with a twist: the marriage of Bobby and Angie of Count Zero — but in the cyberspace matrix (since they are dead in the material world). We also learn that there is no why but a what for "When It Changed" in the matrix: there's "another matrix, another sentience"; and it's not human (259).

Reviewed briefly by Michael M. Levy, Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Review Annual for 1988 books, pp. 279-80, who notes "the powerful AI computer programs which gained sentience at the end of Neuromancer and which [...] have taken control of the world-spanning cyberspace network, setting themselves up as virtual gods" (p. 280).

Plot analyzed in Wikipedia entry, as of April 2023, here.[3]