Revisiting Neuromancer And When It Was Set

 I had a sudden urge a few days ago to revisit the Sprawl Trilogy - and, in doing so, seeing if I could somehow get an even better idea of when it was set.  I may have succeeded at the endeavor!

To recap, here are the bits of information I used initially: 

All three novels are set in the 21st century.  This is clear from multiple references.

Mona Lisa Overdrive, the third novel, is set 14 years after Neuromancer.  This puts an upper limit for for the year as 2076.

The Centenary of the Battle of Britain is mentioned in Mona Lisa Overdrive, which would be 2040.  This puts a lower limit to the year 2026.

As the Swiss law referred to in Neuromancer -  the Act of '53 - indicates that the year would be prior to 2053.

And that's where it stood prior.  

This time around, I noticed something of interest in Mona Lisa Overdrive - the only mention of a month and day, "the last day of November".  I had seen this prior, but now I noticed that there was a strong implication that the day was Sunday, based upon the anecdote told by Cherry.  With that in hand, and looking specifically at the years between 2040 and 2067, I found four suitable years, and then backtracked 14 years to Neuromancer.  The four years are:

2028, 2039, 2045 and 2050.

Gibson's own comments indicate 2035, so the second date might be the most accurate... but as far as the other issues with dating (such as Ashpool being 200!), the latest date might be the best to use... and, coincidentally, is the setting for the 1st edition of the Shadowrun TTRPG...