I don't understand Peter Riviera...

[Mikhail.Marlowe]

I'm on my third read of Neuromancer.

The first time it was the audiobook, while going with the text.

The second time it was just the paperback. I understood 90% of the plot. But the 10% I didn't understand felt crucial to the plot.
I read the wikipedia summary, and I was right.

One thing that slipped past my head was that Dixie Flatline was a mentor to Case and that's how he knew Dixie. And that Peter Riviera could make these holograms.

Recently, I got my hands on an early printing of Neuromancer and began to read it. it made a lot of sense. Apparently I had phased past the part where Case tells molly that Dixie trained him. Bu the part about Riviera...

Did I miss some exposition? Armitage tells Case that they're going after Peter and they just find him. A monster attacks them. And they subdue him. Then on the shuttle there are 'sperm-like' things in Case's drink. On my first readthrough I thought these were just some things they put in the drink. And while on freeside, insects come out of Peter's mouth. This made no sense to me in any of my previous reads. And only made sense now cuz I had read the summary.


Did I miss anything?

 

[Toby Frost]

They're images that Riviera creates with his weird powers, aren't they? He seems to have a rather sinister sense of humour, and I think Molly warns him to stop it while they're on the shuttle into Freeside. IIRC, there's a bit where he's asleep, and strange objects start floating around his head, presumably because he's dreaming about them.

 

[Vince W]

Riviera had implants at Chiba City to allow him to create the holograms with his mind. It turned out that he was rather good at it despite being a psychopath. He got pleasure from inflicting pain, both physical and psychological and used the holograms as a way to upset people. Despite this, he could be useful to Armitage for these very reasons.