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Pattern Recognition

Berkley

List price: $7.99
Lowest new price: $1.95
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Average customer rating: 3.5 stars

SciFi Not

After reading several works by Gibson, I have to admit being slightly puzzled at what he is writing.

SciFi is not horror, and not fantasy.

SciFi is supposed to be about "what if" and "science." It also contains Adventure, and technology. It contains history, sociology, politics, economics and logic.

Gibson sometimes produces something close to science fiction and close to adventure.

But not always and not this time.
PeteDSL

Ok, but not great

Books general attitude regarding the web feels dated, the ending is not great... A love story is started up then just let flop. We start getting into things that go no where. Seems like WG is trying to hard to be hip and all techie (note his shoes on the back cover) rather than it feeling natural. Two stars are reserved for the really bad novels, where P.R. is just not good but not bad.

A non-science fiction novel that makes the present feel like science fiction.

Gibson does an good job of intersecting global integration, marketing, culture, history, pain, identity, memory, identity and survival in this non-science fiction novel that makes the present feel like science fiction. Uneven in its ability to let me suspend my disbelief (in particular the ending) but worth the read.

5-star Writing of a 2-star Story...

Finished a book last night by a new author (new to me at least) William Gibson called 'Pattern Recognition'. Hard to describe the experience: 'Love-Hate' comes to mind. The last couple of books I'd read based upon 5-star Amazon recommendations were real duds and this one I decided to buck the trend, read a quick synopsis and off we went.

I was looking for a sci-fi / techno / thriller / mystery I suppose, but also wanted something written on a level slightly beyond that of a high school sophomore English class (see Laymon, Richard). What I got was a book that really has to be read on the author's terms and not your own. The prose was dense and excessively descriptive, which worked for me in some cases, really pulling me into the environment that he was creating, and in other cases left me grumbling 'GET ON WITH IT'. Perhaps more a reflection of my state-of-mind as I was reading than than inconsistency with the author's pacing I suppose, but never-the-less equal parts enjoyable and frustrating.

The book was somewhat lengthy relative to the corresponding lack of plot advancement - 300+ pages - and it did feel in spots that a good editor could have dismissed with some of description that really did nothing to advance the story, but I don't think that was the author's intent (to serve-up a 'Here are the characters, Here's the story, Here's the big twist, Here's the wrap-up' kind of book). In hindsight, the storyline didn't really deliver on its potential in my estimation however I'd have been otherwise relatively satisfied with the experience save for what felt like (to me at least) a very contrived ending. There was some legit tension that had been built, and as opposed to igniting that powder keg that he'd been building for 300 pages, it felt to me like Gibson instead chose to hit it with a garden sprinkler and walk off into the sunset.

I may check-out his earlier 'NeruoMancer' just to give him a broader sampling but I believe I'll cleanse my literary pallete with a different author before doing so :)

Peace.

- Savage

Boooooring...did William Gibson really write this book?

Other than spatterings of his wonderfully illustrative prose, this book doesn't even seem Gibson-ish (to coin a term). I can see why this book was on the bargain rack at my local bookstore. This book represents 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Boring!!!