big on brands - short on ideas
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Cant help thinking the author was feeling a bit tired & short on ideas when he wrote this one. Shame because there are some glimmers of brilliance & the story finally comes together at the end recovering from being quite frankly dull in the majority.
I'm sick of the constant brand name dropping - especially USA hotel brands I will never visit & dont give a F about. ditto furniture design, coats, phones, drugs, laptops yawn. Wow this book will date so fast!
On the positive, the atmosphere builds well in the parallel stories. Its a good read (if far from his best) and imaginative in a way the author has made his own. Give it a read but borrow it dont buy it!
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Intriguing, But Less Kinetic, Fictional Exploration Of Our Time From William Gibson
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There's probably no one else I can think of who can write so vividly, and inquisitively, about our contemporary techno-psychological landscape than William Gibson. His 2003 novel "Pattern Recognition" remains among the best - if not the best (of which I am certain) - fictional depiction of American media-obsessed culture in the aftermath of 9/11. It was also his best novel in years, a riveting techno-thriller about "cool hunter" Cayce Pollard's search for the mysterious internet "The Footage" which had acquired a most bizarre cult-like status amongst Internet lurkers. "Spook Country", Gibson's latest novel, is a sequel of sorts, introducing us once more to the enigmatic Belgian advertising mogul Hubertus Bigend, owner of Big Ant advertising firm. This time he sends another young woman, Hollis Henry, an investigative journalist for Node - a magazine which doesn't exist yet - on a rather mundane quest to find one Bobby Chombo, a "producer", whose day job involves checking out military navigation gear. We encounter her, early one morning, in a Los Angeles hotel room, on assignment for Node, collecting information on the local underground artistic movement of virtual reality-based "locative art" for an article in the nascent magazine's debut issue. In classic William Gibson literary mode, there are two other subplots which represent other, still larger, pieces of the puzzle that Henry is seeking to solve, involving Tito, a young Cuban Chinese New Yorker whose family has had intelligence ties to both the CIA and KGB, and the Russian-speaking junkie Milgrim, addicted to expensive prescription high-anxiety drugs, who finds himself quite literally, "joined to the hip" with his pharmaceutical benefactor, the mysterious Brown, someone who has some hidden ties to a military, most likely Russia's.
Looming over this entire fictional landscape is of course Hubertus Bigend himself, who doesn't appear until the end of the first third of "Spook Country". Here, more so than "Pattern Recognition", he comes across as some omniscient "Intelligent Designer", orchestrating the events as they unfold, with the other principal characters - especially Hollis, herself - acting as puppets in some vast marionette theater of his own uniquely Byzantine design. We will learn that Bigend has chosen Henry for his mission since she's a former member of the rock band The Curfew, which, apparently, has had ties to Bobby Chombo. There's a memorable chase scene that plays out along the sidewalks - and one restaurant - of New York City's Union Square (New York City finally makes its literary debut in a Gibson novel, and to his credit, Gibson does a splendid job depicting its unique urban rhythms.). Eventually, the three plot lines converge and intersect, in an ornate, yet tidy, resolution in Gibson's hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia (The Canadian seaport, like New York City, also makes its literary debut in a Gibson novel.). There are references of course to contemporary events, such as the American occupation of Iraq, but Gibson presents them as if they were the literary equivalent of a GOOGLE search, allowing the reader to decide their relevant significance to the novel's unfolding events in a decidedly neutral manner.
"Spook Country" is definitely not one of William Gibson's best novels, but an inferior novel from him is still far more fascinating than many best novels I have read from other, lesser novelists who lack his uncanny ability to depict in hallucinatory, lyrical prose, our Internet-dominated culture (It's an artistic trait I'd expect from the same writer who coined the term "cyberspace" years ago, before the Internet was created as the central, unifying information repository of our time.). It is still one of the best literary achievements in fiction published this year, and one that is artistically, if not stylistically, similar to the themes explored by Rick Moody in his recently published novella collection "Right Livelihoods". Along with "Right Livelihoods", "Spook Country" is the most compelling piece of newly published fiction I have read this summer. Without question, it is still a memorable novel from someone whom I regard as the most important writer of our time.
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(Get) Back to The Future
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I've loved all of Gibson's books, and the short stories he has recently published - featuring a more stylised and reductive prose than his previous work - had whetted my appetite for this latest effort.
The prose here is indeed beautiful, but otherwise I found 'Spook Country' very disappointing. The characters come across almost as cardboard cutouts of Gibson stereotypes - 'Ex rockstar turned style magazine journalist' 'Junkie techie' etc - and it takes a very long time for nothing very much to happen to them. Overall, the book reads like a humourless parody of a techno-thriller.
Possibly I'm missing something, as this book has been widely praised as a return to form. However, I enjoy Gibson for the endless surfeit of strange ideas and futuristic notions that are a feature of his earlier books. That aspect of his work isn't really present here.
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Disappointing
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I have read all of William Gibson's books, since back when he was writing about a dystopian future heavily influenced by Japanese culture.
Some of the old Gibson is still there in this book, like separate characters converging at the end. However, the plot is thin & weak, and characters are just wandering in and out of rooms and cities without much to do or even say.
All we learn in the first 300 pages is that there is a container on a ship somewhere that interests a lot of people. It is only in the last 30 pages or so that things develop from there, when one of the shady characters decides to confide in our heroine (whom he has never seen before - huh?) and finally tells her (and us) what is going on. So now we know what is in the container and why these guys are after it, and the book ends soon afterwards. OK then.
The only character that is remotely interesting is the junkie, whose contribution to the plot is translating several sentences from a form of written Russian in latin alphabet. He is the only one with a credible inner world, thoughts and ideas. Gibson actually uses him on several occasions to voice his own thoughts on US stance on torture (blurted out when he was high), war on Iraq, etc.
In all, a disappointing book for those of us who know about Gibson's masterpieces. Perhaps he is getting old. Or maybe he should go back to writing about the future.
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Ordinary...
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Needing a break from fantasy, William Gibson's Spook Country seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. As the author of works such as Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition, I thought it would make for a wonderful reading experience.
Unfortunately, though the book is good enough, it is clearly a far cry from what one has come to expect from a writer of William Gibson's caliber. Interestingly enough, the story never quite takes off. Moreover, the ending is about as lackluster as it gets.
The main problem is that one can never really grasp what this book is all about. Short chapters allow us to maintain a level of interest, and the story and characters are intriguing enough to keep us going. Gibson sets a very good pace, making this one a thriller in terms of style.
Having said that, Spook Country lacks that edge, that little something special that sets thriller apart from other fiction subgenres. It lacks that spark that keeps us promising ourselves that this is the last chapter we're reading before our bedtime. Although there are a few cliffhangers, this one is never a particularly exciting read. Indeed, the story sort of creeps up on you, very slowly.
I found the main characters -- Hollis, Tito, and Milgrim -- to be a fascinating bunch at the beginning. And yet, their back stories turn out to be more interesting than the "real time" events.
Still, regardless of the novel's shortcomings, William Gibson succeeds in keeping us interested in what is occurring. As I mentioned, since the reader doesn't understand what is going on, curiosity makes you eager to discover what Spook Country is all about. The author's narrative is as evocative as is usually his wont, which helps the reader along. Sadly, the ending is so disappointing that it killed this one for me.
Spook Country showed signs of brilliance early on, yet the story deteriorates into something quite ordinary before Gibson brings this one to a close.
Nevertheless, it's still a good read for the morning commute or the plane. But there's no denying that Gibson has accustomed his fans to much better works over the course of his career.
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