Reviews of Pattern Recognition (2003) and related work
- Sequel: Spook Country (2007)
- Sequel: Zero History (2010)
Pattern Recognition (2003)
William Gibson (writer).
2002 CE.
The first of Gibson’s books about the very near past instead of the merely near future. It’s a disappointing move, but commercially lucrative. His writing and ideas are still good.
‣ Spook Country (2007)
William Gibson (writer).
It is, alas, derivative of the preceding novel to the extent that, as Joe Clark put it in a footnote to his page-by-page analysis of Pattern Recognition: “In the present technological day, Hubertus Bigend materializes from nowhere and induces a plucky, Macintosh-wielding woman to sleuth for him in quest of a mysterious payload.” This time around, the payload makes for a better symbol of the 2000s than the little T-shaped part of an arming mechanism, but is less elegant.
‣ Zero History (2010)
William Gibson (writer).