Spook Country 22 Aug 2007

The book has been all over since its launch.

I really really like this and the preceding book Pattern Recognition. As Jenny says, the mechanics and cast of characters seem familiar (beyond the obvious reappearance of Bigend) but it just feels good to be in this world. I read Neuromancer back in 1988 and have followed along since then, but the ones that still grab me the most are the ones set in more recognizable versions of our world. I think a large part of Gibson’s appeal to me is the way he finds the fantastic in-between our everyday stuff.

I’ve reread a few of the more recent books but I don’t go back to the first three. As Gibson has noted, he missed a few developments (like mobile phones) that are pretty glaring in our present, post science fiction, reality. One thing I would like to go back to check out is the voodoo influence. One of the really neat things about the first book was the way that it portrayed science and technology so out there and complex that it kind of becomes magic. Spook Country brings us full circle with a little bit of magic thrown in.