Sam
First Post
zenld must be off on Holiday, so in his absence I'll start the discussion on Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.
Generally I liked the book. It was a fast read (took me about 5 days to finish). Generally, I like William Gibson. I think this is one of his better recent works.
For me, Gibson is the Tom Clancy of his genre. The vistas and props are extremely detailed. Verisimilitude is established quickly. Moreso in this novel because it is set in the present day.
Cayce Pollard as a human barometer of cultural shifts is an interesting concept. I'm sure that there are people employed in this way, though I doubt they have the talents that Cayce displays. Also, I thought that an "allergy" to trademarks/logos/brand identifiers was a compelling character flaw. It seems to be a natural progression (for some people) in the commercialization of our society.
The concept of “The Footage” didn’t grab me that strongly though. I only accepted it because of Cayce’s particular talents and anxieties.
Ultimately, I kept wanting more. Not in the way that some books are so good that you don’t want the story to finish. Rather, because it seemed…. unfinished. Other than Cayce, the characters seemed somewhat underdeveloped. The plot seemed to fall off the table for me somewhere inside the prison/hospital.
I think there was much more that could have been done. The end just didn’t seem very satisfying to me.
All that said, this was the first novel that I’ve read that incorporates the September 11th attacks into the story. As someone who lost friends in the World Trade Center, I appreciated Gibson’s treatment of the loss and not knowing the ultimate fate of the lost person. There were many families who still don’t have a sense of closure on the event because remains of their loved ones were never found.
All said, I would rate this book a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest). I continue to like Gibson’s style, although I don’t think he has approached the quality of his earlier works for some time.
What were your thoughts on the Novel?
Generally I liked the book. It was a fast read (took me about 5 days to finish). Generally, I like William Gibson. I think this is one of his better recent works.
For me, Gibson is the Tom Clancy of his genre. The vistas and props are extremely detailed. Verisimilitude is established quickly. Moreso in this novel because it is set in the present day.
Cayce Pollard as a human barometer of cultural shifts is an interesting concept. I'm sure that there are people employed in this way, though I doubt they have the talents that Cayce displays. Also, I thought that an "allergy" to trademarks/logos/brand identifiers was a compelling character flaw. It seems to be a natural progression (for some people) in the commercialization of our society.
The concept of “The Footage” didn’t grab me that strongly though. I only accepted it because of Cayce’s particular talents and anxieties.
Ultimately, I kept wanting more. Not in the way that some books are so good that you don’t want the story to finish. Rather, because it seemed…. unfinished. Other than Cayce, the characters seemed somewhat underdeveloped. The plot seemed to fall off the table for me somewhere inside the prison/hospital.
I think there was much more that could have been done. The end just didn’t seem very satisfying to me.
All that said, this was the first novel that I’ve read that incorporates the September 11th attacks into the story. As someone who lost friends in the World Trade Center, I appreciated Gibson’s treatment of the loss and not knowing the ultimate fate of the lost person. There were many families who still don’t have a sense of closure on the event because remains of their loved ones were never found.
All said, I would rate this book a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest). I continue to like Gibson’s style, although I don’t think he has approached the quality of his earlier works for some time.
What were your thoughts on the Novel?
. Seriously, there's no "membership" to the book club. Participate if you wish. There's no requirement to participate in every discussion/read every book either. Thanks for being involved.
), which makes me wonder why the hell Gibson, who is already provably an absolutely stellar writer, resorted to an expositive ending.
