Really good, but not great

books:

	• Spook Country William Gibson Berkley Trade, 2008 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 156 reviews view larger image
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Really good, but not great

Pattern Recognition is one of my favorite novels of the past decade, so I was very excited when I learned that Spook Country took place in the same "universe." Unfortunately it's not quite as good as Pattern Recognition, the story is just a little too thin for my taste.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Gibson's prose is as entertaining as ever, he just doesn't accomplish enough with it this time.

If you enjoyed Pattern Recognition you should definitely read this, just keep your expectations in check and you'll be fine.

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Perfect technique

Great book.

Slow, but I think that's because slow is the way the spy game has to work.

If the slow had been about a single person, it would have dragged. Since the slow was set in the context of a family of spies - past, present, and future, it was understandable, and made the book work. It felt a lot like "Smiley's People."

WG rarely disapoints. Though, I will have to re-read Pattern Recognition, which I found boring at the time.

IMHO, Orson Scott Card should learn from this book.

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Out of the Locative

Customer reviews for each new William Gibson novel display a disconcerting pattern. Many who claim to be fans criticize each release for what it is NOT - usually "Neuromancer" and now "Pattern Recognition" as well. Granted, not all of Gibson's novels succeed equally, but at least he strives for new ideas, and it is especially unfair to continually judge a veteran author based on one classic that he released 23 years ago. If you want a writer who cranks out the exact same material for decades on end, read romance novels - and then see how quickly you get bored with that author whom you supposedly love so much. With all that being said, one legitimate issue with Spook Country is the dreary and slow-moving vibe, with rather colorless action fueled by characters that are fairly interesting but not particularly likeable. Speaking of characters, here Gibson has badly worn out a tired old literary device with not just one but two mysterious masterminds, and having characters refuse to explain things to each other is a pretty annoying method of building suspense. But on the other hand, here Gibson has constructed a strangely fascinating conspiracy with a cutting-edge political angle that I don't think too many other reviewers appreciate enough (or even noticed). We also see that Gibson, regardless of the success of any particular book, is still one of the modern masters of intricately intertwined plotlines and detailed observations of modern techno-dread. Sure this book has some flaws, but it should be critiqued for the right reasons. [~doomsdayer520~]

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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