Start of a decline

books:


	• Pattern Recognition William Gibson Berkley, 2005 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 269 reviews view larger image
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Is it cyberpunk?

Few genres have writers who is more or less synonymous with them. When you think of mysteries, a number of writers come to mind. With horror, Stephen King stands out, but other names are also dominant: Koontz, Straub, Barker, et cetera. With the science fiction sub-genre of cyberpunk, while there may be other authors, it is William Gibson who pretty much is the king of that field. Nonetheless, I don't know if I'd call his novel Pattern Recognition cyberpunk: in fact, it's barely science fiction.

Pattern Recognition takes place in the very near future and follows Cayce Pollard, a thirtyish woman with the ability to recognize what is cool long before most other people. This puts in demand with sneaker companies and other enterprises that want to be on the cutting edge. On the other hand, her talent comes at an unusual price: she has a strong phobia towards certain advertising logos and a general loathing of any trademarks.

Initially in England to assess a company's new logo, Cayce is soon recruited to go on a strange mission. It seems that every now and then a little bit of film is released on the Internet, attracting interest by those trying to understand the mysterious footage; is it part of a larger movie or should it be viewed in some other context? No one knows where the film is coming from, but plutocrat Bigend Hubertus wants Cayce to find out. Her effort to do so will have her globe-hopping and avoiding enemies who want her to either fail or not get the information in time.

Unfortunately, there is a big flaw in Pattern Recognition, namely who cares? I never really felt the urgency of Cayce's mission: finding out the maker of the film is not going to be earth-shattering. It's akin to knowing who shot Monty Burns well before the revelation episode: it's kind of cool, but it doesn't really change much.

Fortunately, however, Gibson is a decent writer, so this flaw is offset by his interesting world and characters, enough to merit a low four-star review. Is it cyberpunk (or even science fiction)? Only in the vaguest of ways. Is it a decent (if flawed) addition to Gibson's canon? Yes.

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Start of a decline

I have always liked Gibson's work, but Pattern Recognition is the start of a gradual decline. His books were thought-prevoking and unique, but now seem cliched.

My biggest gripe about the book is that all the characters feel like they grew up reading too many Gibson books: that is, they feel like you would never meet them in real life. Previous works by Gibson didn't have that. The characters were much more believable. So it is harder to feel anything for the people in the book.

The story itself is decent, but again a lot of things that seem a bit made up and unrealistic. Gibson's previous works were engaging because they did seem believable - even for the future, but the closer to today he comes, the less believable his stories get.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

The accolades and acclaim are endless for William Gibson's coast-to-coast bestseller. Set in the post-9/11 present, Pattern Recognition is the story of one woman's never-ending search for the now.