'Spook Country,' a novel by William Gibson

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

I liked the Sprawl trilogy when it came out,
enough to rebuy and reread it a few months ago.
While the blush of newness is off the ideas,
there are some things I really, really think worthwhile:

the voudoun entities in cyberspace - wish he would
grab this and run with it some more, but maybe this
was one of those one-off notions...

the haunting art-collages - this is a theme he continues
to work with, better and better imho

the people living in the Sprawl - especially in
later books, the people living on the old bridge
(oddly similar to the Neal Stephenson population
of London Bridge in his Baroque books)

the lady quester -
he seems to be committing more and more to this
notion, and it works ok but it's kind of surprising
because I thought the Neuromancer trilogy did
have some strong male characters as well - but I don't
really see their descendants in his later work (though
that "Cops in Trouble" guy was cool)



> -----Original Message-----
> From: kelber at mindspring.com [mailto:kelber at mindspring.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 6, 2007 06:21 PM
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: 'Spook Country,' a novel by William Gibson
>
> Only read Neuromancer recently. While I could see how innovative it must have been when it came out, it doesn't hold up, especially post-Matrix (which Gibson was nice enough not to litigate over). I definitely don't feel the urge to read the rest of the Sprawl trilogy, unless someone can convince me the next two books are qualitatively better.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
>
> >
> >Pattern Recognition has one or two decent moments, but
> >all in all was something of a disaster. Cayce is one
> >of the most unlikable, self-pitying protagonists ever
> >put on paper - I mean really: in a world full of all
> >manner of suffering and horror we're asked to take
> >seriously the problems of a whimpering fashionista
> >who's afraid of ***THE MICHELIN MAN***? The scene in
> >which she manages to fend off two burly mobsters with
> >her unexplained martial skills is ludicrous (kind of
> >like Ricky Nelson as a hardened gunslinger in Rio
> >Bravo.) And the 9/11 references are cheap and
> >completely unearned. Maybe Gibson's worst book.
> >
> >
> >--- rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I thought Pattern Recognition was disappointing ,the
> >> 2nd half of the novel
> >> lost something. the sense of dread I suppose. was
> >> more about advertising
> >> than anything sinisterly metaphysical
> >>
> >> i can't tell him and rick moody apart
> >> Rich
> >>
> >>
> >> On 8/6/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I like Gibson's writing also. It's been a while
> >> since I've read
> >> > anything by him, but I remember thinking his
> >> writing was better than
> >> > all those other sci-fi writers.
> >> >
> >> > Here's his blog:
> >> >
> >> > http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/blog.asp
> >> >
> >> > On 8/3/07, Brent Edwards <cbrente at alltel.net>
> >> wrote:
> >> > >
> >> > > I feel that Gibson is one of a very few
> >> contemporary authors who
> >> > continues to raise his own bar. His prose, and
> >> more importantly the depth of
> >> > his ideas, seems to improve with each new work
> >> even though he's been at it
> >> > for almost 25 years now.
> >> >
> >>
> >
>
>