'Spook Country,' a novel by William Gibson

[Richard Ryan]

To my mind "Count Zero" is the best of the three, but
if you didn't care for "Neuromancer" I can't imagine
you'd enjoy the following book that much.  "Mona Lisa
Overdrive" was big step down. "Idoru" was my favorite
in the subsequent Bridge trilogy, but those books are
somewhat interchangeable.  Gibson writes well enough
and comes up with enough engaging ideas that I've kept
reading him, but it's hard to see him ever returning
to the epochal level of the first two Sprawl books.  
One really felt (I really felt, anyway) with his early
work that a whole new world was opening up before my
mind's eye....

--- kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> 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.
> >> >
> >> 
> >
> 
>