I finally gave up on this book. In a way I wish I hadn't it because I got so far - read almost 200 of the 300 pages. But at the same time I wish I'd given up on it earlier because, after reading Idoru, this book was such a disappointment. Both novels are part of Gibson's Bridge trilogy. The universe of Virtual Light however, is less advanced than the Idoru one, and thus closer to our present. There are less innovations and advancements in technology and, furthermore, Gibson isn't particularly detailed in his descriptions of the world this time, which for me is a minus. There are no interesting new gizmos, and no explanations as to how things work. The characters are not very well drawn - I had to keep checking who is who, that's how memorable they were. And, last but not least, the plot just felt so contrived and boring. There were some similar storylines between the two books: e.g. underage girl gets involved in something dangerous/illegal/way out of her league. The difference was that I loved Chia (the girl in Idoru) and found Chevette (the girl in VL) boring as hell. I couldn't care less what happened to her. I don't really know if the book was that bad or I'm just exaggerating because I expected so much more from it. But the fact is it didn't manage to draw me in and I chucked it two-thirds of the way. Still enjoyed Gibson's writing style though and his particular way of creating sentences, and hope that he might redeem himself with another novel. I still want to read the third and last book in this trilogy called All Tomorrow's Parties eventually. Just not right now. ( )

Virtual Light is set in the states of Northern and Southern California, in a land and society increasingly divided along the seismic fault lines of wealth and poverty, power and powerlessness. Ex-cop Berry Rydell only wants to make a living, so he signs on with IntenSecure Armed Response and finds himself driving a six-wheeled Hotspur Hussar through the streets of Fortress L.A. Meanwhile, in the dank Bay fog of NoCal's premier city, an ace bicycle messenger named Chevette is about to pick the pocket of another sort of courier - a shadowy agent of the Singapore-based Pacific Rim company that calls all the real shots. Then IntenSecure sends Rydell to San Francisco, teaming him up with Lucius Warbaby, a black skip-tracer adept at hunting people down through the Virtual Rality maze of DatAmerica. Rydell finds himself on a collision course that results in a desperate romance and a journey into the ecstasy and dread that mirror each other at the heart of the postmodern experience.
Virtual Light is Gibson at his dark, comic, most inventive and imaginative best: It is a novel of relentless suspense, and an unforgettable portrait of life on the edge in the twenty-first century.

The action takes place in a lovely cyberpunk San Francisco atmosphere.
I found it rather slow to start, almost the first half of the book is needed to settle the "décor" and all in all there is no much suspense. A bit like all the polar story was there just to bring the reader into Gibson's world. But it's also what we're waiting from him ;-) Not a good story but a world both strange and hyperrealist, a future ( )

This is classic William Gibson. Set in the near-future dystopian society of North and South California, Gibson plays his traditional trick of introducing diverse characters and situations and gradually knitting them together into a climactic ending. Centred on the society that has grown up on the Bridge, anarchic, antiestablishment, unmonitored, he creates a world apart but one with its own life and heartbeat. The reader roots for the odd cross-section of individuals carving a life on the new frontier. He has created a dark, bleak but believable future world. There's just enough difference to make it foreign and alien, enough touchstones to make it a tangible future. The technology is futuristic without being ridiculous. It's a backdrop to a dark, violent subculture in a world dominated by all-powerful corporations, outside the law. There is an enmeshing of Eastern and Western cultures creating a hybrid society, truly globalised, with blurred boundaries. Gibson effectively tells the stories of his protagonists' lives through a mix of narration, personal recollection, flashback and memories of others. It takes the reader the full duration of the book to flesh out fully each character and event. Is this a genre novel? Definitely. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! ( )

http://rivkat.livejournal.com/194819.... ( )