Pattern Recognition (2003)

I first read this book many years ago and enjoyed it even more this time around. I find myself analyzing Gibson's amazing writing style as much as I enjoy the story itself. I think he could make an interesting story about any obscure subject. This is definitely the best book of the 3 (Spook Country, Zero History). ( )

I haven't read a lot of William Gibson's non-cyberpunk books, so I was expecting this story to take a turn towards the Sci-Fi for about a third of this volume. Instead, it remained a modern-day mystery with a bit of internet detail and very well-drawn characters. This book was written in 2001/2002, so it is unsurprising that it touches on the events of September 11, 2001 in a very direct way. I would've expected that to interfere with my enjoyment of a book, but in this case the author handled it in a way that made the story more impactful, not less.

The book started slow for me, and really didn't pick up momentum until about 2/3 through. There were some details in the story, especially aspects of the characters, that struck me as unrealistic, but none of them were dealbreakers. For instance, the main character is a tech-savvy brand-phobic marketing guru who is intensely aware of and interested in coolness. Someone like that would not, in 2002, use hotmail.

Overall, I'm not interested enough to read another book in this series, but this one wrapped up neatly enough that I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

New words and phrases I learned from this book:
Gimlet eyed: A piercing gaze (a gimlet being a tool that bores holes)
apophenia: they spontaneous perception of connections and meaningfulness in unrelated things
crepuscular: of or resembling twilight
noren: traditional Japanese fabric dividers, hung between rooms, on walls, in doorways, or in windows.
evert: turn outward or inside out ( )

An excellent book with an amazingly well-drawn main character. The ending itself seemed kind of sudden, but so much of the book up to that point was so excellent, it is easy to overlook this minor fault. ( )

Not great, but fine. Sort of Pynchon-lite minus the screwball. ( )

Do you live in the 21st century?
Do you have a computer?
Have you ever seen an advertisement?
Do you believe that if you saw a floating silver robotic penguin, it would be because those really exist, rather than a hallucination?
Read this book then. ( )