CompleteMartialArts.com - Pattern Recognition
|
List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Berkley
|
Average Customer Rating:   
|
|
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780425198681
ISBN: 0425198685
Label: Berkley
Manufacturer: Berkley
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 384
Publication Date: 2005-02-01
Publisher: Berkley
Studio: Berkley
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
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.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable but underwhelming
Comment: This book is by no means bad. It doesn't drag along and you never feel the need to shelf it before you are done.
My main problem with it it that after a great buildup, the payoff was underwhelming. I found myself thinking: "surely this is not it? Is there a sencond part to it?"
It was a nice trip, however, even if the destination was not what I expected.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Remarkable Intent, Mediocre Execution
Comment: Possible spoilers ahead.
I think I like the idea of this book more than what actually turned out to be the case.
For instance, I really like Gibson's insight that many citizens of rich first-world countries live in a world of multiple realities -- many of these revolving around the dissemination of information on the Interweb, monetizable consumeristic preferences, and the inability to make sense of personal identity in an age that requires one to sift through any number of corporations, individuals, cultures, and advertising companies that vie for control of your life on a daily basis. Wry sociologist is a good way of looking at this aspect of it.
I also like how he acknowledges that his writing is essentially cinematic within the novel. Like the hapless individuals who try to make sense of the narrative of the film footage, the reader himself or herself is given similar pieces of clipped noir and thriller writing, itself derived from earlier cinematic and literary sources, to make sense of where the story is going.
But the problems here outweigh some of the, what is to me, intent of the book (spoilers ahead):
-- Film footage is the product of one creative artist whose father is a Russian businessman/mafioso who, it implies, is working with Hubertus of Blue Ant to control a world of consumers. Now would the marketing world be controlled simply by two key players? This is bollocks. Maybe in the world of this book, but certainly not in the world as I see it.
-- His ending for this book just seemed very underwhelming for the weight that he wanted his narrative to have. We are talking about film footage that controls a world of viewers, an indication of trends that could have ramifications for that world of viewers as consumers. And what ends up happening? It's all about a Russian security information breach. Can't we go somewhere with this without having to drag the Cold War into it?
-- The 9/11 elements, although interesting, just seemed poorly integrated into his overall narrative. That's fine, though, since I imagine he and I both are still trying to come to terms with that event.
-- The prose style gets irritating after a while. I don't like Hemingway or Chandler that much either, and what I was reading resembled both of those in a sort of inferior sense. He wants to be terse and slick, much like the advertising he lampoons within, but like the same advertising, it feels very much like a deadweight that shouldn't be there just as some products leave a lot be desired once you get past the advertising. I wish he had focused a tad bit more on the actual content of the narrative as opposed to this effect.
On the whole, I felt this book very much resembles Camdentown. I really liked it at first, and it seemed different at the time, but I can't help but think that both's attempts at doing something different just seem to be as empty an expression as the things they try to criticize, whether it be chain stores or science fiction narratives. You can't fool yourself for long in these environments, even if you wanted to.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A summary is NOT a review, but...
Comment: Pattern Recognition is easily Gibson's slowest paced novel I've read. (I've read Neuromancer through Spook Country.) If you cut out the sequences where Cayce takes off her jacket to hang it on the back of a chair, does Pilates, or examines someone else's fashion, (or to put it simply, any mention of procedural tedium) you'd have a short story.
The basic story hidden amongst all that procedural tedium reads like a virtual ethnography of a group of people dedicated to decoding a random string of Youtube videos. Powerful folks want to get their hands on such a successful viral marketing property, while other powerful men attempt to protect the vid's creators as a matter of course. Sound exciting yet? Throw in a missing father and the Michelin Man then.
Any of Gibson's novels after Neuromancer tend to split up the story among multiple perspectives (Three main point of views usually) and agendas until they finally meet up in the final few chapters so I stuck with Pattern recognition to the bitter end because I knew nothing was going to be answered quickly. Pattern recognition is unique in the sense that Gibson doesn't split the narrative. Cayce is the uncontested main character. This time around, the other threads are marginally contained in Cayce's Hotmail account.
In all, I found the book enjoyable enough to finish, but I'm glad Gibson got off the fashion obsessed for Spook Country. Hopefully I'll never have to read 50 pages about a woman and her obsessions over a nylon flight jacket again. (I'd idly considered making mentions of that coat into a drinking game.)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pattern Recognition, great book
Comment: In general I like good sci fi that's fairly thoughtful. This Gibson is not his typical sci fi, but it's a great mystery/thriller with sci fi elements. The main character is one of the best written characters I've read in quite a while. And it's very current. It has some of the best commentary on 9/11 that I've ever read. And I believe the first time I've seen 9/11 incorporated into fiction.
Good book. It was one of those that I looked forward to reading every night and often stayed up too late finishing just one more chapter.
C'est tout.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't waste your time
Comment: I made it through two chapters and gave up. I am an avid reader and read 30-40 thrillers a year, but this one was unreadable. If you like authors who use 15 words (many of them invented) when three will do, read on. For me, it wasn't worth the effort.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|