From archive (archive) Subject: "Count Zero" by William Gibson Keywords: Neuromancer, Gibson From: ian@loral.UUCP Organization: Loral Instrumentation, San Diego Date: 31 May 86 09:17:40 SDT "Count Zero" by William Gibson Arbor House $15.95 Science fiction allows an author to project current reality into a future world that does not exist yet. Consider our world today. We are at the start of an information age. Computers are the medium of this age and are, by and large, produced by large companies like IBM and DEC. Year after year these companies grow larger and branch out into new areas. What will happen if companies like IBM, DEC, NEC and Fujitsu keep growing as they have been? Population dynamics should give us some clue. Computer power increases even faster than the multinational companies grow. A new generation of computers is being born. These systems are parallel processors. In ten years we may see computer systems that are composed of millions of processors. Coupled with the information revolution has been a quieter revolution in biology. In the last ten years scientist have been able to synthesize complex hormones like insulin that in the past could only be obtained from animal sources. The human genes linked to a number of disorders have been mapped. There is little doubt that there will come a time when the keys to evolution will be in the hands of the human race. Imagine a world fifty years or so in the future, when the multinational companies have become more powerful that na- tions. A time when computer systems of massive power are globally linked. Where some of these computer systems sup- port artificial intelligences. A world where genetic and transplant technology can be used to alter the human form. This is the world that William Gibson first showed us in Neuromancer. In this world the computer breakers of today (called hackers by the media) have evolved into "cowboys" who break into the huge computers on the global network. The cowboys "jack in" to the computer network via consoles that provide direct stimulus to the brain. An illusion is generated to help people work on the global network. This illusion is referred to as the "cyberspace matrix" and ap- pears as a vast three dimensional plain. The huge corporate computer systems are visualized as glowing structures on this plane. With the exception of the military computer systems, most computer systems today have very weak security. In Gibsons world, where information is recognized as both currency and power, computer systems are guarded by complex security sys- tems. These security systems consist of both cryptographic measures and active counter measures that can kill the com- puter breaker by "flat lining" the brain ("flat line" refers to what would be seen on an EEG). The security systems are referred to as Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics, or ICE. The programs the cowboys use to break into these systems are referred to as icebreakers. Gibson's new novel, Count Zero, is set in the same universe as Neuromancer, but several years later. Count Zero is the "handle" of Bobby Newmark, who lives in a housing project and dreams of escaping to a better life by becoming a "cowboy". A small time black market dealer rents Bobby an icebreaker to use on his first cowboy run through the cyber- space matrix. The black market dealer even suggests a sys- tem to try the icebreaker out on. As it turns out the sys- tem is heavily guarded and Bobby is almost flat lined. The icebreaker is later stolen and the suppliers of the ice- breaker attempt to recover it with Bobby's help. Gibson interweaves Bobby's story with threads from the lives of a corporate mercenary and a woman who previously owned an art gallery. Some of the other characters overlap from Neu- romancer: Finn, the black market dealer in software is back and the three threads of the story are drawn together at the end of the book by remnants of the Tessier-Ashpool empire. Count Zero is highly recommended to those who liked Neu- romancer or the movie Blade Runner. Ian Kaplan Loral Dataflow Group USENET: {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!sdcc6!loral!ian ARPA: sdcc6!loral!ian@UCSD From archive (archive) Subject: Count Zero, a mini-review From: pete@stc.co.uk Organization: STC Telecoms, London N11 1HB. Date: 13 Jun 86 06:06:44 GMT I loved Burning Chrome, I liked Neuromancer. Why then do I feel disappointed by Count Zero? Well, let's look at the plus features first. William Gibson has his story-telling act more together this time. Neuromancer has a messy plot line; it reads like many stories welded together. In Count Zero the three main characters, Turner the merc, Marly the disgraced art dealer and Count Zero the beginner cyberpunk, each have their own stories which converge neatly at the end. There's plenty of atmosphere of the Blade Runner type, quite a lot of violence, very little sex and lots of trademarks. I read it straight through. In fact, just a slicker version of what we've seen already. I'm afraid that Gibson, from promising beginnings as a sort of Bester-Delany-Varley (plus his own ideas), is going to start turning out pot-boilers. Count Zero contains what I regard as the kiss of death in a novel - obvious script potential. You can see a Hollywood man going over the book, with its filmic intercuts between characters and plot lines, and thinking he's got a hot property here. It annoys me the same way that a key-change in a song does. What price volume #20 in the fabulous Sprawl saga - Slaves of Cyberspace? Or a Titan-Wizard-Demon style trilogy? I hope this doesn't happen. I hope that Gibson realises that he's mined this particular seam out and writes something new. But I shall approach the next novel with some scepticism. -- Peter Kendell ...!mcvax!ukc!stc!pete "9 1/2 Weeks?. They should have got 9 1/2 years!" From archive (archive) Subject: Count Zero, a mini-review From: pete@stc.co.uk Organization: STC Telecoms, London N11 1HB. Date: 13 Jun 86 09:06:44 SDT I loved Burning Chrome, I liked Neuromancer. Why then do I feel disappointed by Count Zero? Well, let's look at the plus features first. William Gibson has his story-telling act more together this time. Neuromancer has a messy plot line; it reads like many stories welded together. In Count Zero the three main characters, Turner the merc, Marly the disgraced art dealer and Count Zero the beginner cyberpunk, each have their own stories which converge neatly at the end. There's plenty of atmosphere of the Blade Runner type, quite a lot of violence, very little sex and lots of trademarks. I read it straight through. In fact, just a slicker version of what we've seen already. I'm afraid that Gibson, from promising beginnings as a sort of Bester-Delany-Varley (plus his own ideas), is going to start turning out pot-boilers. Count Zero contains what I regard as the kiss of death in a novel - obvious script potential. You can see a Hollywood man going over the book, with its filmic intercuts between characters and plot lines, and thinking he's got a hot property here. It annoys me the same way that a key-change in a song does. What price volume #20 in the fabulous Sprawl saga - Slaves of Cyberspace? Or a Titan-Wizard-Demon style trilogy? I hope this doesn't happen. I hope that Gibson realises that he's mined this particular seam out and writes something new. But I shall approach the next novel with some scepticism. -- Peter Kendell ...!mcvax!ukc!stc!pete "9 1/2 Weeks?. They should have got 9 1/2 years!" From rec.arts.sf-reviews Fri May 31 10:24:14 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!think.com!cass.ma02.bull.com!know!aslss02.nec.com From: stover@aslss02.nec.com (Jim Stover) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: Review: "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling Keywords: SF Message-ID: <101@monster.pws.ma30.bull.com> Date: 29 May 91 16:01:31 GMT Sender: wex@pws.ma30.bull.com Organization: Advanced Switching Lab., NEC, Dallas, TX Lines: 46 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com [This review has been slightly edited for clarity and to add a spoiler warning. --AW] %A Gibson, William %A Sterling, Bruce %T The Difference Engine %I Bantam Books %C New York %D April 1991 %G ISBN 0-553-07028-2 %P 429 pp. %O hardback, US$19.95 This book explores the world of England in 1855 assuming that Babbage had produced a successful "Difference Engine." Babbage and his followers rule England and Engines are an everyday part of life. Engines are used by the police, credit card companies and artists to drive kinotropes, a mechanical cross between a TV and a scoreboard. "Clackers" are striving to write the ultimate program, the "Modus." This world is also populated by criminals, spies and politicians, all at odds with one another. The novel explores pollution, love, spying, invasion of privacy, anarchy, sex, science, art and programming. The book is very good at exploring this interesting world. Yet I was dissatisfied. There does not seem to be a clear narrative voice, no driving plot to move the action forward. Characters and events come and go, concepts are introduced and dropped, ideas explored and then abandoned. There is a metaphysical? ending that does not satisfy. Maybe I am old-fashioned and just like a nice direct story line, but I could not see where this book was going. [small spoiler warning] At the close of the book Lady Ada (of the ADA language fame) discusses the "Modus." This was most facinating and I wish that this aspect had been more fully explored in the novel. All in all a good but ultimately unsatisfying exploration of a world that came very close to being. I recommend the book with some reservation. James T. Stover -- -- jim, stover@asl.dl.nec.com (x3501) How many software developers does it take to change a lightbulb? None: they all claim `The light works fine on our system!' From archive (archive) From: erict@flatline.UUCP (j eric townsend) Subject: A Review of _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, by William Gibson Date: 2 Aug 88 06:28:07 GMT A hacked together review prepared around 0100hrs before I start a paper on French symbolist poets. I wonder if the prof'd accept this instead.... Flames should be mailed to alt-dev-null@flatline.UUCP :-) ---- A Review of _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, by William Gibson by J. Eric Townsend (erict@flatline.UUCP) (NO PLOT SPOILERS; SOME CONSTRUCTION/STYLE/FORMAT SPOILERS) Hit /Summary: at the more prompt to skip to the summary and miss the few minor spoilers. With _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, Gibson has finished the "sprawl" series in fine style. _Mona Lisa Overdrive_ has its weaknesses as well, but as a whole it equals both _Neuromancer_ and _Count Zero_. _Mona Lisa Overdrive_ is less hardware oriented than its predecessors while more people-oriented. Character development is relatively strong (compared to _Neuromancer_ and _Count Zero_); and the characters Gibson uses are much more diverse: a prostitute, a hardware hacker, an artist, the daughter of a yakuza lord, etc. Hardware isn't as important (and isn't needed as much) because of the relative abundance of characters and their intrinsic intrest value to the reader. The hardware that exists is more "realistic" -- I didn't notice any major contradictions, at least -- than the earlier books. A couple of minor plot devices, while seemingly original, are based on current-day usages of technology. (A somewhat oblique reference to Survival Research Laboratories comes immediately to mind.) Enjoyability. A great part of my infatuation with _Neuromancer_ was related to the style and subject of the book. Whether or not Gibson knew what a modem was for was irrelevant while I was reading _Neuromancer_. _Count Zero_ was slower paced than _Neuromancer_, because it depended on a different subject and style -- one that did not lend itself to the slick, glossy sleaze and speed of _Neuromancer_. It was still as good, however, and it still dealt with the same basic subject, but from a different angle. _Mona Lisa Overdrive_, likewise, deals with the Sprawl, AI's, and the natural progression of intelligence (among other things), but from a different angle. Gibson should have reached a bit farther, I feel, as the difference between _Mona Lisa Overdrive_ and _Count Zero_ is not near the difference between _Count Zero_ and _Neuromancer_. Gibson has shown drastic improvement in his work before -- compare "The Gernsback Continuum" with "New Rose Hotel". I think he sloughed off by not going the extra step with _Mona Lisa Overdrive_. Maybe he was distracted with the Alien III script, the "New Rose Hotel" script, and his work with Shirley. If that *is* the case, I wish he'd work on one project at a time, putting everything he had into the one product, rather than spread his energy over several projects. Summary: If you liked _Neuromancer_, _Count Zero_ or _Burning Chrome_, odds are you'll like _Mona Lisa Overdrive_. If you're not a Gibson fan, wait for the paperback or borrow a hardback -- you may like still like _Mona Lisa Overdrive_ because of its moderate divergence from Gibson's earlier work. I hate trying to write reviews without giving out spoilers. They always end up rather bland.... :-) -- J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007 ..!bellcore!tness1!/ From archive (archive) From: hirai@swatsun (Eiji "A.G." Hirai) Organization: Sun Lab, Swarthmore College PA Subject: Neuromacer & Count Zero, by William Gibson Date: 7 Nov 87 23:19:35 GMT Neuromancer and Count Zero, by William Gibson A Book Review by Eiji Hirai Copyright 1987 by Eiji Hirai Cyberspace. Jacking-in. Black Ice. These and other words are used as if they were part of the everyday language of the people. However, the people are living very different lives, not so far into the extrapolative future. This is the world of Cyberpunk. What is Cyberpunk? Readers and writers alike disagree as to what Cyberpunk really is. However, there seems to be a general vague consensus among most people that it deals with an extrapolation into the near future, where computer-human interfacing technology is in wide- spread use. People with chips implanted in their bodies to enhance their abilities are not unusual. There is also a vague agreement among readers that writers in the genre take special care in exploring the social dynamics of their new worlds. So exploration of computer-human interface technology and social dynamics may be said to comprise a loose definition of Cyberpunk. Now, people are bound to quibble with this definition, as with all other attempts at defining this genre. Well, the next best thing to listening to what other people say is to actually read some of the major authors in the genre. William Gibson is considered a very major author in the field and his two novels are considered landmark works of Cyberpunk. His first novel, Neuromancer, was awarded most of the science fiction awards you can name off the top of your head. So What is Neuromancer and Count Zero About? The story of both Neuromancer and Count Zero take place in the same world, and the events of Count Zero take place only seven years after the events of Neuromancer. In Neuromancer the story centers around the exploits of a interface cowboy, a person who makes a living by jacking-in to interface computers and entering the world of cyberspace. Cyberspace is the electronic network which links up almost every computerized site in the world. Being able to maneuver in cyberspace and doing it well is what makes a cowboy. A 3-D world of of a videogame is the closest way I can come to describing what cyberspace looks like. Naturally, companies don't like having their valuable data free to be searched by cowboys. The solution is a type of elaborate security block called Black Ice. Ice is a term coined by Tom Maddox (a friend of Gibson), for Intrusion Countermeasures Elec- tronics. Coming into contact with one may sending you reeling back with a fatal headache. Cowboys are hired to so that they can overcome these blocks and steal or sabotage information for the companies that hire them. Virus programs (a term originating back to John Brunner's Shockwave Rider) are the tools of the trade: they slowly make a path through an ice without the ice knowing about it. High-tech stealth and thievery is the name of the game. Count Zero centers around three different people but the premises and the world are the same. The two books explore this world very well. There are numerous fascinating ideas about how this world is constructed. Corpora- tions are the most powerful organizations, stealing and sabotage is business as usual, street smarts are basic survival skills, the Turing police make sure that no AI becomes too intelligent, and jacking-in is the equivalent of hacking in today's world. In addition to constructing this world and presenting it well, Gibson gives us a view of what a cowoboy's everyday life is like, what he feels, what he wants and what he lives for. The cowboy and the other characters in the book are unique individuals. You can believe in them and see why they feel the way they do, though you may not sympathize with them. There are no heroes and no villains, but that's the real world. If you've seen Ridley Scott's movie called Blade Runner, you might have an idea of how the world is explored. There are many ideas about the world that are begging to be looked at in detail. Fully fleshed people live in the harsh reality of life. For a while, you live in that world. It's not a gung-ho adventure story with lots of action and no depth. The depth of this world is thick as black ice. However, the action and plot are dismally absent in his books. The story plods along without focus and no definite climax in sight. The book ends by resolving some of the conflicts in the story as if in afterthought. The ending of Count Zero is espe- cially obscure. It is hard to understand how the ending came about unless you read each sentence bery bery carefully and closely. These books are not light reading. It is good that Gibson's sentences are loaded, and that each sentence is essen- tial and not superfluous. However, sentences and nice imagery does not make a good story. If story telling is the aim of a book, then Gibson fails in that area. Moreover, the story in Count Zero revolves around three dif- ferent characters who are totally unrelated to each other. The book then jumps back and forth between the stories of these char- acters without much coherent link between them. A single tenuous link becomes apparent only in the latter parts of the book, and obscure way at that. The climax is almost as if it were hastily constructed to tie up the three different stories together so the book could come to an end. Furthermore, the climax is achieved without the direct involvement of the characters. Summary Gibson may have been attempting to show how individual lives in the world are insignificant and none can stop the flow of events. However, this is no excuse to let the plot wander without focus and to append an ending not worth striving for. The ending could have been cut out of the book, and the point of individual lives being insignificant would have made better. Despite these criticism of the plot, the book was worth reading for the world that was explored. The characters were real too. If only Gibson had a tigter grip on the plot, the book would have been exhilarating. Frank Herbert's Dune was a masterpiece for both the presentation of the world and a tight, exciting plot. Gibson achieves only half of this. I've bought Gibson's short story collection called Burning Chrome, and it's in my priority reading list (if I have time, hah!). Perhaps his short stories are better than his novels. I'll try my best to read them without preconceptions I might have from reading his novels. This is just one person's opinion and you may disagree. Well, that's what life is like isn't it? -- Eiji "A.G." Hirai @ Swarthmore College, Swarthmore PA 19081 | Tel. 215-543-9855 UUCP: {rutgers, ihnp4, cbosgd}!bpa!swatsun!hirai | "All Cretans are liars." Bitnet: vu-vlsi!swatsun!hirai@psuvax1.bitnet | -Epimenides Internet: bpa!swatsun!hirai@rutgers.edu | of Cnossus, Crete From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu Sep 2 23:07:27 1993 Path: lysator.liu.se!isy!liuida!sunic!pipex!uunet!psinntp!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: bluejack@delphi.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Review: Virtual Light by Wm. Gibson Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Organization: General Videotex Corporation Message-ID: <25ns5d$op0@news.delphi.com> Date: 01 Sep 93 22:14:56 GMT Lines: 147 William Gibson, Virtual Light, Bantam, 1993. Reviewed by Bluejack It is a big day for cyberpunks everywhere. A big day, but not necessarily a happy day. William Gibson's new novel Virtual Light has just hit the stores, and it thoroughly disappoints. It may be true: Gibson has lost his edge. In his first books, William Gibson founded 'cyberpunk,' a new style of science fiction that blends cutting edge technology with a bleak social and ecological future. Gibson's Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive, took technologies currently under development to their probable conclusions and set them in a world in which national boundaries have been replaced by corporate boundaries, and political structures have become vestigial features of the landscape of information. In the cyberspace, cyberpunk world, human flesh and human technology merge, and the desparate struggle for survival and success take place in the intersection of a dying planet and a blossoming computer-generated artificial world. This vision caught the imagination of a new generation of science fiction readers not just because of the range and maturity of his ideas, but also because of the sheer beauty of Gibson's writing. Following the success of this trilogy, cyberpunk took on a life of its own, peopled by the creations of uncountable imitators, fueled by both the alternative and mainstream media. It has determined the direction of new technologies from computer networks to multimedia; it has sparked thousands of real-world applications of virtual reality technology. So, when William Gibson releases a novel, it is cause for great stirring in the world of science fiction. Think of him as a prophet. He has a personal mythology: when he first began to write Neuromancer, he didn't know a bit from a byte, a modem from a motherboard. He did a little reading in the popular science press, and combined it with an incisive vision of the future of urban America. He introduced characters that science fiction wasn't used to: small time crooks, underdogs, and pathetic heros, most blissfully and adolescently unaware of the dangers they were putting themselves into. He plunked it out on a manual typerwriter. Gibson claims he wasn't trying to do anything original. He saw himself in the tradition of Robert Silverberg, Ursula LeGuin, Philip K. Dick, or Stanislaw Lem: writing science fiction that was about society, about real people, and about the world we live in now. But he was also writing exciting sci-fi in a voice no one had heard before -- the gravel throated drawl of the downtrodden. But recently there has been reason to doubt. Gibson's last work, The Difference Engine, co-authored by Bruce Sterling, was a great disappointment to many fans. It had neither the depth, the intricacy, nor the style of his previous works. One could blame it on Sterling, who, while a heavyweight in the cyberpunk mythos, just doesn't have the talent that Gibson has. Thus it was with a sense of great anticipation and dark foreboding that we awaited Virtual Light. The story: Berry Rydell has failed as a cop & now he has blown his job with IntenSecure, world's largest private security corporation. Rydell, it seems, can take his work a little too seriously, throwing everything he has at a situation that calls for delicacy. It's not his fault that he steers his Hotspur Hussar (affectionately nicknamed Gunhead) through the high- power security gate and into the living room of a wealthy couple, only to find the wife cavorting with a gardener: some hacker got into his onboard computer and sent a kidnap in progress warning, children in mortal danger. Nonetheless, IntenSecure couldn't keep him on. They did, however, place him with a freelancer up in San Fran who was on a particularly important mission for the corporation. Meanwhile Chevette, a quick but naive young bike courier in San Francisco finds herself in a bit of trouble. It was the last run of her day and she found herself in the midst of a very high class party. Not a nice party. When an obnoxious, creepy man, who also turns out to be a courier of a different sort, feels her up, Chevette retaliates by quietly relieving him of his parcel. Only later, when all the weight of the Columbian information cartel comes down on her courier company does she realize quite how big a mistake she has made. Virtual Light finds a new setting: San Francisco in a near future that has suffered a major earthquake. It is the same world of urban decay and environmental degradation that Gibson's other work has been in, but we see less of it, the picture is less detailed, the presence of a massive tangle of corporate interests and intrigues is missing. There are, however, some beautiful ideas, most notably the Bridge: "Its steel bones, its stranded tendons, were lost within an accretion of dreams: tattoo parlors, gaming arcades, dimly lit stalls stacked with decaying magazines, sellers of fireworks, of cut bait, betting shops, sushi bars, unlicensed pawnbrokers, herbalists, barbers, bars. Dreams of commerce, their locations generally corresponding with the decks that had once carried vehicular traffic; while above them, rising to the very peaks of the cable towers, lifted the intricately suspended barrio, with its unnumbered population and its zones of more private fantasy." This is the Bay Bridge, damaged beyond repair in the great quake, but still sturdy enough to be haphazardly constructed upon by the outcasts of an unforgiving world of all-powerful corporations. These are the outcasts that Gibson brought into science fiction, this is vision that gave birth to cyberpunk. So what's wrong with it? It's a good story, told with more style than most of his imitators. The language is still hip, the technology is still speculative, the characters are still real. Problem is, it's the same characters but with different names. It's the same misfits and underdogs trying to outwit the pros, the same small time folks that have wandered through all Gibson's other novels. They are losing their grit, they have become formulae. Problem is, it's the same hip language, the same too-cool style. Now that everyone is talking it, there's not much to lift Gibson above the crowd of his followers except the historical point that he did it first. It's nothing new, now. Problem is, he's lost his ability to articulate speculative technology in a convincing way -- the only new technologies in Virtual Light are a collection of ambiguous quasi-organic sciences referred to variously as German Nanotech, nanospore, and nanomech. But the workings are opaque and uninspiring; it ends up a simple fantasy of impossible, magical technology. But most of all, the problem is that Gibson's vision has grown stale. One gets the feeling that somewhere in his success Gibson has lost touch with the outcasts of our own world and has gone looking for inspiration not in the ghettos, not among the burnt-out factories or the junkyards or the deserted rail yards, but rather in the glossy pages of Mondo 2000 or in the books of his own followers. In Neuromancer one felt that Gibson knew what it was like to hungry for a couple of weeks, that he himself had tasted this desperate craving for victory that his characters sought. The story of failure, despair, and improbable victory became real. In Virtual Light one feels that Gibson has spent to much time playtesting Virtual Reality headgear and eating at good restaurants. Indeed, in comparison with works by some of his recent imitators, Virtual Light seems very light indeed. Of particular note are two recent additions to the Cyberpunk canon. Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash has neither the smooth voice nor the tight plot of any Gibson novel, but it has a cast of fun characters and a love of new technological ideas that is missing in Gibson's new work. Most interesting of all, published in early '92, Snow Crash also features a cute young woman who is a skateboard courier. Of more serious intent and of more challenging substance is Norman Spinrad's Little Heroes. Spinrad, a longtime sci-fi author with lifelong subversive intent uses the cyberpunk milieu to explore the possibility of music/software as a drug with which to incite revolution. Has Gibson been reading this stuff? Both books do have Gibson-quotes on the cover... With as much acclaim as he has received in recent years, perhaps it is inevitable that his work should suffer. There are few instances where an author's work was improved by the unabashed admiration and imitation of others. No longer a prophet in the wilderness transcribing the visions of his genius, Gibson is a celebrated patriarch. He is part of the phenomenon. He is linked into Internet, he makes regular appearances in Mondo 2000 surrounded by the flattering voices of the faithful, he is an idol to a whole new generation of would-be hackers. The ancients were known for exiling or destroying their prophets, perhaps we eliminate ours through process of assimilation. Philadelphia 1993 %T Virtual Light %A William Gibson %D 1993 %G ISBN 0-55307-499-7 %I Bantam %O Cloth, $US 23.95 From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed May 18 17:37:55 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!postmodern.com!not-for-mail From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Prograde Reviews--William Gibson:Virtual Light Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 18 May 1994 08:51:32 GMT Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Lines: 50 Sender: mcb@postmodern.com (Michael C. Berch) Approved: mcb@postmodern.com (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2r9qdr$5ag@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Reply-To: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca NNTP-Posting-Host: remarque.berkeley.edu Originator: mcb@remarque.berkeley.edu William Gibson:Virtual Light A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey This is the first one of Gibson's books that I understood and liked the first time through. His Cyberspace trilogy kept losing me on first reads, and I don't even want to talk about _The Difference Engine_. But this one is very much more accessible. In fact, I'd almost call it light-hearted, in places. It has a happy ending, nobody important dies, and there are a few outright hilarious moments. The plot has the almost standard cyberpunk element of "something stolen from a courier that everyone wants to get their hands on". In this case, it turns out to be relatively trivial (no incredible new cybertechnology or military secrets; more like real estate secrets), so at least there aren't any major huge corporations after them. Chevette Washington is the bicycle courier who steals the thing in the first place; she lives on the Golden Gate bridge, which became a haven for the homeless after it was closed to traffic. (That section of the book, incidentally, was modified from "Skinner's Room", a story part of a 1990 art exhibit called "Visionary San Francisco".) Berry Rydell is a former cop, former rent-a-cop, both the result of incredible bad luck. Now he's been hired to go track this object (a pair of goggles with Virtual Light VR, which stimulates the optic nerve directly without "real" light) and return it. But he's double-crossed, and then he and Chevette end up joining forces to try to escape with their lives... The book is not without its tense moments, but it is not without its light ones, as well. Compared to _Neuromancer_, this is definitely fluff, but it's enjoyable nonetheless. Serious cyberpunk fans who dislike happy endings may want to stay away. %A Gibson, William %T Virtual Light %I McClelland-Bantam Seal %C Toronto %D September 1993 %G ISBN 0-7704-2568-2 %O Hardcover, CAD24.95 %P 325 pp. -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Robert Plant:Pictures At Eleven Current Read--Philip Jose Farmer:The Other Log of Phileas Fogg "Thinks again--thanks to brain, the new wonder head-filler!" --Bluebottle From rec.arts.sf.reviews Mon Jul 24 14:51:45 1995 Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!liuida!sunic!sunic.sunet.se!news.sprintlink.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!fnnews.fnal.gov!gw1.att.com!nntpa!not-for-mail From: ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Subject: BOOK REVIEW: JOHNNY MNEMONIC Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films,rec.arts.sf.movies,rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.books Summary: r.a.m.r. #03840 Originator: ecl@mtgp003 Keywords: author=E.C.Leeper Sender: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Nntp-Posting-Host: mtgp003.mt.att.com Reply-To: ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Organization: AT&T Date: Tue, 18 Jul 1995 14:48:46 GMT Approved: ecl@mtgpfs2.att.com Lines: 42 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3208 rec.arts.sf.reviews:808 rec.arts.books.reviews:706 JOHNNY MNEMONIC by William Gibson Ace, ISBN 0-441-00234-X, 1995, 164pp, US$12 A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1995 Evelyn C. Leeper I guess this is really JOHNNY MNEMONIC: THE MOVIE: THE BOOK, though thankfully not titled thus. It includes the screenplay of the film, stills from the film, and the original story, both by Gibson. Since I have not seen the movie (any movie that gets no positive reviews, nineteen negative reviews, and two mixed reviews from the New York critics starts out with a bit of a handicap), I can't tell if the screenplay is an early draft or the final version. (I can say, however, that though directions indicate that some dialogue is in Mandarin or Japanese, only the English subtitles for this dialogue are given. I hope the movie actually used accurate Mandarin and Japanese, unlike films such as HER ALIBI, which used nonsense words and claimed it was Romanian.) From the screenplay, however, I can conclude that this was probably a very visual film, since the dialogue alone, even with stage directions and stills, doesn't do much for me. Gibson's original story, written to be read rather than filmed, works much better, but no one is going to buy this book just for that. I'm not sure who the market for this book is. I suppose that screenwriters and film critics might find it interesting to compare with original written story with the screenplay by the same author, but is that really a big enough market? In any case, unless that aspect appeals to you, I can't recommend this book. If the video of JOHNNY MNEMONIC is priced to sell, it won't cost much more than this book and will be a much more complete artifact of the film. If what you want is the story, it would make more sense to buy Gibson's collection BURNING CHROME for the story and get all the other stories in that as well. %T Johnny Mnemonic %A William Gibson %C New York %D 1995 %I Ace %O trade paperback, US$12 %G ISBN 0-441-00234-X %P 164pp Path: news.ifm.liu.se!solace!news.stealth.net!www.nntp.primenet.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.texas.net!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!usenet From: agapow@latcs1.cs.latrobe.edu.au (p-m agapow) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: "Idoru" by William Gibson Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Date: 30 Sep 1996 14:56:16 -0400 Organization: Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Biologists Lines: 74 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: tinbergen.media.mit.edu Keywords: author=p-m agapow X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 "Idoru" by William Gibson A Postview, copyright 1996 p-m agapow Early in the next century, Lo/Rez is more than just the hottest rock band in the world, it's a business. The enigmatic guitar hero Rez has announced that he will marry Rei Toei, the most popular musician in Japan, the idoru. But she doesn't exist and Rez's obsession leads a teenage fan and a disgraced data-miner in a bizarre journey through rebuilt Tokyo, the machinations of Lo/Rez's corporation, the criminal underworld and an ethereal hacker kingdom. There is an episode of "Ripping Yarns" set in a distant English manor where a doctor must tend a female patient. He reports that he treated her by rubbing ointment over her chest. When asked if that helped, he pauses and gasps huskily, "Yes. Yes, it did, thank you." I was plowing my way through a joyless cyberpunk epic when "Idoru" landed on my slushpile. After a brief battle of conscience about leaving the first book unfinished, I read "Idoru." And did that help? Yes. Yes, it did, thank you. Gibson can rightly be criticised for getting obsessed with details, stylistic flourishes and obscure murky climaxes. But even where these diversions dominate the book, e.g. "Mona Lisa Overdrive", there is a consolation. Gibson is fun. This is something that has been missed by many of his imitators, who have been busy trying to be more streetwise and grimy than each other. They've lost the sense of delight and fun in exploring a strange world, one described in a set of vivid images - Tokyo's bay awash with polystyrene packing -- "Neuromancer"; a millionaire dying amidst an illusion of La Sagrada Familia -- "Count Zero"; the crowded ghetto built on a dead bridge -- "Virtual Light". It's nearly enough to make you forgive him the script for "Johnny Mnemonic." Nearly. Set in the same world as "Virtual Light," "Idoru" is crammed with these pictures, as we see a Tokyo rebuilt with shifting organic nanotechnological buildings, where the streets crawl with predatory Russian gangsters. Undoubtedly the result of experiences while travelling, the characters of the book observe closely the rich strangeness around them. The world is better realised here than "Virtual Light," feeling deeper and realer. This is not to say that it's entirely plausible - some technical aspects are suspect, such as the very restrained impact of nanotechnology, and aspects of the climax are opaque to everyone, including the author, i suspect. Conversely Gibson shows a deft sense of consumer level technology, with believable earclip translators, personalised computers and software-rich environments. The plotting is also somewhat improved on its predecessor. While "Virtual Light" was an enjoyable book, it consisted almost entirely of asides and diversions. "Idoru" is more directed, with the plot developing and twisting as it goes along. This is also not always convincing or salient, involving an outrageous coincidence or two and some filler. A countercultural bar, the Western World, and the background of the data-miner Laney are expounded in intricate detail, detail that is completely extraneous to the story. There is, late in the book, an oddly lame attempt to involve the Laney's enemies in the plot, whereupon they immediately disappear once more. What was going on there? Possibly "Idoru" is more a collection of good parts rather than a good book, but when it's good, it's a lot of fun. Recommended, dontcha know. [***/interesting], and surrealistic art on the Sid and Nancy scale. %A William Gibson %B Idoru %I Viking %C London %D 1996 %G ISBN 0-670-85779-3 %P 292pp %O trade paperback, Aus$19.95 paul-michael agapow (agapow@latcs1.oz.au), La Trobe Uni, Infocalypse [archived at http://www.cs.latrobe.edu.au/~agapow/Postviews/] Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!skynet.be!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Sender: wex@deepspace.media.mit.edu Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Review: "All Tomorrow's Parties" by William Gibson (1999) From: pm@postviews.freeuk.com (pm agapow) Organization: Infocalypse User-Agent: MacSOUP/2.4 (unregistered for 340 days) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Approved: wex@media.mit.edu X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.4 Date: 02 May 2000 16:52:12 -0400 Message-ID: Lines: 72 NNTP-Posting-Host: deepspace.media.mit.edu X-Trace: dreaderd 957300734 10881 18.85.23.65 Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.sf.reviews:2695 All Tomorrow's Parties, by William Gibson A Postview, Copyright 2000 by Paul-Michael Agapow. A sequel to "Idoru" and "Virtual Light": Laney lies wasting away in a Tokyo railway station, his mind sifting through the planet's dataflow. In the patterns of information he can see a transformation massing, that it will go down in San Francisco, and the world will never be the same again. Laney dispatches rent-a-cop Rydell to the scene, where he is but one of many swept into the hands of the change: an enigmatic businessman poised to take advantage, ex-courier Chevette running from an abusive boyfriend, a mute orphan, an assassin seeking harmony, and the Idoru - the media star who does not exist. Gibson has always been easy to send up - the run-on sentences, the relentless stream of brand names and locations, characters extemporaneously spouting obscure sociology, the text packed with ten-dollar words. On bad days Gibson does sound like a parody of himself. But on good days, he is the consummate social observer, making novels from dozens of smaller stories that wind around each other, deeply intertwingled. Fortunately, "All Tomorrows Parties" is one of the good ones. Gibsonian everyman Rydell trudges through the story as a focus for all the side-stories to happen around. Like Case and Molly from "Neuromancer" or Bobby Newmark from "Count Zero", he verges on being a cipher personally, just a camera looking at the world. The plot climax is almost an afterthought, a cryptic bookend to the conversations that Rydell observes. It's instructive to compare the series "All Tomorrow's Parties" and Gibson's previous trilogy. Both start with their most heavily plotted and centralised entries ("Virtual Light" versus "Neuromancer") before moving into more multi-threaded and cryptic work ("Idoru" versus "Count Zero"). But where the "Neuromancer" series ended with the messy "Mona Lisa Overdrive" (weighed down by a clunky plot, obscure motivations and the feeling that Gibson just wasn't enjoying himself), "All Tomorrow's Parties" comfortably revisits the scenes and characters of previous books. There are some beautifully described scenes, reminiscent of "Neuromancer" and the picture of Tokyo Bay awash with polystyrene packing crates, bobbing up and down. Gibson also has a great deal of affection for his characters, imperfect people trying to get through life. Thus, in the midst of the world ending, we see a watchmaker gloomily handling a messy separation and the odd rejects populating the shantytown within a rail station. Less this sound too serious, Gibson picks up some fine nuances and makes some barbed jokes. For example, when a publicist tries to convince Chevette to capitalise on her temporary fame and get into acting: [Tara May was] always going on about how Chevette should take speech and acting classes, learn all those martial arts, and give up drugs. When Chevette made it clear than she didn't do drugs, Tara-May said that would make networking hard [but] there were groups for everything. Yes, All Tomorrow's Parties is at times implausible, at times meandering and infuriatingly enigmatic. It also deserves some prize for gratuitous use of the word "interstitial" (which I last heard used in second-year physiology and have had no use for ever since.) But it's also oddly elegant and beautifully melancholic. [***/interesting] and Balzac on the Sid & Nancy scale. %A William Gibson %T All Tomorrow's Parties %I Putnam %C New York %D 1999 %P 278pp %G ISBN 0-339-14579-6 %O hardback, US$24.95 -- Paul-Michael Agapow (pm@postviews.freeuk.com)