Just finished a novel by cyber-punker William Gibson, called Pattern Recognition. It's a sort of mystery/thriller set in the present - no fancy sci-fi trappings here, though there is a lot of techie talk.
The protagonist is a sort of fashion scout consultant who has great street sense for fashion and a number of phobias towards certain advertising labels. The mystery involves pieces of film footage that are left around on the Net: who is leaving them, and is there hidden spy-type info encrypted in them?
There's a nice balance of physical action, detailed observation (often of clothing) and inner world in this novel, and it's extremely well plotted and paced. I really cared about the characters, especially Cayse Pollard, with her neuroses and courage. She reminded me a bit of my favorite hard-boiled woman warrior, Smilla in Smilla's Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg.
Well done, William Gibson!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: I review comments.