Pattern Recognition by William Gibson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Pattern Recognition
Book Review: Here, there, and everywhere: a sci-fi travelogue
Summary: 4 Stars
I picked up Pattern Recognition almost entirely due to the recommendation of David, who read the book last year and insisted that the main character, Cayce, reminded him of me. It's the kind of ego-stroking endorsement no girl can resist. I am the heroine of a William Gibson novel. How could I resist that?
One of the first things that struck me about the book was just how difficult it was to get into. I'm not exactly the kind of girl who digs third-person prose, a small hurdle compounded by the present-tense writing style Gibson employed to give a sense of urgency and momentum to the story. It works well as a device for setting the pace of a story, but on the other hand, when you're more of a Chuck Palahniuk/David Sedaris/first person sort of girl, it's not the most comfortable reading you can do.
The story itself is intriguing, though frustrating in the length of time it takes for Gibson to set up the novel itself. Cayce is a "cool hunter", someone who goes around in clubs, bars, cafes, etc. checking out what the kids are wearing, finding the trends that are going to go mainstream in six months and reporting this to various design agencies. She has a particular talent for this, compounded by a peculiar allergy to logos, that makes her invaluable to any designer trying to jumpstart The Next Big Thing.
It's this job, evaluating the coolness potential of a designer's new logo, that introduces Cayce to Bigend, an over-blown cowboy in London's urban jungle who talks big, dreams big, and just can't be explained, let alone trusted. After work, away from cool hunting and design evaluation, Cayce is a "footage-head", an obsessive fan of an unknown Creator of small clips of a film leaked onto the Internet and debated fanatically at a message board called F:F:F. It is on meeting Bigend that work and leisure combine, worlds collide, and Cayce finds herself working for a strange man she doesn't trust to get the means to find the Creator of the Footage.
All in all, Pattern Recognition is an interesting book, at times strange and unsettling for the prominence September 11, 2001 plays in the story, which was quite unexpected. I haven't read any of the Post 9/11 literature, and the ways the story interacts with the history is both intriguing and off-putting, especially at first when it seems that the story of Cayce's moments on that day are simply red herrings.
But there are no red herrings in Pattern Recognition, though there are unanswered questions and unresolved issues to boot. Still, unlike other novels I've read recently, the small threads left dangling are not damaging to the over-all story of the book, to one's enjoyment of the story, and to the author's world at large. While historic events have a place within the story, the many cities Cayce floats into - London, Paris, Tokyo, Moscow - are as fanciful as they are foreign, and though the story drags in places, the set up gives it enough momentum to keep the story going until the final page.
Book Review: High marks on potential but predictable in the end
Summary: 3 Stars
Context: I have been a hard core cyberpunk fan from day one thanks to Gibson's writing and vision. It is rather odd how close the world created by Sterling and Gibson is starting to come into being (this seems to be a chicken and egg problem).
Review: I had great hopes for Pattern recognition. However, the climax of the books seems to happen near the middle of the story. The story has a predictable ending especially if you enjoy mysteries or know anything about large corporation operations.
The traditional marketing and guerilla marketing elements were executed very well. Yet, the story needs more than that to keep it moving at a good pace.
The characters are not Gibson's best by a long shot. I found a side character obsessed with Timex-Sinclair computers more interesting than the main character -- Cayce Pollard. Cayce was more like a Woody Allen neurotic (one dimensional) than a well-developed character. She does have an interesting ability regarding judging 'coolness' via viseral gut reaction. Her insight regarding marketing and the 'Mirror-world' was good but should have been expanded upon.
I hope that Gibson continues to merge his cyberpunk world into what is happening in the modern world. It should be something of a warning for those willing to listen.
Book Review: I Sort of Wanted a Pattern I Didn't Recognize
Summary: 3 Stars
If "Pattern Recognition" was from any author other than William Gibson, I would give it four stars. Though it won't be on any English lit required reading list fifty years from now it is the quintessential "good read" for the thinking man: It is hip. It is literate. It is fast-paced but consistently thoughtful. But I just think Gibson could do better.
Gibson's heorine is Cayce Pollard, "cool hunter" extraordinaire. She garners a mildly enviable living as a marketing and fashion consultant by wandering the streets of the modern Megalopoli, watching the next generation of modern Western/Asian civilization, and making uncannilly accurate predictions about the next trends in fashion, music, whatever. She also has the unique ability to size up in one ten-second sitting a new marketing logo, intuiting whether it will succeed or not.
Here enters Hubertus Bigend, hyperwealthy London marketing magnate and some time signer of Cayce Pollard's pay checks. Bigend launches Cayce into Gibson's plot by handing her a bottomless corporate credit card and sending her on a literally global hunt for the mysterious genius constructing "The Footage", a series of motion picture frames appearing at unpredicatble times and locations on the internet. "The Footage" may or may not be adding up to a traditional motion picture. It may or may not have some artistic meaning. It may or may not be the creation of a conventional human intelligence. But it has accumulated a cult following of "footage heads" who are absolutely enthralled with the images they see, who spend hours on their .alt newsgroup letting fly with rumors and speculations on its origin and meaning. Cayce Pollard, unbeknownst to Bigend, is already one of the most smitten and loyal footage heads in the world.
And this is where I have to say I have seen this before, delivered by Gibson himself. In Gibson's "Count Zero", Paris art dealer Marly Krushkova plays Cayce Pollard and Euro tycoon Herr Josef Virek plays Bigend, sending Marly/Cayce on a mission to find the mysterious creator of new "boxes", "poems frozen on the boundaries of human experience." Maybe Gibson, is sort of "quoting" himself in "Pattern Recognition", retrofitting his "Count Zero" plot to the turn of the twenty first century. But, I don't know, I guess I just expected to see more of the hallmark creativity that I read Gibson for in the first place.
As in "Count Zero", it turns out that others are also looking for, and attempting to protect, the mysterious artist, others with mysterious agendas and straightforward firearms. Armed with only her credit card and her laptop, Cayce will dodge bullets and bad guys in London, Tokyo, and eastern Europe, in her search for her artist, being helped along the way by e-mails from footage heads the world over.
In Gibson's science fiction, the detail of his imagination makes him the master of creating and evoking unseen worlds. Readers can almost feel the grit beneath their feet on the cracked sidewalks of Gibson's cyberpunk dystopias. But this attention to detail, when turned to contemporary times and places that we all have some middling knowledge of, tends to merely get in the way of the plot of "Pattern Recognition." "Yes, I already know this," I found myself saying several times, or occasionally, "No. This city just isn't *that* weird. Now get on with the story."
But despite all my complaints here, it is a very readable novel, with a rare combination of plenty of action, poignancy, and plenty of "stop and think" moments on the power of media, marketing, the internet, and even international airlines, to redefine our ideas of what constitutes the normal and the desirable in life.
But "Pattern Recognition" still just doesn't clear the bar of imagination that Gibson himself has steadily raised over the past two decades. If you aren't familiar with Gibson, this book might be the place to start. It is a good read, and his other works will be only better. But, if you're looking for the imagination you found in "Neuromancer" or even "Count Zero", be prepared for a bit of a come down.
Book Review: Interesting read, great introduction to Gibson's writing style
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my first read of William Gibson's work and I must say it was fun. His writing style is very enjoyable and the contemporary ideas he explores are very appealing. A possible reason is my own dislike of labels like Tommy Hilfiger, though not to the extent of sanding them off or having convulsions at the sight of the Michelin Man. The protagonist in the novel was recently compared by the New York Times to Steve Jobs. I am looking forward to reading his other, more famous, work.Book Review: It's okay
Summary: 3 Stars
It's a decent book, interesting themes, but the character is forgettable (though he tried to hack together an "interesting" character by giving her funny "quirks"). Not much happens, plotwise, either.
A decent read if you're a Gibson fan, but not something I'd recommend to a new reader.