Spook Country.

I came really late to William Gibson.

In 2003, I was doing a couple days of contract work for a new media group in Norfolk, VA (A video piece for the fine, wholesome people at Hedonism - don’t ask), when the, at the time, co-owner of the company (a buddy of mine named David and a huge Gibson fan) gave me a copy of Pattern Recognition.

Super stuff, I was hooked.

Since then, I’ve methodically gone back and read most everything he’s written, so when Spook Country came out I snatched it up quick-like. If anything, Gibson has gotten much, much better. His language, while always inventive and thought-provoking, is almost poetic in some places. His pacing, like a Pixies song - soft/loud, jumps from methodical to frenetic. The man’s serious game has gotten tighter. [Review follows this one quick caveat: Gibson is, for me, a journey-not-the-destination writer. I almost always am a bit, I dunno, bummed? by his endings. Never in such a way that I regret the time invested (the opposite, obviously), but in such a manner that there could have been a bit more - this feeling was lessened considerably with Spook Country.]

On to the book review:

It’s great - go buy it!

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You’re currently reading “Spook Country.,” an entry on blog|PRONEA

Published:: 11.26.07 / 2pm

Category:: Story, Commentary

About

Jonathan Hickman is the visionary talent behind such works as The NIGHTLY NEWS #1, The NIGHTLY NEWS #3 and The NIGHTLY NEWS #6. His upcoming books PAX ROMANA, A RED MASS FOR MARS and TRANSHUMAN are all expected to eclipse his earlier work, like The NIGHTLY NEWS #2, as he plans on making full use of the spell-checker.

Jonathan lives in South Carolina surrounded by immediate family and in-laws, which he plans on leaving unless they start showering him with the love and affection he deserves.

This includes his wife.

DavePress 11.27.07 / 10am

i just picked up pattern recognition a couple of weeks ago, I’m looking forward to reading it as soon as I make it through Kevin Smith’s borefest: “My Boring Ass Life.”

JHickman 11.27.07 / 12pm

You should like it… have you read Robert Rodriguez’s “Rebel without a crew?”

One of the better director autobios.

Andy Kunka 11.28.07 / 8pm

I have not been able to get through Spook Country, even though I’ve been trying to since it came out, but after reading this, I might need to just push through.

I love Pattern Recognition, but I’ve been feeling like Spook Country just hasn’t distinguished itself enough from the previous book. Hollis is enough like Cayce that I wonder why Gibson just didn’t use Cayce again and make the book a full-on sequel, especially since Bigend returns. Also, the geohacking plot just doesn’t hold my interest the way that the footage did in PR. But your Pixies analogy makes a lot of sense, and so, I probably need to rethink the book with that in mind.

JHickman 11.28.07 / 9pm

I think the Hollis/Cayce thing is fair, but Bigend refers to what he did with the ‘footage’ in SPOOK.

Personally, I think he’s building towards a larger commentary on information/advertising with the Bigend-world.

But yes, the footage was cooler… but his language was better in this book.

And the book I can’t seem to get through right now is RANT.

Docmarten 01.09.08 / 6am

Ive been reading William Gibson books since a freind in secondry school (high school) recomended i read neuromancer I read it and didnt get it being fourteen, i just finished spook country and realy enjoyed it but i think theres more to this than meets the eye, with bigend lurking almost omnipresent behind the scenes i think the language he uses has evolved but not that much just along with the techological aspect of the real world as alot of the things gibson wrote about in the eighties and earlie ninties has actualy come into being in a roundabout way.

Doc ( the guy who got the tat)

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Spook Country.

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