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janedallaway's review against another edition
4.0
A good, enjoyable holiday read. I'm always glad to read Gibson novels on my kindle though as the built in dictionary is extremely useful! Part (understated) thriller, part sci-fi with some great descriptive passages and interesting characters. A worthwhile read.
silvani's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed the plot of this book, but I had trouble following it at the beginning. The narrator's voice is slightly gravelly which, when sped up, sounds like poor audio quality. Since I listen to audiobooks at 2x this was challenging for me, especially since modern speakers tend to be balanced base-heavy. Once I got used to the narrator this was a much more pleasant listening experience.
see_sadie_read's review against another edition
3.0
The end is significantly better than the beginning. Not my favourite Gibson, but enjoyable.
dreamnetic's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
cindywho's review against another edition
3.0
I haven't read any Gibson in a while. It was a pleasant read, skipping quickly between 3 sets of characters who will, of course, sort of, meet up. Spooks come in different flavors, from creepy kidnapper to magnate to ex-rock star. They all kept themselves aloof, as spooks will, and it was never very deep.
themysteriouserk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This novel does a great job of expanding upon the ideas and characters introduced in the previous book, Pattern Recognition, and sets things up nicely for the conclusion in Zero History. Like the others among Gibson’s best novels, it managed to balance the pacing of a thriller pretty well with some heavy, nuanced ideas about the role of technology and large corporations/their leaders in our everyday lives. The returning characters from the previous novel will also be a delight to those who enjoyed it, though the main plot is largely separate.
Content Warnings
Minor: Violence
theo1054's review against another edition
2.0
This book was slow paced with not much character development. I was disappointed by the abrupt ending.
ominousevent's review against another edition
2.0
Finally finished this, after getting bored with it and not coming back for over a year.
It gets better in the last few dozen pages, but for the most part the rapidly switching perspectives add little of interest to what is a fairly dry tale for a great many pages. On paper (ha), the characters should be interesting, but they all sound very much the same. Wasted potential.
The pickup and payoff towards the end, while it does exist, is not satisfying enough to make me forgive the preceding tedium.
It gets better in the last few dozen pages, but for the most part the rapidly switching perspectives add little of interest to what is a fairly dry tale for a great many pages. On paper (ha), the characters should be interesting, but they all sound very much the same. Wasted potential.
The pickup and payoff towards the end, while it does exist, is not satisfying enough to make me forgive the preceding tedium.
eowyn's review against another edition
4.0
For about 2/3 of this book, I would have given it 3 stars. The three point of view characters make for choppy reading and made it take longer for me to get into the book and get to know the characters. But the last third came together in a way that made it worthwhile. Not as compelling as the first Blue Ant book (Pattern Recognition) because the mystery is much more opaque for much of the book and because none of the three main characters in this book are as unique and interesting as Cayce. But I still liked it and will read the third.
tome15's review against another edition
4.0
Gibson, William. Spook Country. Blue Ant No. 2. Putnam, 2007.
It is fun to read this novel ten or eleven years after it was written, a halcyon time when there was no Trumpian bullying, no Fake News industry, and no open Russian collusion in American politics; it was also a time when the dream of net neutrality that gave some people hope that electronic freedom was not an oxymoron. The novel certainly has its flaws. The three-ring circus of a plot takes too long to come together and when it does, it leaves me thinking, all that for just this? But then, that may be Gibson’s point. When former rock stars writing for magazines no one reads and drug-addicted loners who sporadically fight against Big Brother, who may not be Big Brother at all but just an ordinary thug, represent pop culture’s everyman, then maybe the loss of personal identity involved in the postmodern condition could be our salvation. If everyone is a celebrity, no one is, and that may be what saves us from the Mongolian Death Worm—Gibson’s symbol for the Nemesis that is everywhere in modern life. One detail I like: the loner protagonist is named Milgrim, recalling the 1960s Milgrim experiment that demonstrated that more than half us could be talked into hurting others by fast-talking guys pretending to be scientists and educators.
It is fun to read this novel ten or eleven years after it was written, a halcyon time when there was no Trumpian bullying, no Fake News industry, and no open Russian collusion in American politics; it was also a time when the dream of net neutrality that gave some people hope that electronic freedom was not an oxymoron. The novel certainly has its flaws. The three-ring circus of a plot takes too long to come together and when it does, it leaves me thinking, all that for just this? But then, that may be Gibson’s point. When former rock stars writing for magazines no one reads and drug-addicted loners who sporadically fight against Big Brother, who may not be Big Brother at all but just an ordinary thug, represent pop culture’s everyman, then maybe the loss of personal identity involved in the postmodern condition could be our salvation. If everyone is a celebrity, no one is, and that may be what saves us from the Mongolian Death Worm—Gibson’s symbol for the Nemesis that is everywhere in modern life. One detail I like: the loner protagonist is named Milgrim, recalling the 1960s Milgrim experiment that demonstrated that more than half us could be talked into hurting others by fast-talking guys pretending to be scientists and educators.