Reviews

The weakest of the three novels in the Blue Ant trilogy. Here we find ourselves in the world of locative virtual reality art, chasing a mysterious cargo container (a typical Gibsonian Macguffin) around the world.

It’s fine, but not the best work Gibson has done by any means.

travelgirlut's review against another edition

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2.0

There was so much going on in this book that had no apparent connection to what seemed to be the main story. Right when it felt like all the strange threads were going to pull together in a cohesive whole, the book ended. Maybe this was all set-up for the next book in the series (which having just read the synopsis of it, it sounds like it was). It was all just too random for me. I may have to give up on William Gibson. He's yet to greatly impress me.

jaccarmac's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Pattern Recognition's sequel skips around between its POV characters, a choice that is probably more cheap trick than anything else but which dragged me along very effectively, especially as threads came together not-quite-stuck. Gibson's barrage of brand-name nouns works well for the story, if nothing else as a canvas upon which one can paint rage at the post-9/11 order and reified virtual property. The tech predictions here feel particularly accurate, or maybe things haven't changed so much since '07?

laci's review against another edition

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4.0

Based on the reviews here, I expected it to be a not-great sequel, but I've enjoyed it.
Maybe the themes presented weren't as strong as in the first book. But there were 4 PoV characters, and every time the narration switched from one to the other, I was excited to see what will happen with _this_ one. That doesn't happen often, with books with this many PoVs.

rho21's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jeregenest's review against another edition

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4.0

I really loved this book which is incredibly compelling with Gibson's labyrinthine plots that tell us the maze is the message. I'd place it together with Graham Greene as a spy novel that tells us who we are and the lies we delude ourselves with. Just with more technology.

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