A review by salieri2
Spook Country by William Gibson

2.0

I was irritated to finally realize today why I wanted to rate [b:Spook Country|22322|Spook Country|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1186350896s/22322.jpg|1715356] at least 3 stars despite finding it largely unsatisfying--because somewhere in the back of my head, it reminded me of a far better book. Today was the day I realized which book it is: [b:Count Zero|22200|Count Zero|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167343629s/22200.jpg|879764], Gibson's 2nd Sprawl novel, published in 1986. Marly Krushkova, a pawn searching for the artist behind mysterious assemblage boxes, is a lot more interesting and human than Hollis Henry, writing about VR GPS installations which seem geekily interesting but bloodless. Tito stays compelling as long as he stays mysterious, but his Santeria/voodoo doesn't have the immediacy of the simulated Haitian AI remnants Bobby encounters in [b:Count Zero|22200|Count Zero|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167343629s/22200.jpg|879764]. As soon as he turns out to be afraid of flying he's halfway turned into an NBC afterschool special, and as soon as he joins an impromptu band he's suddenly mundane.

Gibson's written this book before! and did better with it. Go read [b:Neuromancer|22328|Neuromancer|William Gibson|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517YWCGDZPL._SL75_.jpg|909457], [b:Count Zero|22200|Count Zero|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167343629s/22200.jpg|879764], and [b:Mona Lisa Overdrive|22328|Neuromancer|William Gibson|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/517YWCGDZPL._SL75_.jpg|909457] instead, if you haven't already...these are why William Gibson is great, not this later, lesser work.