Scan barcode
A review by scifimagpie
Idoru by William Gibson
5.0
The first time I read this some years ago - I was still in university, I believe - I definitely didn't get it. There were lots of cultural and scientific things that went over my head. Reading William Gibson novels can be like speeding through a multilevel overpass in the dark on the way into an enormous city - beautiful, fast, confusing, and surreal, with too much for the mind to encompass fully. However, with knowledge of social media, influencer culture, basic nanotech, sex toys, David Bowie's and Brian Eno's music, and the fascist cultural resurgence in the States, and transhumanism, as well as vocaloids, I could actually follow along this time.
The prose is rather beautiful, and often witty, although there were still a few cartoonish moments - a particular Russian Kombinat member sticks out. That being said, there's a nuance and grace to the depictions of various characters that impressed me. He actually managed to make a 14-year-old girl both believable and likeable without sexualising or romanticizing her - which, for authors in this genre, is actually worth commenting on. (Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, for instance, does not treat its teenage female character quite so thoughtfully.)
The one criticism I'd probably levy is simply that his books are dense, and while it's still a thrilling ride if you don't catch all the little details, it could probably be really confusing.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to rereading other books in the series and picking up from where I left off. Comparing what he got right to what's different in our world will be really interesting.
The prose is rather beautiful, and often witty, although there were still a few cartoonish moments - a particular Russian Kombinat member sticks out. That being said, there's a nuance and grace to the depictions of various characters that impressed me. He actually managed to make a 14-year-old girl both believable and likeable without sexualising or romanticizing her - which, for authors in this genre, is actually worth commenting on. (Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash, for instance, does not treat its teenage female character quite so thoughtfully.)
The one criticism I'd probably levy is simply that his books are dense, and while it's still a thrilling ride if you don't catch all the little details, it could probably be really confusing.
Nonetheless, I'm looking forward to rereading other books in the series and picking up from where I left off. Comparing what he got right to what's different in our world will be really interesting.