Spook Country by William Gibson
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Book Reviews of Spook Country
Book Review: most accessible book, but least engaging
Summary: 3 Stars
Gibson's Spook Country was hailed as the first suspense novel of the post 911 era and while the book does happen in the post 911 - even post Busch world, it does little to define new ground. Overall, this is among Gibson's most mainstream works which makes it readily accessible to a broader audience, but also less entertaining to the audience looking for the latest cyberpunk.
It is like the editors asked Gibson to write a book that is more appealing to a wider audience. He has accomplished this, but at the cost of a truly interesting novel. This book has been out for a while and there are a lot of other reviews so I will not repeat those reviews.
But for my money, Spook Country is an average suspense novel, a below average cyberpunk story, and surprisingly low powered.
Book Review: OK - not great - SPOILER
Summary: 3 Stars
This is just OK at best.
The other 2-3 star reviews cover it, but I am going to explain why it REALLY isn't a good book.
WARNING - SPOILER - STOP NOW - DON'T READ
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The ENTIRE book and all the characters are chasing a shipping container that has $100,000,000.00 in stolen Iraq reconstruction money. Given current events, 100 million dollars seems like chump change, not something various groups would devote years, dollars, and manpower to hiding or chasing.
When I found out what the whole thing was about it just wrecked the whole book. Your average white collar criminal on Wall Street steals that much before lunch!
Book Review: Hmm --- to read to not to read?
Summary: 3 Stars
I read a lot! 'Cause I spend a lot of time in planes. I've read and enjoyed W. Gibson's previous books. I don't know what to make of this book. The firat 35% of the book passed in a haze and I did not figure out what was going on. My attention just kept going all over the place. My mind had a tough time concentrating. Is it me? Is it the book? But once I got over the first 35%, the rest was captiviating. As usual W. Gibson's books are a linguistic pleasure. If you like W. Gobson's style, you should read this book, otherwise give it a miss.Book Review: Pattern Recognition 2.0? Not-so-much.
Summary: 3 Stars
As the consensus here might suggest, this was a disappointing continuation to Pattern Recognition (which I really liked) in that it's too contrived in parts and simply boring in others. I thought I'd like where it was going when I first started reading it but, in the end, it just left far too much to be desired.Book Review: Fast paced and exciting at parts, but falls short.
Summary: 2 Stars
I think this is a good book, it certainly made more sense to me than Neuromancer, Gibson's first novel, did. Set in modern day U.S. and Canada, Spook Country depicts three narratives that are vaguely connected until the climactic moment when it all comes predictably together.
One of the characters, Milgrim, was by far my favorite character, though after the first couple chapters involving him it becomes apparent that his relevance to the story has been over for quite a while and that he just provides a sort of drugged-up comic perspective. Eventually Gibson finds a way to make him relevant in a final chapter but it is pretty much unnecessary and doesn't explain why he was along for the entire story. The fact that he was such an interesting character helps to negate the impact of the pointlessness of his situation.
All the other characters are good, none of them are too similar and there are some great interactions between the leading female protagonist, Hollis Henry, and everyone she encounters. This however doesn't make up for the fact that the story really doesn't get any more interesting after the first 100 pages. The story starts off strong, and remains relatively interesting and quickly paced, but nothing exciting really happens- at all. I enjoyed the story but only in a similar fashion to the way that I enjoy carrots- a bland appreciation.
Gibson does throw in a few statements that I guess are perceived as his "cultural commentary," or whatever you want to call it, and I thought those were interesting. I think Gibson has a very interesting way of crafting a story and I'm sure I'll find a book of his that will impress me greatly some day. It's unfair really- ever since I read Neal Stephenson's Anathem, Snow Crash, and The Diamond Age, all other science fiction works have had the bar raised.