Rating: 
Summary: William Gibson's Satisfying, Lyrical Look at the Present
Review: "Pattern Recognition" is William Gibson's best novel since "Virtual Light" and the first set in a present that seems uncannily like the world described in his "Cyberspace" trilogy of novels ("Neuromancer", "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive"). Yet stylistically it owes more to his sparse lyrical prose style that he used so adroitly in his last two novels, "Idoru" and "All Tomorrow's Parties" than any of his previous work. Although set in the present, William Gibson's latest tale owes much to his cyberpunk science fiction, especially with regards to the vast visual sweep of the tale and how his protagonist interacts with contemporary internet society (Speaking of which I doubt I have read a more realistic, genuine appreciation of internet culture elsewhere; Gibson's portrayal is unquestionably the Real McCoy.)."Pattern Recognition" has yet another uncanny William Gibson plot that seems short on substance and is just as unresolvable, yet somehow he manages to bring this relentless tale to a satisfying conclusion. "Coolhunter" Cayce Pollard is hired by a megalomanic tycoon to search out the source of invisible video snippets posted to the Web which have caught not only his attention, but also Cayce's and that of her small band of internet friends too. Meanwhile she must cope with her father's mysterious disappearance in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 at the time of the World Trade Center terrorist attack. Cayce's quest will take her from London to Tokyo and finally, Moscow, where she finds the unexpected source of these video snippets and some clues which may help resolve what did happen to her father - a former American intelligence agent - on that fateful morning. Without question, William Gibson is one of the most interesting literary stylists currently working in fiction. Those who have ignored his earlier work because it is science fiction are missing the splendid work of one of the finest writers of our time. "Pattern Recogntion" is the quintessential novel of our time, deserving to be read by all interested in understanding not only contemporary Internet culture, but indeed, contemporary Western culture.
Rating: 
Summary: Lesser writers have failed to mature as nicely.
Review: After I read Neuromancer the first time (yes, I read it more than once), I joked that Gibson wrote it once and then removed about half the words. In Pattern Recognition, he recaptures that hard-edged, terse, yet gorily descriptive prose. It is, as Neil Gaiman says on the back cover, Gibson's best book since his great moment in science fiction history (I still think Neuromancer is the best science fiction book I've ever read). The interesting thing here is that PR is not science fiction, and I believe that is because, unsurprisingly, Gibson, despite the sparkling sentences, is not the same man he was twenty years ago. He has matured and his view of the world, while certainly still dark and paranoid, has changed. Some will probably say that PR is science fiction. Without doubt, there is much in the book that smacks of the genre, especially the sub-genre Gibson is famous for creating. Technology and it's accouterment are ubiquitous: cell-phones, laptops, software, the internet, chatrooms, servers--all the usual suspects of a Gibson environment. Lights either hurt the eyes or barely exist. Surfaces are hard and shiny, clothing dark, edges lethal, and people all of the above. The lines between corporate executives, crime bosses, and government leaders are blurry, at best. And, as in all Gibson's work, the super-rich are above it all, somehow both less and more human than ordinary people. However, this book is set squarely in the barely-past-September 11 present. Further, the technology all exists already. There is no prediction and no more speculation than any novel that invents institutions and locales. The hard affect and cynical view of our geo-political-social world are only science fiction out of habit; in fact, this is just Gibson describing part of the world that he sees around him. Even more to the point is that Gibson reverses science fiction's priorities. No matter what the writers of science fiction say, the genre is first and foremost about science, about thinking of cool possibilities in the near (or not so near) future. People are basically methods of talking about the ideas. Yeah, the best science fiction uses the cover of the science to also talk about important ideas or trends in contemporary life, but if the science isn't there, most of even the best books in the genre fall flat on their computer screens (alas, this is probably true of even Neuromancer). PR puts people first. The main character (Cayce Pollard, in a nod to Neuromancer's Case) is free-lance marketing consultant with a phobia for trademarks and logos, haunted by the mystery of her father's disappearance in New York on September 11. Her "tame pathologies"--a variation of another standard device for Gibson--make her a legend in the marketing world. Partly because she's dealing with the probable loss of her father, she's become obsessed with a series of small video clips disseminated anonymously over the web. The segments are beautiful and enigmatic in a way that attracts a cult following which meets virtually at "Fetish:Footage:Forum". Cayce's emotional pain, psychological distress, and passion for the unknown footage take her on a wild ride around the world looking for "the maker"--the creator or creators of these clips. We watch as she struggles to put the clues and, more importantly, her psyche back together. There is plenty of action, but ultimately this is a novel of interiority. And Cayce's interiority is not the only important one here. There are real side characters with developed personalities and relationships built on talking and intimacy. Parkaboy, one of the "F:F:F" regulars, goes on impassioned tirades against other posters and Cayce spends hours responding to him both on the forum and through private email. Cayce and her friend Damien, a documentary film maker, have a long relationship full of communication about their fears and aspirations. All of them care deeply about what they are doing and work very hard at it. In fact, caring about what you do enough to put yourself on the line is what separates the good guys from the bad in the PR. Artists, waitresses, computer geeks, corporate execs, and even Russian mafia bosses are okay as long as they are doing something they believe in. Bad guys are those for whom "it's all actually about money." Fortunately, the moral scale is not quite as stark as this. The "good guys" are still complicated and there's usually some good things about the "bad guys," too. There's plenty of sexual attraction and more than a share of glitzy, pretty people and things. But, there are also some grim realities and fully engaged people doing things they care about. This story affirms human relationships and the importance of doing that which you care about passionately. It is also a criticism of the importance of money in our culture, of what Charles Taylor calls our society's focus on "instrumental reason." The overt moralism and the centrality of human relationships are things I think Gibson is trying on as an author for the first time; his tentativeness is borne out by the fact that this is his simplest book, structurally, since Neuromancer. While I don't think he's duplicated the original genius of that book, Pattern Recognition is still a good book, and that despite our ability to see his lack of certainty. After twenty years, a marriage, children, probably a mortgage --the whole Catastrophe--Gibson has tired of creating only young, hard-edged, self-destructive characters and stories. He has discovered that all of life is not hard drugs, fast women, and faster guns. He's trying to write himself a new definition. Many writers in this situation have failed to mature as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Is this a scam?
Review: As an avid reader of Sci-Fi, I had to struggle to read through this book. Gibson, having NO idea of what he is writing about, has failed miserably with this book.
Where he struck lucky with the cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer", this book is just ridiculous. He writes about cool hunters and amazingly enough, this book seems to have no plot. Unfortunately he has tried to take the easy way out: Hiding a non-existent plot behind utterly non credible persona descriptions of the principal characters.
My guess is that this book reaches audiences that think this book really is a window into "the real world" as concerned to where trends come from. Or perhaps this is just the result of efficient marketing. While reading the book, I just couldn't shake the feeling that the publisher and author were quietly laughing behind my back for buying this book.
I bought this book at Amazon, and I would definately return it for my money back if it was possible.
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Summary: Excellent book; very good narrator on audio CD version.
Review: Exciting plot with plenty of twists. Sort of a techno mystery, with plenty of paranoia. Well developed characters. It is unusual to find a science fiction novel with a female character who is admirable and yet believable and sympathetic. The book is thought provoking, but the writing is not heavy handed. To fully appreciate the early parts of the novel, it helps to have a little background in advertising or retail and/or fashion, but not essential. Many science fiction fans are blissfully oblivious to fashion. :)
Shelly Frasier does a good job of narrating the audio CD version, with vocal nuances that reflect the subtle nuances of the story.
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Summary: A Meditation on the Nature of Art
Review: Gibson, not unlike Leonardo De Vinci, contemplates on the strange relation between art and technology. His Cyberspace is both a piece of artwork in progress and a technological breakthrough. His latest creation "Pattern Recognition" tells a tale of Cayce, a marketing guru, searching for the nature of strange film footages distributed anonymously via the Web. The plot echoes the story of Marly hired by some Belgian gazillionaire to track down the Cornell's box imitator in "Count Zero."
Throughout the novel, Gibson seemingly suggests that true art is born out of catastrophe, and that the free market breeds commodities in the absense of it. Cayce lives in a world of marketing, surveying, branding, pricing, selling, and simulacra, or the world before September 11. Her father's mysterious disapparence on 09/11 opens her eyes to a new dimension...a world of human tragedies, genuine feelings and sufferings...a world beyond knee-jerk consumerism. Cayce seeks cold comfort in the footages. Fittingly, the footage creator herself is a terrorist bomb survivor. Art connects the artist with her audience. Catastrophe is the glue. They recognize one another in what is expressed in the footages because of their common experience. Human blood is the life blood of an artist. At the near end of the novel, Gibson quickly laments that even true art of the East is not immune to the contamination of Western commercialism.
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Summary: Pertinent Commentary
Review: I can well understand why those who cut their teeth reading Gibson's Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, etc., would find Pattern Recognition very disappointing. However, not being a die-hard sci-fi fan, nor being at all familiar with Gibson, I found his satriric commentary on today's consumerism refreshingly erudite; I liked the way he couched his "terms." I have now read the aforementioned books--and after the first one, all the "cutting-edge" stuff got a bit old, frankly--and although they are fun, "visionary" reads, I think Pattern Recognition holds a stronger message, overall, and no, it's not "cutting edge" in terms of sci-fi, but I admire Gibson's guts to veil social commentary within this genre so accurately and well, keeping it more au curant in terms of its techno-gyrations.
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Summary: great read!
Review: I do think that this book was surprisingly good! I have never thought myself a fan of sci fi/fantasy type books but Im glad I gave this book a try. Although the author is well known for sci-fi, if i had to put this story in a category i would say it is more of a mystery. The characters were well thought out and humorous. The story was a quick read, entertaining, smart and full of satire. Gibson has a way of placing the reader in each scene and describing each character down to the detail. I would recommend this to anyone.
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Summary: An Unrecognizable Pattern
Review: I found this book extremely confusing and unable to hold my attention. The story revolves around a "cool-hunter" named Cayce Pollard. Cayce has the ability to recognize whether or not a logo will be successful from the first time she sees it without fail. This is a very strange talent considering the fact that she is sickened by logos and even gets physically ill at one point while walking through a department store. I understood this as a representation of the media's invasion of our lives and her reaction to it as symbolic of how the author probably feels but I found the whole thing a little ridiculous considering the novel could be slightly edited to become the next summer blockbuster starring Angelina Jolie (only my opinion, of course).
Cayce likes her job but she is unhappy with her contract and strongly dislikes her boss, Hubertus Bigend. Although she is unhappy working for Blue Ant she continues with them because the alternative job offer she has received is not up to her standards.
The whole plot to the story comes in when Cayce is asked by her company to find the source of strange video footage that is being released piece-by-piece on the internet. Cayce and a few of her friends talk about the footage in a chat room on the internet and this becomes a central setting throughout the novel. In conclusion, if you want to surf the web sit in front of a computer, if you want to read a novel purchase anything but Pattern Recognition. It will only leave you confused, irritated, looking for answers, and looking for something more than it has to offer. Maybe it would be better off in the form of a movie starring Angelina Jolie and Ben Affleck but that can't happen because than William Gibson would be buying out to our consumer driven, logo-happy society.
Rating: 
Summary: Good start, bad finish...
Review: I have been a reader of Gibson since the "Burning Chrome" collection, and I have been less and less enamoured of his work as time has passed.
In spite of a great premise and some good characters, "Pattern Recognition" fail in the end, when Gibson is unable to sustain the mystery and give us a decent payoff. After all the build-up regarding the "footage", the resolution is so flat I re-read it to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Unfortunately, I hadn't.
This will be the last Gibson novel I pick up, because he is no longer cutting edge/visionary/intriguing - (...)
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable...until the end
Review: Just finished William Gibson's latest book: Pattern Recognition. It was better than I expected it to be, but I still found it to be a weak book badly in need of a critical editor. Initially it seems to recaptures the edge that he had with Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, and seemed to have lost with Idoru and subsequent offerings, but like his last few offerings, the ending is weak and incomplete, the subplot just disappears, and the wrap-up just leaves the reader annoyed by it's simplistic made-for-Hollywood happy ending. I found myself rereading the final two chapters...convinced I'd missed something...because *that* couldn't have been how it ended...but alas, it was. Unlike previous books, which are set in futuristic settings, this one is set in the present and has no tech that doesn't actually exist...which lends the book a verisimilitude of reality...but, story elements that might pass easily enough in a world of the not-too-distant future ring false in this version of the present, where the comparison to what actually *is* is constantly invited. Likewise, the introduction of September 11th is forced and suspect. The central theme is branding, the influence brands have on our world, their strange, hybrid status of material property and tribal marking. The quest is for the maker of a series of footage clips which appear on the net and create an instant subculture of people trying to make sense of the clips. The book moves quickly through the environs of New York, London and Moscow as the primary character seeks to find the makers, using the money and technology of the owner of a major ad agency. As usual, Gibson's prose is brilliant...but the darkness that was such a huge part of his work in the 80's is completely gone...as though he's trying to write through the haze of force-fed Prozac. But then, I could still be annoyed at the end, which in my opinion, was in dire need of some serious rewrite and editing work. That being said, it was still an enjoyable way to spend 4 of 5 hours, even with the disappointment of the final 15 minutes. I would recommend checking this one out from the library, rather than purchasing it...because I'm not sure it deserves a second read.
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