Rating: 
Summary: What You Get Is What You See
Review: This is a story of the sixth estate - the world of advertising and marketing where icon and archetype seem to magically translate into world power. Somewhere an artist deconstructs snippets of images into film - footage, which is distributed mysteriously to collectors and fans via the Internet, creating an entire subculture devoted to the understanding the phenomenon. Those that haunt this world are as fervent as any worshippers, gathering each piece of footage, trying to fit them together like a jigsaw puzzle, creating extended philosophical castles out of black and white cards.In the midst of this comes Cayce Pollard, a media consultant whose most important skill is the unique ability to sense whether an icon or symbol, an iota of design, will succeed in the perpetual battle for mind-share that is marketing. A 'footage-head' herself, she comes to London to deliver her opinion and is swept into an intrigue that mixes footage, fashion, and an eerie reflection of 'spy vs. spy' into a story that is compelling and thickly layered. Cayce is the needle that sews the parts of the pattern together, going from London to Japan to Russia and all parts in-between. Allies arise from Internet connections and chance meetings over Curta calculators. Enemies lurk in designer frocks and portfolios. The tapestry against which the story evolves is one created by Cayce Pollard's allergy to the hackneyed icons of advertising. The Michelin Man puts her in a fugue state; Tommy Hilfiger gives her dizzy spells. For Cayce to survive aesthetically she immerses herself with a minimalist style that decries symbol and color. She dresses in Cayce Pollard Units - CPUs, simple, monochrome, all identity labeling removed. A Buzz Rickson jacket - a careful imitation of a maintenance squadron jacket that is fashionable because of its total lack of fashion sense, a black skirt from a thrift shop, Japanese schoolgirl shoes, the list of oblique product is endless, inescapable, and continuously revisited. Everything is drawn from actual life, as if this was a fantasy based on a perfect, inverted reality. Against this whirl of fashionable fragments the underlying architecture of the book plays itself out. For Cayce there is a world and a 'mirror' world. Symbolized her by live on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. New York (only reverenced, never visited) and London, where the eerily related events start to play themselves out. For Cayce, the differences are subtle and important, but her hypersensitivity to the iconic is fueled by the overlap of these worlds as the 'real' overwhelms and mutates the 'mirror.' The footage, which is set someplace where real and mirror have no meaning, is edited so that each piece is an icon of itself. And ancient forgotten personal computers are assembled into art forms. The message, if there is one message, is that the pattern is wherever you look for it. Like fractals, the tiniest piece reflects the whole. Gibson creates something like a New Age Cyberpunk without the bad parts of either world view. And somehow manages to affirm the nature of creativity in the process. This is possible Gibson's subtlest work, and easily one of his best. Read it... then read it again. It won't be the same.
Rating: 
Summary: Astute insights into global and digital culture
Review: This is the first Gibson book I've read although I have always been interested in his other works. An search for marketing books one day on Amazon lead to the pre-hardcover release information of this book: I since followed the book's release and dispersal into the public realm with interest, and bought it to read on a vacation. I finished the book quickly, as once it gets going (a few chapters in), the book is hard to put down. The character development is excellent, and plot exciting and adventurous like a good spy novel, and the descriptions of foreign places (Tokyo, London, Russia) full of detail and nuance. However, for me, the strongest part of the book was its spot-on assessment of what modern people have become, and the culture in which we live: a global, digitally-enhanced and -supported lifestyle that becomes more and more pervasive as technology becomes cheaper and continues its encroachment upon nearly all parts of the world. Gibson has obviously spent time in chat rooms and message boards; has tasted what it is to follow an obsession (so easy to do with the internet, be it person or thing); has experienced the "soul delay" of business travel (three countries in three days); and learned the art of Goggling and other internet-based research techniques, for all these ideas give major structure to the novel. Internet junkies, fashionistas, armchair travellers, and collectors of obscure objects will all be able to relate to this story. As disparate as those elements may sound, Gibson has neatly wrapped them up into one quirky person, the protagonist Cayce Pollard, who embodies most of Gibson's ideas and cultural observations. Gibson also uses several terms throughout the book, which you will either catch the first time they are explained, or seek out their meaning once you realize their place in the narrative. These terms seem to derive from marketing or internet lingo, which serve as idiomatic themes for the way the characters communicate (both in person and "virtually"). My only complaint about this book is that the ending is a bit of a let down. After such a masterfully paced biuld up, the ending didn't have as much impact as the rest of the book: the wrap-up seemed hasty, the characters not as well developed as the ones who were introduced earlier, and some of it seemed just a bit implausible. It almost seemed like Gibson had too good a time writing this book to find an adequate way to end it. But the book is still unquestionably excellent and modern, and a somewhat lazy ending doesn't detract from Gibson's wonderful prose style or his astute comments on human civilization in the 21st Century.
Rating:
Summary: Smart, But Not Fast Moving
Review: I really like William Gibson's stories. He is smart, pays very good attention to the nuances, and has a remarkable control over language. In this story, Mr. Gibson has turned his attention from the near, perhaps decades away, future and focuses on the present. Fortunately, he demonstrates the same type of observation skills to present trends that he did to potential future technologies in Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive. The sacrifice that you have to make for entering Gibson's world is a requirement that you pay attention to the details because they make his books remarkable. I have about a 20 page limit for each session that I spend with Mr. Gibson's book because I hit information overload after that. If you're looking for a fast, page-turner, you're probably not going to like Pattern Recognition. On the other hand, if you're looking for a detailed book with interesting characters and a complex plot, give this a try.
Rating:
Summary: Fun and thought provoking
Review: William Gibson has accomplished a difficult task in writing a tale that simultaneously encourages readers to think about serious issues surrounding corporate life, advertising and the intersection of international and personal interests and also engages on a level that's pure fun and fantasy. Pattern Recognition incorporates commentary on capitalism, whodunnit and a very personal story of grief and redemption in a beautifully written and well executed story. Readers seeking thought provoking content wrapped in a very timely structure of political and corporate mystery will enjoy the work.
Rating:
Summary: Return to Form!
Review: I actually found the first hundred pages of this book kind of difficult to get into. Gibson's prose style, with all of the broken sentences and cyberspeak, which struck me as indefatigably cool when I was in my teens, started off seeming very forced and gimmicky. The main character is a bit of a cipher. And Gibson also seems to have decided that high-level marketing-speak is the new idiom within which we should all be engaging in social philosophy and cultural criticism. Whereas I tend to think that the old-fashioned idioms of social philosophy and cultural criticism actually tend to do a pretty good job, still. But the ending - wow! Gibson turns out to have developed an unusually profound understanding of just how precariously the flashy, opulent global capitalism of the 21st century sits upon the ashes of an older world. This is his best book since his first two masterpieces, _Neuromancer_ and _Count Zero_, and absolutely required reading for anybody under the age of fifty. Don't miss it!
Rating: 
Summary: No pyrotechnics here
Review: I finished this book over a month ago, and have not been able to formulate my thoughts on it, because I didn't really care for it, but I can't pin down why. It's not badly written at all, and it has some interesting ideas, but there's nothing truly outlandish about it all--it's speculation about, at most, ten or twenty years from now--and the plot and characters seem unadorned. This is, of course, in comparison to William Gibson's earliest books, the more pyrotechnic Neuromancer or Mona Lisa Overdrive. The stylistic quirk of this novel, the oh-so-first-person, seems too studied and not organic or flashy, as it often broke me out of the fourth wall of the novel, reminding me that I was indeed reading and not experiencing. To me, Gibson is like a rock musician who's left his blues roots and has taken to dabbling in classical music. While it may be rewarding for him, and even some of his dedicated fans, others are a little bewildered by his change, including me. Gibson's peer, Bruce Sterling, has been able to do his dabbling on the side, but still release every now and then a work that recalls his original stuff, albeit in a more mature style. I'm of the opinion that Gibson, instead, has thrown out the mirrorshades with the virtual world, leaving something basic, just not as appealing. Your mileage may vary, and I've not written Gibson off yet. At least, compared to some musicians and authors, he is trying to still challenge himself.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing ending
Review: First of all, consider my rating to be 2.5. I bumped it up one because, well, you always round up I guess. I remember in most of the several writing classes I have taken over the years teachers and professors re-canting the mantra "show don't tell". Gibson commits the cardinal sin of writing in the last few pages of this book by telling and not showing how the peices come together. This was a best seller. (Probably due to the recent popularity of "The Matrix" movies, which, while not based directly on any of Gibson's work, owe homage to his book "Neuromancer", which has a virtual reality "matrix", an orbiting city of post-rasafarians called "Zion" and a female operative named Molly who is clearly the inspiration for Trinity. But I digress ...) So I was excited about it. While the story is interesting and moves along nicely, there are several annoyances. Gibson continuously refers to England and anything English as "mirror-world". If you had missed the original reference, you would have never understood what he was talking about because it is used as the exclusive acronym for everthing English, as in mirror-world cars, mirror-world food, mirror-world appliances etc.. etc... Also, no one uses any computer but a Mac. WTF? Did Gibson sign an endorsement deal with Jobs? All of that could be forgiven. I can see how the mirror-world thing makes a point, but EVERY reference? The Mac thing ... maybe everyone Gibson knows uses Macs and he assumes they are ubiquitous, I don't know. But when a character comes along in the last couple of chapters to tie everyting together in one long monologue ... he should have known better. Not a masterful work and this book will only tarnish the reputation of one of our time's more influential writers. I am rooting for a recovery with his next work ...
Rating:
Summary: The Texture of Internet Culture
Review: "Pattern Recognition" is one of those books I wished would not end. Not just because it is a fabulous book, but because I need to know more-much more! I need to know more about the main character, Cayce Pollard, her world, her mother, her job, her new love, her old loves, her IPod, her friends and her father. Cayce Pollard, her first name Cayce, what a great name! I picture her as a thin, stylish young woman with attitude. You know, you understand just by looking at her that she is not someone to jerk around- she jerks YOU around. She has charisma, intelligence that oozes from her pores. She is a modern young woman who understands the culture of her times. Cayce lives in New York City. She is an unusally intuitive market research consultant. She can tell by looking at the first design of an ad whether it will sell, whether the public will buy it. On a trip to London, she is shown a design for a product, and after looking at it for one minute, she feels in the pit of her stomach a wave, the answer is "No". The designer's agent puts the picture back in her portfolio, no questions asked- they must go back to the drawing board. Can you imgaine having this kind of control in the world of marketing? Neither can Dorotea, a protoge of Hubertus Bigend, the marketing guru to whom Cayce just gave the "NO" word. Thus begins the mystery. Cayce is in London working as a consultant and has intrigued Bigend. He wants to hire her to work on a secret assignment to investigate several snippets of a face seen on the Internet. This face has become an obession with a subculture all over the world. Groups on the internet have sprung up trying to guess what this "face" means. The face appears randomly and sometimes with a new piece of the face added. Mr Bigend wants to know who is behind this "face". With this lind of information he could embed in his designs a brand loyalty. He could organize group behavior around cultual objects and ideas. Cayce accepts this job because she has already become intrigued with this face. She is a member of a chat room on the internet FFF- designed just to discuss the face. She has become an integral member of the chat group- her intelligence and wit have attracted several chat room members, and they all look to her for guidance. This new job with unlimited funds at her disposal takes Cayce to Tokyo and Russia. She becomes enmeshed with a very wealthy Russian family and adventures abound. In the mdist of these adventures, Cayce is also seaching for her father. Will Pollard an ex-security chief and probable ex-CIA agent has mysteriously disappeared on 9.11.01. He and Cayce were very close he has disclosed his secret agent mind to his daughter. Is there some relationship between her father and the new secret assignment she has taken? I loved this book. I want to read more about Cayce Pollard. I want to know her life. I want to understand if her new relationship continues- does she return to Russia? What does she do with the enormous amount of money given to her? What happens to Cayce Pollard? prisrob
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Now, Mr. Gibson
Review: I've always found his future stories set in a very believable, not too distant future. With his current offering we are very much in the believable now. Cayce Pollard is described as a "coolhunter" working for an advertising firm. If such a people do not actually have this title, I can still easily believe that Cayce is the personification of all that is done in the name of Market Research. Maybe it's just the similarity in name, but I have no trouble seeing Cayce as an antecedent to another Gibson character, Case from "Neuromancer". Both have that same self sufficient yet vulnerable persona that is the mark of a memorable protagonist. You are cheering for them all the way and telling them "Don't go there, it's a trap!" With "Idoru" Gibson's style seems to have lost the hard edge found in his earlier works. In "Pattern Recognition", that style is polished to a wonderful luster. With a minimal amount of effort, you immediately easily imagine yourself in whatever scene Cayce finds herself in. Like his earlier and edgier cyberpunk stories and novels, he excels at presenting us with eccentric characters. We are also given in lesson in the linage of today's laptops by way of one character's fascination with Curta Calculators. I still remember seeing a few ads for these in the late '50's and early '60's, mostly in sports car magazines catering to the sport of Road Rallying. Before pocket calculators and after slide rules, this was considered the ultimate geek tool. William Gibson is credited with being responsible for giving us the word "cyberspace", that ever present noun meaning the Internet, albeit a next generation Internet. He may also be credited with introducing a new adjective, "Blade Runnered" as an immediately recognizable idea of something that looks at the same time futuristic and run down. If you've ever seen the movie, you'll recognize how appropriate the usage is and just how visual this adjective is. All in all, this is a wonderful novel, very timely, very believable and very rewarding to read. The plot is more reminiscent of something in the detective or action / adventure genre than sci-fi, but there are enough high tech scenes to mark this as a Gibson story. If you enjoyed his works to date, definitely add this to your collection. If you've never experienced Gibson before, read it and be introduced to a master in the making. If you haven't read his other works, try them in reverse chronological order. The older offerings have an entirely different flavor to them.
Rating:
Summary: Delayed Impact
Review: My wife and I have been reading Gibson aloud to each other for years now. His prose is so, well, poetic, it really tolerates vocalization quite nicely. After "All Tomorrow's Parties" (the most beautifully written SF novel and one of the most interesting I have read recently), we were quite excited by the advent of "Pattern Recognition" and sprang for the hardcover. We read it aloud on a long drive together, an hour or so at a time. The "mystery" of the plot and the oblique excitement to know what happens next that it engenders kept us looking forward to each reading session. At the end, however, we finished the novel with a vague feeling of disappointment, of loose-ends being tied up too neatly, of the resolution being essentially too banal for the detail and complexity that lead up to it. Perhaps that was Mr. Gibson's point. Dunno. However, I must say, that in the months since, points of view about current world culture that are expressed (both implicitly and explicitly) in the novel have kept returning to our casual conversation. I conclude that much of the book is profound in some subtle sense that may not effect you right away, but which will have a long lasting influence on each reader's consciousness of popular trends and their expression in media and merchandise. A warning: as with most of William Gibson's books, there are layers here. If you are a pop and internet culture enthusiast (not to mention technologically "aware"), that is, if you are "hip" you'll "get" almost all of the book. If not, well, you may not "catch" enough of the (many) cultural references or enough of the interplay between ideas, character, and plot to make it worth your read.
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