Rating: 
Summary: Not so hot
Review: Not worth buying this new -- especially in hardback. This read more like a fluffy summer mystery you'd take to the beach. Very cliched. It seems to me that Cayce's rescue scene involved a tired deus ex machina ploy. Not only that, but the ending was like a Scooby Doo ending. If it weren't for those meddling kids....
Rating: 
Summary: Cayce Pollard fan club
Review: Once you finish "Pattern Recognition," you may find yourself returning again and again to thoughts of Cayce Pollard, the uniquely contemporary protagonist of Gibson's latest tour-de-zeitgeist. A stylish modern woman who shuns overt style, she's also an independent think who still manages to rely on friends, a thoroughly wired denizen of cyberspace who's completely unselfconscious about it and a uniquely intriguing prototype for living successfully in these times.Learn more about her in "Pattern Recognition," and then join the discussion...
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I had heard positive things about Gibson's other books, that they were landmarks in the field, etc. So, perhaps my expectations were high. Regardless, this is a poorly written book. I think that the concepts that Gibson raises about brand-identification, how culture and consumerism are in a feedback loop, how people are not always as they seem, and what exactly is reality are interesting concepts, and are what made me want to read the book. He also certainly knows the technical jargon. However, neither the story nor the concepts are satisfactorily concluded. This is due both to poor character development and to a rather flat ending. I think the story and characters were sacrificed to further the concepts behind the book. The poor character development is due to two things, the androgeny of the characters, namely the main character Cayce, and the shallowness of the characters, and I don't mean their values. I realize that Gibson could be using these as literary devices to support the concepts behind the book, but instead of informing me, it left me thinking that the author does not know how to write a good female character. Furthermore, all the characters just seemed like mannequins moved around to further the plot. Again, this could be to further the concepts behind the book. However, I didn't believe in the characters enough to really care about what happened to them by the end of the story. Because the main character frequently refers to a "mirror world," and these characters are about as solid as a reflection, perhaps they were deliberately written this way, again to support the concepts raised in the book. Despite my growing disappointment, I did actually finish the book because it hooked me just enough to want to find out the ending. Unfortunately, I don't think the ending was worth the time I put into the book. So, if you are already a Gibson fan, perhaps you will like this book. However, I would suggest newcomers try Gibson's other books first before reading this one. Perhaps they will have better luck.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrific
Review: William Gibson tackles, of all things, the present, and illuminates our age in a most provocative way. His way of describing, well, everything, is so original yet so dead on, that one wonders from where his keen eyes stems, and how he is able to grasp so many truths about the world. I am sounding a bit pretentious here, but I don't quite know how else to convey his amazing descriptive ability, and his wondrous prose. Add to all of this characters for whom your heart will ache, and a great mystery plot to boot, and you have one of the best novels I have read in the past couple of years. If you have read Gibson, you are in for such a treat, to see his mind turned to the present. If you have never read Gibson, just go along for the ride, let his rhythms carry you forward, and prepare to be amazed.
Rating:
Summary: Whoopee!
Review: What a cool ride through a cool world. I was attracted to this book because I'd read that it wasn't Gibson's usual sci fi fare. (Not a big sci fi fan.) I'd call it more of a techno-mystery. Very riveting. Interesting characters. Brisk plot. And a very amusing sub-story line about "logo-phobia."
Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: Ok, I'm a longtime Gibson fan. He's in that Heinlein, Sterling, Stephenson, Scott club that keeps me thinking. It's noir, plain and simple. I live in Europe and spend time in London and Russia. These are people I see and the settings are familiar. If you are looking for a summer beach book, avoid this. It's for foreign flugplatzs and bahnhofs. If you don't travel, you just won't understand much and it will bore you. It's for travelers who see and absorb and think. I loved it and reread it a month after reading it the first time. Going from the near future to today was a daring stretch and it worked. This is a moody book that screams for a sequel. What really happened to Pollard's father?
Rating:
Summary: Superb, thought-provoking novel
Review: I feel I should start of by stating that this is my first William Gibson novel, so if you're looking for an evaluation of "Pattern Recognition" within the context of his other books, there's no point in reading further. That said, I found "Pattern Recognition" to be a remarkable, moving novel that was a joy to read. Specifically, it is a fascinating look at the paranoia and hope of the post 9/11 world. Gibson deftly considers the difference between crass consumer culture and genuine art, and then swirls them together via our information saturated culture. As his protagonist, Gibson creates Cayce Pollard, something of a marketing prodigy whose claim to fame is that she can unerringly determine whether or not a brand logo will be successful on first sight. It is therefore intensely ironic that she has a phobia of all commercial branding that manifests itself through something that is akin to a cross between a panic attack and a migraine. Her revulsion to consumer culture is so intense, she goes so far as to remove labels from everything she owns, and dresses in the most stripped down manner possible. Wrapped inside this duality is the additional one that Cayce, despite her odd phobias, who seems to be an inherently trusting and positive person, is grappling with the death, or more accurately the disappearance of her father in the events surrounding 9/11. Thus her vision of the future is touched by the background, but pervasive, fear that seems to have become part and parcel to our new century. Cayce's escape from these twin phantoms is an oddly alluring film that is being released piece by piece on the internet (those familiar with Mark Danielewski's "House of Leaves" may see an echo here). The "footage", as it is known, enjoys a grass roots fascination globally that borders on cultish, except that the reaction is overwhelmingly positive, and disconnected from pop culture. The footage is apparently being released out of sequence, and seems to take place out of time and in some undefined location. As chatroom battles rage over whether it is a work in progress or a completed film, there seems to be no argument that the footage is a thing of shocking, pure beauty, totally untainted by popular culture. However, it is when Cayce is asked by her enigmatic and enormously influential colleague to track the footage to the source that things get weird. It would be impossible to recount the plot here without spoiling it, but the dualities mentioned above, art and pop-culture, past and future, act, react and interact in fascinating ways. Gibson argues eloquently that the future is informed by the past, but not determined by it. Moreover, he seems to be arguing that there is no such thing as consumer-culture or art, but rather that they are all part of one increasingly global CULTURE. This blurring of the lines is neither good nor bad, but instead a consequence of the Information Age. As such, the definitions and boundaries of art are shifting. I could go on, but I suspect that this is the type of novel that allows (and encourages) a multitude of conclusions. So I will finish by saying that on top of the fascinating, puzzling plot, and the interesting thematic elements, this is also a very cathartic book to read. While 9/11 plays a relatively small role in terms of lines of text, the horror of that day saturates Cayce, and the themes of the book. At it's conclusion, however, "Pattern Recognition" points the way to a release of those emotions, or more accurately of a way to place them within a personal historical context. Thus, this remarkable novel points to a chance for hope in our troubled brave new world.
Rating:
Summary: Poetic, Approachable, Intriguing, Awe Inspiring
Review: Awesome and indescribable in the way that a full moon is at 3 am in the middle of winter seems unbearably brilliant. If you're literal thining 'rational mind' has firmly hijacked your deeper pattern loving core brain this book is not for you. However, if you love dance, art, music appreciate asthetics in advertising smiles and human interaction - improbably enough this is YOUR book. :-) Not Neuromancer, infinately better. Thankfully, we've have grown a bit in the last 20 or so years and can appreciate it.
To Gibson, all I can say is THANK YOU!!! Once again, he changes my life.
Rating:
Summary: camden town is the center of the universe
Review: I've lived in camden for 45 years so i was already aware that it was quite a neat place - i've read all of Gibson's books - i rank this near the top since he has finally got on top of some of the clunkier bits of his style, but written a more plausible character than in the past (the motif/icon based "personas" in the early works smacked of comic strip, later i think he did ok (virtual light has some sort of notion of people you might meet) -
the detail of camden lock and surrounds rang pretty true, though some of the routes around were not ones i would use..... style and content - neat ....now just waiting for the new neal stephonson to see where he's got to in cyberspace so far:)
Rating:
Summary: The futuristic present
Review: Cyberpunk icon Gibson's latest novel is set squarely in the present. Which doesn't make it any less futuristic. Set among the lean and hungry of the ad world and the hip outsiders of cyberspace, the story roams the globe from London to Tokyo to Moscow as protagonist Cayce Pollard tracks the origin of mysterious video footage, rubbing elbows with obsessive of every stripe from wealthy tycoons to criminals to techno-nerds. Cayce is a "cool hunter," a "sensitive" to market trends, "a very specialized piece of human litmus paper." Her instinct comes at a price, however. She is "allergic" to fashion, and certain brand logos can bring on panic attacks - Tommy Hilfiger and the Michelin Man in particular. Cayce herself wears stripped-down black, all logos and labels obsessively removed. She has been brought from post 9/11 New York (still grieving for the father who mysteriously disappeared that morning) to the "mirror world" (her term) of London to evaluate a logo for a cutting edge ad agency, "more post-geographic than multinational." The self-obsessed owner of the agency, Hubertus Bigend ("who looks like Tom Cruise on a diet of virgins' blood and truffled chocolates"), has become intrigued by "the footage," anonymous video clips that make unpredictable internet appearances, attracting a cultish following of "footage heads," who pour over each clip, seeking coherence, a storyline, characters and meaning. Bigend ("The only thing Cayce enjoys about Bigend is that he seems to have no sense at all that his name might seem ridiculous to anyone, ever.") hires Cayce to find the footage maker and despite her misgivings - Bigend can't or won't say what he intends to with this knowledge - Cayce plunges into the chase, using Bigend's money and technology to further her own dubious quest, which oddly dovetails with her search for her presumed-dead father. Cayce lies with the best of them and is lied to in turn - as well as spied on, followed and even attacked. She finds allies and enemies in unlikely places and everyone seems to have their own secret, multi-layered agenda. There's suspense and high-tech fancy-footwork aplenty, but it's Gibson's portrait of our familiar yet alien world that drives the narrative. His hard-edged portrayals of logo-bedecked cities and posing, ambitious people contrast sharply with Cayce's grieving memories of 9/11 and New York in its aftermath. Gibson's prose is innovative, fluid and captivating and this novel should win new fans as well as please regulars.
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