| View Larger Image | Pattern Recognition | Paperbackby William Gibson (Author)
| List Price: | $7.99 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Paperback | | Publisher: | Berkley | | Page Count: | 384 Pages | | Publication Date: | February 01, 2005 | | Sales Rank: | 24,719th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780425198681
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
The accolades and acclaim are endless for William Gibson's coast-to-coast bestseller. Set in the post-9/11 present, Pattern Recognition is the story of one woman's never-ending search for the now. |
Amazon.com Review
The first of William Gibson's usually futuristic novels to be set in the present, Pattern Recognition is a masterful snapshot of modern consumer culture and hipster esoterica. Set in London, Tokyo, and Moscow, Pattern Recognition takes the reader on a tour of a global village inhabited by power-hungry marketeers, industrial saboteurs, high-end hackers, Russian mob bosses, Internet fan-boys, techno archeologists, washed-out spies, cultural documentarians, and our heroine Cayce Pollard--a soothsaying "cool hunter" with an allergy to brand names. Pollard is among a cult-like group of Internet obsessives that strives to find meaning and patterns within a mysterious collection of video moments, merely called "the footage," let loose onto the Internet by an unknown source. Her hobby and work collide when a megalomaniac client hires her to track down whoever is behind the footage. Cayce's quest will take her in and out of harm's way in a high-stakes game that ultimately coincides with her desire to reconcile her father’s disappearance during the September 11 attacks in New York. Although he forgoes his usual future-think tactics, this is very much a William Gibson novel, more so for fans who realize that Gibson's brilliance lies not in constructing new futures but in using astute observations of present-day cultural flotsam to create those futures. With Pattern Recognition, Gibson skips the extrapolation and focuses his acumen on our confusing contemporary world, using the precocious Pollard to personify and humanize the uncertain anxiety, optimistic hope, and downright fear many feel when looking to the future. The novel is filled with Gibson's lyric descriptions and astute observations of modern life, making it worth the read for both cool hunters and their prey. --Jeremy Pugh |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 294 reviews)
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SciFi Not by P. Testart (Chula Vista California)  2 Stars
October 30, 2009
After reading several works by Gibson, I have to admit being slightly puzzled at what he is writing.
SciFi is not horror, and not fantasy.
SciFi is supposed to be about "what if" and "science." It also contains Adventure, and technology. It contains history, sociology, politics, economics and logic.
Gibson sometimes produces something close to science fiction and close to adventure.
But not always and not this time.
PeteDSL
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Ok, but not great by SesameStick  3 Stars
October 26, 2009
Books general attitude regarding the web feels dated, the ending is not great... A love story is started up then just let flop. We start getting into things that go no where. Seems like WG is trying to hard to be hip and all techie (note his shoes on the back cover) rather than it feeling natural. Two stars are reserved for the really bad novels, where P.R. is just not good but not bad.
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A non-science fiction novel that makes the present feel like science fiction. by Trevor Rotzien (Seattle, WA United States)  4 Stars
October 23, 2009
Gibson does an good job of intersecting global integration, marketing, culture, history, pain, identity, memory, identity and survival in this non-science fiction novel that makes the present feel like science fiction. Uneven in its ability to let me suspend my disbelief (in particular the ending) but worth the read.
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5-star Writing of a 2-star Story... by NbleSavage (Winston Salem, NC) 3 Stars
September 21, 2009
Finished a book last night by a new author (new to me at least) William Gibson called 'Pattern Recognition'. Hard to describe the experience: 'Love-Hate' comes to mind. The last couple of books I'd read based upon 5-star Amazon recommendations were real duds and this one I decided to buck the trend, read a quick synopsis and off we went.
I was looking for a sci-fi / techno / thriller / mystery I suppose, but also wanted something written on a level slightly beyond that of a high school sophomore English class (see Laymon, Richard). What I got was a book that really has to be read on the author's terms and not your own. The prose was dense and excessively descriptive, which worked for me in some cases, really pulling me into the environment that he was creating, and in other cases left me grumbling 'GET ON WITH IT'. Perhaps more a reflection of my state-of-mind as I was reading than than inconsistency with the author's pacing I suppose, but never-the-less equal parts enjoyable and frustrating.
The book was somewhat lengthy relative to the corresponding lack of plot advancement - 300+ pages - and it did feel in spots that a good editor could have dismissed with some of description that really did nothing to advance the story, but I don't think that was the author's intent (to serve-up a 'Here are the characters, Here's the story, Here's the big twist, Here's the wrap-up' kind of book). In hindsight, the storyline didn't really deliver on its potential in my estimation however I'd have been otherwise relatively satisfied with the experience save for what felt like (to me at least) a very contrived ending. There was some legit tension that had been built, and as opposed to igniting that powder keg that he'd been building for 300 pages, it felt to me like Gibson instead chose to hit it with a garden sprinkler and walk off into the sunset.
I may check-out his earlier 'NeruoMancer' just to give him a broader sampling but I believe I'll cleanse my literary pallete with a different author before doing so :)
Peace.
- Savage
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Boooooring...did William Gibson really write this book? by NoggZ 2 Stars
August 29, 2009
Other than spatterings of his wonderfully illustrative prose, this book doesn't even seem Gibson-ish (to coin a term). I can see why this book was on the bargain rack at my local bookstore. This book represents 3 hours of my life that I'll never get back. Boring!!!
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