Spook Country

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
2,809
Reaction score
899
Location
Sunny SoCal
Website
www.katethornton.net
I'm a big William Gibson fan.

That said, I started reading the brand new Spook Country with a lot of attention because William Gibson's style makes you read with attention. You don't want to lose the details or the big picture (in this case, the two big pictures that converge - like stereoscopic slides - into one another) will be lost.

It's unique. For one thing, it's almost a sequel to Pattern Recognition, interesting as he doesn't do sequels. But there are recurring characters and constructs.

The 20th century technology we love him for is there - but the uses of it are strictly 21st century. Defining technology by new uses for it - and seeing it as commonplace and unusual all at the same time is another thing he does so well (remember Idoru?) Locative Art - something you want to know about because it's something you'll "see" pretty soon.

I want to call it a spy novel, but only because the intel parts of it are so absolutely and creepily authentic, like he had access to real jobs, the ones I did, the ones all the translators and contractors and underbelly Department of Homemade Security rats do. I felt the old paranoia creeping up, and I haven't taught that stuff in years.

So - if you've read it, what did you think? And if you haven't - please do.