crumbz writes "It looks like the grand master of cyberpunk has a new novel coming out entitled Pattern Recognition. Apparently, reviewer copies have been making the rounds on ebay and the word on the street is that it is his best work in years."
heard that before
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
How many times have we heard this about Gibson? This is the guy who wrote Difference Engine people. He has writen as well, and as badly, as any writer around. Mostly as badly.
He was great before he had ever touched a computer. Now he has, and he can't go back.
The hype is meaningless. If someone I know and trust reads this and tells me that it's good, I'll consider it - not until then.
Best Work In Years
by
rnb
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I hope it is his best work in years.
Don't get me wrong, I adore Gibson. I think the Sprawl Series was one of the best things ever put to paper. I've read Neuromancer at least ten times. I loved Burning Chrome. I love every article I've seen him write for Wired or whatever magazine he's travelling to Asia for this month. His interviews rock because the man is both highly intelligent and very interesting. I'm dying to see No Maps For These Territories.
Having gushed, though, I just don't like any of his recent novels. I read Virtual Light and didn't think it was that great. I couldn't finish Idoru. I didn't even bother with All Tomorrow's Parties.
I'm sure they're great books for those who like them, but for some reason, I just haven't been able to get into his more recent stuff.
I'm dying in the hopes that this new one matches up with his earlier work. Maybe that's wrong. Maybe I'm just living in the past. But I can still go back to any of that stuff--I just bought my third copy of Burning Chrome a month ago--and I walk away from reading a page or two, just thinking: Jesus Christ, this man oozes talent. He's got enough for him and two more writers. And I just haven't felt that way about his work in a while.
So, I really, really hope this is his best work in years.
Re:I've read it
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
The writer gets no money from it because he already got his money from the initial sell...there's nothing morally ethically or legally wrong with buying a used book, no one is getting cheated out of money...this is the same argument the riaa is trying to use to close down smaller used tape/cd stores and its sickening...please try to be educated about these things before making comments like that
I've read a couple of his books (Neuromancer, The Difference Engine) and I think he's overrated. Granted, the Difference Engine seems to be generally regarded as not good, but even Neuromancer I thought was fairly boring. So he coined a word, yee haw. He might have a vision but his expression of that vision is lacking.
Re:Gibson overrated
by
Jonathan
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· Score: 5, Insightful
I don't see how you can appreciate _Snowcrash_ without reading _Neuromancer_ -- It would be like watching _Blazing Saddles_ without ever seeing a real Western.
Re:the street
by
st.+augustine
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Seriously though, it's not like Gibson has weak books
Um, can you say "The Difference Engine"?
The fact you didn't get it doesn't make it weak.
--
--
Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible
to rational proof.
Re:Gibson overrated
by
garibald
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
actually it's fairly easy to appreciate cyberpunk without reading Neuromancer, given the proliferation of the genre into the mainstream. By way of movies, terminology, and whatnot.
I personally find reading Gibson to be painful at times because all of his conventions and ideas have been so assimilated that the originals seem... rough and unpolished. But that's just my opinion.
Re:Is He Even Relevant?
by
HardCase
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· Score: 3, Insightful
In lit-crit circles, it is often said that a poet's best work is his earliest (think Coleridge or Bob Dylan)... while novelists take time to mature (Dickens, P.K. Dick, or Kim Stanley Robinson). I think Gibson's a poet -- people read him (at least I do) for the descriptions, the images, the language, not the story.
I'd dispute lumping Dickens in with the rest. In fact, his novels were tremendously popular, to the point of being serialized as he finished the chapters. Although we regard his work as classic nowadays, he was the 19th century equivalent of one of today's blockbuster authors.
I suspect that 100 years from now Tom Clancy, et al, will not be held in quite the high esteem.
-h-
I'll get bad karma for this one...sorry.
by
Alan+Holman
·
· Score: 0, Insightful
William Gibson is an author well-known enough that his tenure merits him a Slashdot article. I'm an unknown author whose lack of tenure merits me neutral (soon to be bad) karma on Slashdot. William Gibson most-likely sleeps on a double bed with his wife. I sleep on a single bed which makes noises every time I make the slightest movement, and it's annoying to the rest of my family who sleep in "kinda-devided" so-called "rooms." William Gibson's novels sold millions! My novel GOLDEN CITY never got published aside for on a hardly-ever-visited web-site. Both William Gibson and Douglas Adams have had articles posted about them on Slashdot. I've tried to have articles posted about my sci-fi comedy novel GOLDEN CITY (which friends say is funnier than The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy), and I've tried to have articles posted about my web-published series of anime teleplays called Banana Chan (which friends say is a brilliant tale about how characters relate to the beginning of the story.) Bah humbug.
Anyway, here's the part that's gonna get me the bad karma: People have called me boastful, and selfish. I do that to survive! Yes, my stories are great, and no I'm not just saying that. William Gibson got the right people to read his stuff -- he knew folks in the biz, or he marketted himself the proper way! For me, I can't market myself the proper way, because sending a manuscript of Golden City, or a set of scripts of Banana Chan, to a publisher is impossible because my family can't afford a printer which works properly. Hell, I'm using a rigged 286 to post this comment to slashdot! This computer was donated to my family because my family is poor. It's a pre-windows computer. I'm using a browser called LYNX. Anyway, people say I'm boastful and selfish when I try to get people on the internet to read my stories -- well, it's the only way that I can get people to read them because I typed most of them up on crappy computers at home, and I posted them to the internet on public access computers in
libraries and whatnot. I've been failing job interviews since may because I try to "sell myself to the employer" and my true passion lies on writing my stories, and acting -- not burger-flipping, or mopping... That's why I don't focus during those job interviews; however, maybe I come across as a little desperate during those job interviews, and maybe that's why I don't have a job. But wouldn't you come across as desperate if the reason you wanted a job was so that you could quit waking up from nightmares about getting raped, only to find out that the dreamed-of rape was the same pace of the sound of your parents conjugal rights in the next room!!!!... well, as I said earlier, they're not rooms...just divisions of... well, sub-sections....hard to explain, but... well, to make a long story short: read my anime teleplays called Banana Chan at http://www.geocities.com/radiomovie2002/ I write those teleplays in order to escape from the pain of reality -- maybe that's also why William Gibson writes.
Honestly, I don't even know who the hell William Gibson is, aside for the fact that he's a published author, and I'm not! You know, I had two plays produced by amateur companies -- two plays which I wrote. The purpose of the amateur companies was to get recognition for local playwrights and donate the proceeds to charity. In other words, I got paid nothing for giving LARGE audiences nights of enjoyment. Oh, did I mention that I got kicked in the nuts on a reality tv show called THE ULTIMATE PARTY QUEST? If I knew a lawyer, I'd find some way to sue the bastards who film that show. Hell, whoever's doling out the Karma for this one should read my online diary at http://www.ncf.ca/~eq524/ before they decide that I deserve -5 points for this long rant. I hate published authors because I'm not one of them. Damn J.K. Rowling -- her Harry Potter books reek of the type of talent I had six years ago, yet she's published because she can afford to get a print shop to design a cool manuscript for herself to
impress publishers. Just like William Gibson! And what can I afford: nothing. But I continue living because of faith in my goals.
Sterling, Gibson Thoughts
by
Glindonna
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Bruce Sterling:
I find it useful to think of Bruce Sterling as a contemporary Mark Twain. His keynotes at various tech and design conferences are always hysterically funny and inspiring. His short stories are also top drawer. I agree that his novels are hard work, though, with perhaps only 'Holy Fire' rating as truly excellent. I'd recommend all Slashdotters with any design/environmental interest at all join his Viridian mailing list.
Gibson:
I always find the weakest part of Gibson's work to be the OTT violence and happy-face Hollywood endings. The writing is so beautiful I can forgive the guy anything, though. All three of the 'Sprawl' trilogy are truly great books. The 'Bridge' trilogy is maybe more exciting to think about (nanotech, virtual pop stars made flesh etc) than to actually read. It's pretty patchy stuff and you often feel like you're being strung along. Wish he still wrote short stories but I haven't heard tell of a new one in a long time.
Sterling/Gibson/Cyberpunk in 2003:
These guys are aging pretty gracefully considering how badly they could have been smeared when cyberpunk flamed out. I think they also set the bar pretty high for the next generation of writers and I'm not sure someone like Neal Stephenson has advanced the state of the art very much.
I'm basically happy these two brilliant, thoughtful, talented guys are still working and trying to help us come to grips with it all.
Glin,
Closet Cyberpunk 4ever
Re:I've read it
by
Unordained
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
"first sale doctrine" says that once they've sold you a product, you can do whatever you like with it, including selling it off to others. exception: software is sold as a license that is non-transferable (a bit like a diploma can't be sold to another person.) this gets around the first-sale doctrine by forcing you to keep your copy once you've bought it -- you, and only you, have the right to use the product. the value of the license was immediately used up, and that's it (a bit like not being able to sell your experience on a roller coaster -- only your personal enjoyment is left, unless people just want to pay to listen to you talk about it.)
in the case of physical items like books, cd's, etc. the first sale doctrine still applies, until the *aa changes the way we purchase media to always mean we purchase licenses to view the media (possibly for a period of time only.) it'll be a bit hard to expire paper-books, but... they'll try somday.
as to supporting the original authors, you might just send them a check. buy the used copy, and send the author money. original authors get very little through their distributors unless they're lucky, famous, etc. [see google] and this way they'd get a letter from you. make their day.
Slashdot Mirror
How many times have we heard this about Gibson? This is the guy who wrote Difference Engine people. He has writen as well, and as badly, as any writer around. Mostly as badly.
He was great before he had ever touched a computer. Now he has, and he can't go back.
The hype is meaningless. If someone I know and trust reads this and tells me that it's good, I'll consider it - not until then.
I hope it is his best work in years.
Don't get me wrong, I adore Gibson. I think the Sprawl Series was one of the best things ever put to paper. I've read Neuromancer at least ten times. I loved Burning Chrome. I love every article I've seen him write for Wired or whatever magazine he's travelling to Asia for this month. His interviews rock because the man is both highly intelligent and very interesting. I'm dying to see No Maps For These Territories.
Having gushed, though, I just don't like any of his recent novels. I read Virtual Light and didn't think it was that great. I couldn't finish Idoru. I didn't even bother with All Tomorrow's Parties.
I'm sure they're great books for those who like them, but for some reason, I just haven't been able to get into his more recent stuff.
I'm dying in the hopes that this new one matches up with his earlier work. Maybe that's wrong. Maybe I'm just living in the past. But I can still go back to any of that stuff--I just bought my third copy of Burning Chrome a month ago--and I walk away from reading a page or two, just thinking: Jesus Christ, this man oozes talent. He's got enough for him and two more writers. And I just haven't felt that way about his work in a while.
So, I really, really hope this is his best work in years.
The writer gets no money from it because he already got his money from the initial sell...there's nothing morally ethically or legally wrong with buying a used book, no one is getting cheated out of money...this is the same argument the riaa is trying to use to close down smaller used tape/cd stores and its sickening...please try to be educated about these things before making comments like that
I've read a couple of his books (Neuromancer, The Difference Engine) and I think he's overrated. Granted, the Difference Engine seems to be generally regarded as not good, but even Neuromancer I thought was fairly boring. So he coined a word, yee haw. He might have a vision but his expression of that vision is lacking.
Have you coined a word? Want credit for it?
I don't see how you can appreciate _Snowcrash_ without reading _Neuromancer_ -- It would be like watching _Blazing Saddles_ without ever seeing a real Western.
The fact you didn't get it doesn't make it weak.
-- Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible to rational proof.
actually it's fairly easy to appreciate cyberpunk without reading Neuromancer, given the proliferation of the genre into the mainstream. By way of movies, terminology, and whatnot.
I personally find reading Gibson to be painful at times because all of his conventions and ideas have been so assimilated that the originals seem... rough and unpolished. But that's just my opinion.
I'd dispute lumping Dickens in with the rest. In fact, his novels were tremendously popular, to the point of being serialized as he finished the chapters. Although we regard his work as classic nowadays, he was the 19th century equivalent of one of today's blockbuster authors.
I suspect that 100 years from now Tom Clancy, et al, will not be held in quite the high esteem.
-h-
William Gibson is an author well-known enough that his tenure merits him a Slashdot article. I'm an unknown author whose lack of tenure merits me neutral (soon to be bad) karma on Slashdot. William Gibson most-likely sleeps on a double bed with his wife. I sleep on a single bed which makes noises every time I make the slightest movement, and it's annoying to the rest of my family who sleep in "kinda-devided" so-called "rooms." William Gibson's novels sold millions! My novel GOLDEN CITY never got published aside for on a hardly-ever-visited web-site. Both William Gibson and Douglas Adams have had articles posted about them on Slashdot. I've tried to have articles posted about my sci-fi comedy novel GOLDEN CITY (which friends say is funnier than The Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy), and I've tried to have articles posted about my web-published series of anime teleplays called Banana Chan (which friends say is a brilliant tale about how characters relate to the beginning of the story.) Bah humbug. Anyway, here's the part that's gonna get me the bad karma: People have called me boastful, and selfish. I do that to survive! Yes, my stories are great, and no I'm not just saying that. William Gibson got the right people to read his stuff -- he knew folks in the biz, or he marketted himself the proper way! For me, I can't market myself the proper way, because sending a manuscript of Golden City, or a set of scripts of Banana Chan, to a publisher is impossible because my family can't afford a printer which works properly. Hell, I'm using a rigged 286 to post this comment to slashdot! This computer was donated to my family because my family is poor. It's a pre-windows computer. I'm using a browser called LYNX. Anyway, people say I'm boastful and selfish when I try to get people on the internet to read my stories -- well, it's the only way that I can get people to read them because I typed most of them up on crappy computers at home, and I posted them to the internet on public access computers in libraries and whatnot. I've been failing job interviews since may because I try to "sell myself to the employer" and my true passion lies on writing my stories, and acting -- not burger-flipping, or mopping... That's why I don't focus during those job interviews; however, maybe I come across as a little desperate during those job interviews, and maybe that's why I don't have a job. But wouldn't you come across as desperate if the reason you wanted a job was so that you could quit waking up from nightmares about getting raped, only to find out that the dreamed-of rape was the same pace of the sound of your parents conjugal rights in the next room!!!! ... well, as I said earlier, they're not rooms...just divisions of ... well, sub-sections....hard to explain, but... well, to make a long story short: read my anime teleplays called Banana Chan at http://www.geocities.com/radiomovie2002/ I write those teleplays in order to escape from the pain of reality -- maybe that's also why William Gibson writes.
Honestly, I don't even know who the hell William Gibson is, aside for the fact that he's a published author, and I'm not! You know, I had two plays produced by amateur companies -- two plays which I wrote. The purpose of the amateur companies was to get recognition for local playwrights and donate the proceeds to charity. In other words, I got paid nothing for giving LARGE audiences nights of enjoyment. Oh, did I mention that I got kicked in the nuts on a reality tv show called THE ULTIMATE PARTY QUEST? If I knew a lawyer, I'd find some way to sue the bastards who film that show. Hell, whoever's doling out the Karma for this one should read my online diary at http://www.ncf.ca/~eq524/ before they decide that I deserve -5 points for this long rant. I hate published authors because I'm not one of them. Damn J.K. Rowling -- her Harry Potter books reek of the type of talent I had six years ago, yet she's published because she can afford to get a print shop to design a cool manuscript for herself to
impress publishers. Just like William Gibson! And what can I afford: nothing. But I continue living because of faith in my goals.
oh, and Shockwave Rider is still worth reading.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Bruce Sterling:
I find it useful to think of Bruce Sterling as a contemporary Mark Twain. His keynotes at various tech and design conferences are always hysterically funny and inspiring. His short stories are also top drawer. I agree that his novels are hard work, though, with perhaps only 'Holy Fire' rating as truly excellent. I'd recommend all Slashdotters with any design/environmental interest at all join his Viridian mailing list.
Gibson:
I always find the weakest part of Gibson's work to be the OTT violence and happy-face Hollywood endings. The writing is so beautiful I can forgive the guy anything, though. All three of the 'Sprawl' trilogy are truly great books. The 'Bridge' trilogy is maybe more exciting to think about (nanotech, virtual pop stars made flesh etc) than to actually read. It's pretty patchy stuff and you often feel like you're being strung along. Wish he still wrote short stories but I haven't heard tell of a new one in a long time.
Sterling/Gibson/Cyberpunk in 2003:
These guys are aging pretty gracefully considering how badly they could have been smeared when cyberpunk flamed out. I think they also set the bar pretty high for the next generation of writers and I'm not sure someone like Neal Stephenson has advanced the state of the art very much.
I'm basically happy these two brilliant, thoughtful, talented guys are still working and trying to help us come to grips with it all.
Glin,
Closet Cyberpunk 4ever
"first sale doctrine" says that once they've sold you a product, you can do whatever you like with it, including selling it off to others. exception: software is sold as a license that is non-transferable (a bit like a diploma can't be sold to another person.) this gets around the first-sale doctrine by forcing you to keep your copy once you've bought it -- you, and only you, have the right to use the product. the value of the license was immediately used up, and that's it (a bit like not being able to sell your experience on a roller coaster -- only your personal enjoyment is left, unless people just want to pay to listen to you talk about it.)
... they'll try somday.
in the case of physical items like books, cd's, etc. the first sale doctrine still applies, until the *aa changes the way we purchase media to always mean we purchase licenses to view the media (possibly for a period of time only.) it'll be a bit hard to expire paper-books, but
as to supporting the original authors, you might just send them a check. buy the used copy, and send the author money. original authors get very little through their distributors unless they're lucky, famous, etc. [see google] and this way they'd get a letter from you. make their day.