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."
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
·
· 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
·
· 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
·
· 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.
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
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-
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.