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."
Is He Even Relevant?
by
Tremblay99
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· Score: 5, Interesting
Neuromancer blew me away -- it was awesome. And clacked out on a manual typewriter. Count Zero was a little less so. Mona Lisa Overdrive was a decent read (awesome, awesome cover on the original hardcover, mind you). The Difference Engine was a slog. Idoru and Virtual Light blur together.
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.
Of course, if he's become a novelist and has learned how to tell a story... with fleshed-out characters, with substance over flash and some hook in the story to hold on to, he might yet become a worthwhile read again.
Met the guy 12 years ago...
by
teutonic_leech
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· Score: 5, Interesting
I met William Gibson 12 years ago in Austria at the Ars Electronica conference. Everyone was all dressed up and stuff and the guy shows up to hold a speech in sneakers and a beat-up pair of jeans that I bet he still wears today. Really shy - not the extravert type - I liked him right away:-)
Anyway, can't wait to read his latest work - if it's anything like Neuromancer, it's a must read.
Re:Ask Slashdot? Other great sci-fi/cyberpunk auth
by
st.+augustine
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· Score: 5, Interesting
After hearing about Bruce Sterling I found a copy of Islands in the Net in a used bookstore... I've never been able to bring myself to read another one by him. Anyone with thoughts about his other books?
His short stories are excellent -- check out the collections Globalhead and A Good Old-Fashioned Future.
As for the novels, personally I think Heavy Weather and Zeitgeist are brilliant, but I've had trouble convincing other people of this. Schismatrix, which is rather older, is also quite good -- something like what might have happened if Heinlein's juveniles had been written by William S. Burroughs.
(Oh, and if you like Sterling, or even Stephenson, you should also probably check out Charles Stross. You might call his stuff post-Slashdot cyberpunk.)
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Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible
to rational proof.
Re:heard that before
by
analog_line
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· Score: 5, Interesting
The Difference Engine was actually a collaboration between Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Did you actually read it? It was pretty obvious, at least to me, which parts Sterling wrote, and which parts Gibson wrote. Sterling just can't write sci-fi. I've forced myself through more books of his than I wish to remember. The only ones I could stand reading more than once were The Artificial Kid and Islands in the Net, and that was barely. In other words, don't blame Gibson for the Difference Engine. He had "help."
Gibson had the guts to try for something different after the Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa trilogy. For that I give him a hell of alot of credit. I admit that I really didn't like Virtual Light and Idoru on the first read through, but I reread them and I got most of it, and i've got a much better opinion of them now. All Tomorrow's Parties was one of the best books i've ever read. I practically flew through it. The less fantastic the setting, the more thoughtful it is.
But different tastes for different people, so there you go, eh? Personally, I say give the guy more computers. I'm eager to see what the new stuff is. If you aren't up for it, such is life.
Slashdot Mirror
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.
Of course, if he's become a novelist and has learned how to tell a story ... with fleshed-out characters, with substance over flash and some hook in the story to hold on to, he might yet become a worthwhile read again.
I met William Gibson 12 years ago in Austria at the Ars Electronica conference. Everyone was all dressed up and stuff and the guy shows up to hold a speech in sneakers and a beat-up pair of jeans that I bet he still wears today. Really shy - not the extravert type - I liked him right away :-)
Anyway, can't wait to read his latest work - if it's anything like Neuromancer, it's a must read.
As for the novels, personally I think Heavy Weather and Zeitgeist are brilliant, but I've had trouble convincing other people of this. Schismatrix, which is rather older, is also quite good -- something like what might have happened if Heinlein's juveniles had been written by William S. Burroughs.
If your wondering whether you'd like Sterling, probably the easiest thing to do is check out some of his nonfiction online.
(Oh, and if you like Sterling, or even Stephenson, you should also probably check out Charles Stross. You might call his stuff post-Slashdot cyberpunk.)
-- Some things are to be believed, though not susceptible to rational proof.
The Difference Engine was actually a collaboration between Gibson and Bruce Sterling. Did you actually read it? It was pretty obvious, at least to me, which parts Sterling wrote, and which parts Gibson wrote. Sterling just can't write sci-fi. I've forced myself through more books of his than I wish to remember. The only ones I could stand reading more than once were The Artificial Kid and Islands in the Net, and that was barely. In other words, don't blame Gibson for the Difference Engine. He had "help."
Gibson had the guts to try for something different after the Neuromancer/Count Zero/Mona Lisa trilogy. For that I give him a hell of alot of credit. I admit that I really didn't like Virtual Light and Idoru on the first read through, but I reread them and I got most of it, and i've got a much better opinion of them now. All Tomorrow's Parties was one of the best books i've ever read. I practically flew through it. The less fantastic the setting, the more thoughtful it is.
But different tastes for different people, so there you go, eh? Personally, I say give the guy more computers. I'm eager to see what the new stuff is. If you aren't up for it, such is life.