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This is to discuss September joint poll winner, Pattern Recognition by William Gibson.

I have to admit I hated Neuromancer by William Gibson and so have not got round to reading anything else by William Gibson. I'm hoping this will change my mind about him.

Jo wrote: "I have to admit I hated Neuromancer by William Gibson and so have not got round to reading anything else by William Gibson. I'm hoping this will change my mind about him."

You should read the short Burning Chrome. I found it is Gibson's best work. The narrative structure is brilliant. It might change your mind more than this novel.

As for Pattern Recognition, Gibson said, and I paraphrase: "The future is already here. It is just not evenly distributed." Pattern is right on the nose on that future that needed distribution, but as a novel it doesn't survice the test of time.

The novel doesn't have the most thrilling or intricate plot. It really is an excuse for Gibson to present a close-by future with technologies he sees coming fast. When it was published in 2003, Google and Hotmail might have seemed outlandish, but when I read it in 2016, that near-by future had arrived and made me go "Why is this supposed to be sci-fi?".

Pattern is a minor work by an author who marked sci-fi in the 80s.

Jo wrote: "I have to admit I hated Neuromancer by William Gibson and so have not got round to reading anything else by William Gibson. I'm hoping this will change my mind about him."

I also have avoided reading anything else by Gibson after reading Neuromancer about five years ago.

I read Neuromancer in the late 1980s and it blew my mind. I've read it several times since then and still enjoy it. The rest of the Sprawl trilogy (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive) was decent and so was the Bridge Trilogy (the 2nd book Idoru really stood out but the others were just OK). I agree Burning Chrome is terrific. I never liked The Difference Engine. That brings us to Pattern Recognition and its "sequels" Spook Country and Zero History.

Pattern Recognition deserves credit for being one of the first post-9/11 works that refers to that tragic event and acknowledges the impact it had on our lives. Gibson actually had to re-write the novel a couple times to accurately reflect the aftermath of 9/11 since in his first draft the event had not yet occurred and later he had to remove scenes in which trucks of soldiers drove through London streets.

But the book itself is actually pretty boring, and the sequels are worse. Gibson has been described by Cory Doctorow as more of a social critic than a technologist, which is valid but doesn't go far enough. Gibson's also not much of a writer. His most acclaimed work (Neuromancer) reads like a mashup of Raymond Chandler's complex yet ultimately unimportant plots (as Joel Coen famously once said) with cutting-edge cyberpunk sensibilities. But as he has moved away from his imaginative SF era his books could generously be described as "pedestrian."

So I guess I'm trying to say I didn't like it.

The wikipedia page for this book is worth reading - one might even say it's better than the book itself:

I read Neuromancer when it first came out & loved it. It was such a new style, perfect for the times. I tried rereading it as an audio book a few years ago & hated it; didn't finish. I think a lot of that was due to the narrator, but a lot of what made it unique is old hat now. I decided not to try again with the text or a different narrator since I wanted to keep my good memories.

It's interesting that most of the posts on this thread have mentioned Neuromancer more than they have mentioned Pattern Recognition.

I think William Gibson should go back to writing books about corporate ninjas with detachable thumbs and girls with embedded mirrorshades. Is that too much to ask?

Randy wrote: "I think William Gibson should go back to writing books about corporate ninjas with detachable thumbs and girls with embedded mirrorshades. Is that too much to ask? "

It's been done. So his Gibson. Ashame, as he brought much to sci-fi.

Even if Neuromancer crystalized the cyberpunk genre, there are better example of it out there. Snow Crash is one of them.

²Ñ²¹°ù³¦-´¡²Ô»å°ùé wrote: "Even if Neuromancer crystalized the cyberpunk genre, there are better example of it out there. Snow Crash is one of them."

Snow Crash was excellent, even if the middle does bog down a little.

Randy wrote: "²Ñ²¹°ù³¦-´¡²Ô»å°ùé wrote: "Even if Neuromancer crystalized the cyberpunk genre, there are better example of it out there. Snow Crash is one of them."

Snow Crash was excellent, even if the middle does bog ..."

Snow Crash was book-of-the-month recently in another group I'm in. They didn't seem to like it much. I had already read it, and enjoyed it, years earlier, so didn't intend to re-read it. But I came across a copy by chance and so I did start re-reading it. I very much enjoyed it again, yet somehow, stopped reading half-way through. It is still sitting there across the room from me right under the screen I'm typing this on, starting at me, wondering why I abandoned it.

I was thinking I might finally get around to reading something by Gibson, but y'all aren't making it sound very enticing.

Ed wrote: "I was thinking I might finally get around to reading something by Gibson, but y'all aren't making it sound very enticing."

Go with the short story Burning Chrome. You won't regret it.

Ed wrote: "(Snow Crash) is still sitting there across the room from me right under the screen I'm typing this on, starting at me, wondering why I abandoned it."

If I had to guess I'd say you abandoned it right around the part with the massive Ancient Sumerian info dump. Still, you can't go wrong with a book whose hero/protagonist is named Hiro Protagonist. Especially when he sleeps in a storage unit and delivers pizza for the Mafia.

²Ñ²¹°ù³¦-´¡²Ô»å°ùé wrote: "Go with the short story Burning Chrome. You won't regret it."

The entire collection Burning Chrome is well worth reading. I especially enjoyed Johnny Mnemonic even though I understand the movie was awful (I never saw it).

Randy wrote: "If I had to guess I'd say you abandoned it right around the part with the massive Ancient Sumerian info dump. ..."

Nope. I find languages endlessly fascinating! If I could do a Duolingo course to learn Ancient Sumerian, I would probably do so! I'm trying Irish right now, for no reason other than wanting to understand lentition, vowel harmony and consonant mutation.

I stopped simply because I would rather read something new than re-read something I've read before. And I remember that I've never been satisfied with any of Stephenson's endings. He throws a bunch of balls in the air, then catches maybe one or two.

I guess I'll try Burning Chrome.

This will also be my first Gibson book. I will be reading it after our other month's read.
Reading your comments, I feel pretty silly when I start Pattern Recognition instead of Neuromancer or Burning Chrome.

Leo wrote: "This will also be my first Gibson book. I will be reading it after our other month's read.
Reading your comments, I feel pretty silly when I start Pattern Recognition instead of Neuromancer or Bur..."

All of Gibson's works are compared to Neuromancer. I can't think of too many authors like that. I suppose it would be like if J.D. Salinger cranked out a bunch of progressively worse books after setting the bar ridiculously high with The Catcher in the Rye.

Leo wrote: "This will also be my first Gibson book. I will be reading it after our other month's read.
Reading your comments, I feel pretty silly when I start Pattern Recognition instead of Neuromancer or Bur..."

I'm in the same boat, Leo - haven't read Neuromancer or any other Gibson novel, so Pattern Recognition will be my first. I've got it ready to go, but just want to finish up the book I'm currently reading first (well, one of the books I'm currently reading!). I don't think it's silly at all - we've all got to start somewhere.

New to the group so this is my first post. I read Pattern Recognition a number of years ago and do not plan to re-read (I am reading the City & the City this month).

My memory of the book was that the plot was not especially strong, however the prose was impressive. I'm ashamed to admit I have never read Neuromancer but have read a handful of his later works.

To me, Gibson is a prose stylist working along the periphery of SF. New Wave cyberpunk. More of a social critic rather than strict technologist, as Randy noted.

I'm surprised how many people haven't read Neuromancer. It supposed to be a classic that marked sci-fi by defining a genre that is still popular today.

Welcome, Matt.

This topic is quite funny. I wasn't thrilled about Neuromancer. I read the wikipedia article as Randy suggested. Thematically Pattern Recognition sounds more appealing to me than Neuromancer, so I will give it a try :)

20% in and not convinced. More readable than Neuromancer but Gibson's style is a bit too frenetic for my liking. Doesn't help that I don't really care about the characters. I wonder if he is just one of these authors I will never get which is a shame as I really like the synopsis of this book.

It's starting to grow on me - probably due to section set in Japan which is always plus for me! Found this article from someone who didn't really like Gibson's early books and then grew to love him with this one so there is hope for me yet!

Jo wrote: "It's starting to grow on me - probably due to section set in Japan which is always plus for me! Found this article from someone who didn't really like Gibson's early books and then grew to love him..."

Thanks for the article, Jo. Interesting. I like this part: "In Pattern Recognition and then in Spook Country and Zero History, Gibson also explores how fast tech might boil from brand new to obsolete." Kind of like some of the themes in Gibson's near-future work. I do have to say that, despite some of the comments in the group, I really like Gibson and consistently find him interesting.

I decided to try the story "Burning Chrome" instead of this novel. I don't hate it, but I really just didn't get into it much. I realize that isn't a very helpful comment, but it's just how I felt.

I found it in the collection The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories, which is a big door-stop of a book. I'm tempted to read the whole collection, but that would take a month! Argh!

What makes Burning Chrome special is the non-linear narrative. It is something hard to pull.

²Ñ²¹°ù³¦-´¡²Ô»å°ùé wrote: "What makes Burning Chrome special is the non-linear narrative. It is something hard to pull."

I didn't even notice that. Maybe I need to read it again.

I just found out that my library offers free access to "The Great Courses", so yesterday I watched the episode on Cyberpunk in It was quite informative, but probably not worth the purchase price if you can't find it at a library.

He discussed Pattern Recognition, Burning Chrome, Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Zeitgeist, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, and others.

I guess that for me, personally, cyberpunk just isn't a very appealing sub-genre, though I like the movie Blade Runner, and the book Snow Crash.

But I do enjoy the sub-genre of Steampunk, and I somehow hadn't realized that Gibson and Sterling helped start that movement, too, with their book The Difference Engine. I'll be adding that to my to-read pile.

Ed wrote: "I just found out that my library offers free access to "The Great Courses", so yesterday I watched the episode on Cyberpunk in How great science fiction works. It was quite informative, but probabl..."

Looks like that course has a number of other interesting lectures on the history of sf. Thanks for sharing, Ed.

I am over halfway now, and I have to say I like this book more than I liked Neuromancer. Thematically it appeals more to me and I may have gotten used to the style :) so I will definitely read on. Glad I gave it a try since Neuromancer was such a let down. Maybe in the future I will gain a better grasp on Gibson's work thanks to this.

I'm a bit late on this one. Not disappointed at all. I really like his style of writing. Still don't know where the story is heading but it's intriguing and I can't wait to read more Gibson.

"Pattern Recognition" is a literary sci-fi work not a cyberpunk piece. With "The Gernsback Continuum" and "Neuromancer" they represent not just milestones in his career but in SF and literature.

"Pattern Recognition" is a gift to all of us in coping with the mental revolution that 9/11 cause across the globe. We are fortunate that Gibson was there to capture our disorientation...

"Spook Country" maybe more relevant a story in the Trump Administration than in its original setting in the Bush Administration. It is a book focused on the question of values and loyalties. It is also a great spy story.

"Zero History" is a wrap up story but a very exciting read. In general, Gibson's first in the trilogy is the most profound. It builds the world and displays the nove from which he builds the trilogy.

Gregg wrote: ""Zero History" is a wrap up story but a very exciting read. In general, Gibson's first in the trilogy is the most profound. It builds the world and displays the nove from which he builds the trilogy."Thanks Gregg. I plan to read the complete trilogy.