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Dec 15, 2011

Nancy rated it:

I loved Pattern Recognition nearly as much as Neuromancer and felt the two novels had a lot of similarities. Even though it is classified as general fiction, the novel has a strong SF feel to it. The highly technological societies (New York and the "mirror world" of London) where things are similar but a little different and the efficient, individualistic, widely traveled and rootless characters make Pattern Recognition feel dark and surreal and more like SF.

Boone Chu was a More...

3 comments like (15 people liked it)

Jun 22, 2008

Evil_Dead_Junkie rated it:

It'll happen one day, you'll see. William Gibson WILL right an ending that resembles something other then a last ditch attempt from a man desperate not to default on his contract.

It will not stink of a man who has just watched the sunrise with a headful of Jack Daniels. No it will be thematically fufilling, and tie up and enrich the man threads that have wound through the novel like a tapestry. Giving these rich themes, imagery, and characters the proper glory rather then merely ta More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jun 27, 2011

February rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 29, 2007

Alexis rated it:

The novel is set in a number of present day cities, in a way that seems futuristic/sci-fi. I read this book in a class called "The Novel and Globalization"--and I believe having that context was helpful-at first. As the book progressed the suspence was built on the mystery of where the many relavent themes and styles converge in the plot.

My favorite part of reading the book was digesting the refernces to art, architecture, and literature, throughout that acutally added me More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Feb 14, 2008

Monk rated it:

This is a little different for Gibson. It's not really a future setting, but it drips with the usual Gibson sentence fragments and whimsy. Overall, the story is there and it has a beginning a middle and an end, but to be honest, the book lacks in a particular quality - there's nothing really at stake.

The story is fairly linear, and focuses on the main character, Casey Pollard. She's what is called a 'cool hunter'. She divines trends and evaluates logo work. She has a literal allergy More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 12, 2009

Michael rated it:

A really big letdown after the masterful depiction of cyberpunk in Neuromancer. Perhaps the problem is that the entire story takes place in a modern-day setting instead of in an interesting future. Or perhaps the problem is lack of relatable characters or a plot that maintains the reader's interest for the duration of the story. In any case, steer clear of this one.

5 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 26, 2008

Deborah rated it:

I just re-read this book and liked it even more during the second reading (and have changed my rating from four to five stars). Gibson has pared an already spare writing style down without sacrificing the elegance or evocative nature of his prose. He makes you see things in the plot as though they occur at the very edge of peripheral vision. Were they even there at all? Although it would seem that this would create an emotional distance too profound to be crossed, the opposite is true. As I More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 05, 2012

Sergey rated it:

Книга должна быть интересна поклонникам предыдущих романов Уильяма Гибсона. В отличие от предыдущих романов — это не фантастика, но это всё тот же киберпанк. Тот же стиль, тот же саспенс, тот же ритм, но ничего такого, что не могло бы происходить в действительности. Лондон, Токио, Москва наших дней, странные люди, загадочные устройства, неизвестного происхождения файлы, непонятные дела. Как сказал однажды автор в одном из интервью: «Будущее уже здесь, но оно не очень равномерно распределено». Во More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 24, 2008

Mike rated it:

Brilliantly written, but like the rest of Gibson's novels, the ending leaves something to be desired. Not exactly unfulfilling, more like seeing all of the pieces come together into a picture that is just a little underwhelming. Just like the rest of Gibson's other works (Neuromancer and Spook Country being the only two i have read, in all honesty), the story is initially compelling and the mysteries and conspiracies are thought provoking. But the resolution just doesn't have that same "sna More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 30, 2008

John rated it:

I love the way that William Gibson writes women. Gibson usually has both male and female protagonists in his books, who may or may not even see one another during the course of the story (the almost-but-never-quite is something he comes back to again and again). Regardless, his female characters are always as strong and capable as the men (and often more so). Cayce Pollard is a wonderful character, and I think that Gibson deftly avoided all the usual pitfalls of men writing female characters. More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2007

Chris rated it:

Refreshingly unlike his classic book, Neuromancer, and the others in the Sprawl trilogy, Pattern Recognition cements for me the idea of Gibson as a great writer, showcasing his ability to predict societal trends, blend those into an exciting external plot while maintaining an overall satisfying emotional journey. I'd go into details, but when summed up I don't think they sound anywhere as interesting as the book actually is.

As a side note, the book's maybe a bit more cerebral than More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 24, 2010

Cheryl rated it:

Okay then. I liked the book. From the start, it was written very differently than what I am used to, but the flow of words, which my son found awkward (being kind), worked okay for me. My brain is wired in a similar fashion, so the it worked for me.

I can't say the story itself sucked me in right away, but I found I liked it more and more as I continued to read. Towards the end, I felt somethig like whiplash as things suddenly felt like they went break-neck speed. I've seen a goo More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jul 22, 2007

Dave rated it:

I has an affinity for cyberpunk stories, which is how I know Gibson's work. I feel a certain distance, though, between his characters and the world they are caught up in; the language is scintillating, but it feels very "surface" to me. Pattern Recognition was the first of his novels that really spoke to me perhaps because the main character reflected a lot of what I was going through, and my own confusion with my emerging values versus the identity I wanted to step into. I enjoyed the More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 21, 2009

Heather rated it:

One of my favorite books of all time - easily in my top five.

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Nov 07, 2008

Jim rated it:

I'd been meaning to read something by Gibson for a long time. I thought it would be Neuromancer. But this book fell into my hands first. Despite its 2003 copyright, which makes it very old by computer-world standards, the high-tech world that Gibson whips up here feels fresh. It takes place today--not in the distant future. Email, the web, viral marketing, high fashion, international espionage, contemporary underground art all collide here. I could not put it down. Takes place mostly in Lon More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Mar 04, 2009

Amy rated it:

riveting. plus I felt hip reading it.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 03, 2011

Bohemienne rated it:

Though the deluge of brand names and pointedly modern references are surprising and dizzying at first, Gibson's 'Pattern Recognition' is uniquely of the moment. Whether it will be readable even five years from now, though, or extremely dated, remains to be seen.

The story begins with an abundance of name-dropping: Google, Levi's 509s, Starbucks. It's easy to see how the heroine, Cayce Pollard, has developed a phobia of commercialism. However, spotting trends and pinpointing logos that will succe More...

0 comments like

Dec 09, 2008

Kitte rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 18, 2012

Jon rated it:

It is 2002 and Cayce Pollard is a "cool hunter," a marketing expert who has an innate sense of what kinds of corporate designs will work and yet is allergic, even fearful, of brand names. She becomes enthralled with an Internet meme known only as "the footage," a montage of video cuts that has all of web culture guessing. A wealthy and eccentric client hires Cayce to track down the source of "the footage" at any cost. This journey takes her from London to Tokyo a More...

0 comments like

Dec 01, 2011

Johnny rated it:

This cyberpunk novel doesn’t feel in the least bit futuristic. Most of this novel is filled with techniques that resonate with today’s reality in the information universe (I use this instead of “virtual reality,” “cyberspace,” or “web” in order to describe the whole gamut of functional, non-functional, and dysfunctional portions of the extra-dimension of the information world. I realize my terminology is somewhat redundant as everything in our universe is coded with bits of information.). The ad More...

1 comment like

Oct 10, 2011

Robo rated it:

I've been a fan of William Gibson for a long time and to a certain extent it feels as though I've grown up and changed as a person as his books have changed with the times. That's not entirely true as I read his early back catalogue after they'd been published but I've been "current" since Virtual Light.

I still love the Sprawl books but I think my heart realy lies with the Bridge "trilogy" and now the Bigend "trilogy"

I personally find some More...

0 comments like

Sep 21, 2011

Mark rated it:

From my perspective of a wanna-be writer, books that open with interesting, yet grammar flaunting sentences that would earn me a ‘Dear Sir or Madam’ generic rejection raise my hackles. But I can adapt. The premise, a character on the hunt for the next big marketing/fashion thing, cool stuff like pants riding around knees or tribal discs stretching ear lobes, sounds sci-fi intriguing. Unfortunately, this emperor ain’t got no Gucci.

It’s a story about fashion tech guru Cayce Pollard track More...

0 comments like

Aug 15, 2011

Craig rated it:

I'm not entirely certain what I expected out of this book. I hadn't really heard much about it, just seen some quotes floating here and there, and I stumbled across a very cheap brand-new hardback copy whilst on vacation a month or so back so I picked it up on a wild hair.

Anyway. I liked it, for the most part. Cayce's allergy towards brands, and therefore her ability to predict branding images that will "work," was quite an interesting and quirky little personality trait More...

0 comments like

Jun 23, 2011

Dean rated it:

"Five hours' New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythm.

It is that flat and spectral non-hour, awash in limbic tides, brainstem stirring fitfully, flashing inappropriate reptilian demands for sex, food, sedation, all of the above, and none really an option now."

These are the opening lines of "Pattern Recognition" and if I thought it appropriate I would actually quote a bit more More...

0 comments like

Jun 19, 2011

Mathieu rated it:

In this book (about which I first heard by Mr Gibson himself at the Saint-Malô festival), we are on the edge line between the future and the present. Gibson abandons his predilection for the anticipation of the future (as he did in "Neuromancer") to delve on the present and to define it along as it unfolds before our very eyes. I've read "Pattern Recognition" quite a long time ago now and the story is a little fuzzy in my memory. However, what I remember quite well is its rel More...

0 comments like

May 27, 2011

Forrest rated it:

It’s hard to nail down just what I like about Pattern Recognition. I didn’t pick up a Gibson novel expecting a Robert Ludlum-esque espionage thriller, but that’s about as close a comparison as I can come up with. Not that you could compare this book with the Bourne series. Gibson is a masterful writer and Pattern Recognition is a griping, smart and critical novel that doesn’t get bogged down in the conspiracy that drives its plot.

Cayce (pronounced “case”) is not a very sympathetic c More...

0 comments like

May 03, 2011

Daniel rated it:

I remember the profound sense of fascination I felt when I read Gibson's 'Neuromancer' many years ago. 'Pattern Recognition' has triggered that same sense of wonder and thoughtfulness. One cannot help but wonder how Gibson himself feels at seeing the Information Age he unknowingly prophecised come true around him, but this novel is an undeniable proof that Gibson has his writer's finger on the "Zeitgeist" of it all.

The story behind 'Pattern Recognition' is rather simple: Cayce Pollard, More...

0 comments like

Apr 23, 2011

Sarah rated it:

Good writing, but not one of my Gibson favorites. Cayce Pollard, WG's main is a cool character with an interesting phobia relating to trademark logos and an intriguing perception of reality in the places she visits as she sorts out the mystery surrounding 135 segments of footage cropping up on the net from an unknown source. I think an earlier review said it well; I get the sense that there's nothing really "at stake" which gave a Sunday stroll sensation to reading the book - pleasant, More...

2 comments like

Mar 27, 2011

Andreas rated it:

Gibson is not what you would call a prolific writer. Every now and then something dribbles out. The works are generally short, although the ultradesigned packaging can fool you into thinking otherwise. I am a huge fan of Neuromancer and his other early works. Virtual Light, Idoru and All Tomorrows Parties were all good, but it felt like he was just showing off and not really putting his heart into the thing. Pattern recognition is much much better.

The story starts in London where our h More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

John R. rated it:

I just finished the third book in this triplet (See also: Spook Country and Zero History)and they are some of my favorite books of recent years. I'm a Gibson fan anyway but these three are, in my opinion, the best things he's ever written. I'm a long-time SF fan and reader but I read in and out of a lot of genres and subjects.

I'd argue strenuously that the books are not SF but that's perfectly OK because they are written with what I can only describe as an SF sensibility. The contempor More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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