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Idoru (Bridge #2)

3.7 of 5 stars 3.70 · rating details · 10,712 ratings · 266 reviews

The New York Times bestselling author takes readers to 21st-century Tokyo after the millennial quake--where something violently new is about to erupt...

Paperback, 308 pages

Published January 7th 2003 by Berkley Trade (first published 1996)

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Apr 29, 2008 Rob rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: jaded futurists in search of "that physical thing"

Shelves: all-time-favorites, own, 2008, science-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Quote: ...I think I'd probably tell you that it's easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.

There is an odd surface tension here; some readers may approach Idoru from the wrong bias, through the lens of Neuromancer and the Sprawl trilogy. Those readers will expect the traditional cyberpunk romp of amphetamine-fueled Yakuza battles and twisted violent sex in coffin hotels; those readers w...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

You know, it seems like I would really like William Gibson, from what I've heard of him, but there's something about his writing that leaves too much out. This book is the first of his I've been able to finish. I still don't feel like I understood everything he was trying to say--something about a melding of science and nature, centered around the music star Rez and the idoru Rei. It was interesting, but I kept feeling like it was something I was reading out of the corner of my eye, and every ti...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Cameron Mulder rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It is important to note that my copy of this book was rather damaged and this did detract from my enjoyment of reading this novel.

William Gibson, i feel, is a wonderful writer due to his ability to create gritty scifi worlds that not only feel real but also feel like they are just a few years away from being reality. Idoru does this while also exploring the concepts of celebrity and the intertwining of the virtual and the real in our world.

This book provides more than a few interesting concepts...more It is important to note that my copy of this book was rather damaged and this did detract from my enjoyment of reading this novel.

William Gibson, i feel, is a wonderful writer due to his ability to create gritty scifi worlds that not only feel real but also feel like they are just a few years away from being reality. Idoru does this while also exploring the concepts of celebrity and the intertwining of the virtual and the real in our world.

This book provides more than a few interesting concepts to think about, chief among them being the concept of a nodal point which is a aspect of mundane data that has some particular relevance. In our world today the ability to data mine and find these nodal points has become an actual growing career and something this book not only foretold but also shows some of the possible issues if people might ever be able to be as adept at this skill as the main character is.

The issue i think i have with this book is that the William Gibson trait of having multiple story lines that connect and culminate in interesting ways felt more forced than usually. The plot of having a teenage fangirl travel half way around the world to investigate a rumor about her rock idol felt absurd and like more of a caricature of teenage fangirls than an actual look into the psychology and motivations of one.

The ending felt rushed and to me was somewhat unsatisfying. It did tie up the loose ends, but something about how it was done made the whole plot feel trivial and that the events that happened were not all that important. I think this might have been purposeful but it was done in such a way that instead of having a sense of completeness when i finished reading i was left feeling a bit like something was missing from the experience of this novel.

I still do recommend this book. Even with the small flaws i found with it i think it is a wonderful read with great pacing and filled with interesting ideas and locations. If you enjoy Gibson you will enjoy this book, if you have never read Gibson i would start with something else.
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Jan 09, 2009 Craig rated it 3 of 5 stars

This one just didn't grab me. At times I relished the Gibson flair for otherworldly scenarios and the very unfamiliar but very distinctive in some passages. Other times I cringed at the seemingly contrived (and trite) attempts to make instances more than what they were - just uninteresting characters operating in bland locales - all this despite they were in Tokyo!

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Mar 04, 2013 Nigel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a vague sense that this is the most well-regarded of Gibson's post-Sprawl books, mostly because the Idoru of the title anticipates the current use of virtual pop-stars in Japan, though how well the two things map to each other I don't know. Personally, I think that it's the best novel he's ever written, and he's never written a bad one, not because of his predictive powers but because of a sideways emotional hook at the end. Gibson's smooth polished surface cool resists real depth of empa...more

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Oct 18, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in February 2001.

We are rapidly approaching the era when virtual celebrities will become a commonplace; there are already websites which feature purely digital news readers. We will no doubt soon see computer generated actors (improving on Jar Jar Binks) and musicians. Eventually, they will have at least simulations of personalities of their own. The pivotal event of this novel depends on this idea; rock star Rez announces his engagement to a virtual personal...more

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Sep 23, 2012 Aravind Nair rated it 4 of 5 stars

This has been my second Gibson. Idoru is certainly mellower than Neuromancer but every bit as true to the genre. Like Neuromancer, it takes you deep into the net, which you'd think only Gibson understands in all its terrible glory. If you know your way around the web, you would recognize many of the things in this novel as highly probable extrapolations of our own net. Gibson seems to have a talent for seeing stuff, just like Laney one of the protagonists. Laney looks into the mass of data gener...more

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May 30, 2011 Katy-Del rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think Gibson tries to say a lot about technology and the nature of celebrity and I'm not sure if I get it all.

I love the story line about the 14 year old named Chia Pet who gets taken advantage of and ends up on the run from the mob.

Colin Laney's story is also interesting. He was working for a company with no scruples and suddenly found that he couldn't just watch someone's life implode without doing something. He tried to expose them, but his own background threatened his credibility and no...more

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Feb 26, 2011 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

Now this book I remember better than its immediate predecessor, "Virtual Light". One might guess that it is because I liked "Idoru" better than VL, but I think it is another subjective factor. From the early to end of the 90s I did a fair amount of traveling and East Asia, including Japan was where I went often. So, I suspect that familiarity with the locations and real-world culture and people helped make a stronger impression on me than people living in San Francisco (which city I have only se...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Stasa Fritz rated it 4 of 5 stars

The review is part of a combined respones I did for my current MFA program.

Response to Breath, Eyes, Memory by Edwidge Danticat, Idoru by William Gibson, and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Attempting a combined response with these three books does not make sense at first blush, but contrasts are often interesting and illuminating, so I will attempt it. My real hesitation is that Diaz’s writing from a craft perspective brings so much more to the table that it may overwhelm the...more

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Mar 18, 2010 Fred Warren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction

Lo/Rez is the hottest rock band on the planet, but their fan club is horrified by rumors that Rez, the band’s lead singer, intends to marry Rei Toei, a Japanese idoru, an “idol singer.” The problem is, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Tokyopop princess–Rei Toei is a software agent, a complex amalgamation of computer code that simulates a human being. The Seattle branch of the Lo/Rez fan club is disturbed enough to send one of its members, fourteen-year-old Chia McKenzie, to Japan to investigate....more Lo/Rez is the hottest rock band on the planet, but their fan club is horrified by rumors that Rez, the band’s lead singer, intends to marry Rei Toei, a Japanese idoru, an “idol singer.” The problem is, this isn’t your run-of-the-mill Tokyopop princess–Rei Toei is a software agent, a complex amalgamation of computer code that simulates a human being. The Seattle branch of the Lo/Rez fan club is disturbed enough to send one of its members, fourteen-year-old Chia McKenzie, to Japan to investigate. Enroute, a strange woman gives her a package to carry through Customs, and Chia soon finds herself in a whole lot of trouble.

Meanwhile, data analyst Colin Laney is losing his job at Slitscan, a company that gleans, manufactures, and spins news about the rich and famous. Laney has a singular gift–he can intuitively spot trends developing within masses of seemingly-unrelated data. He tried to thwart the suicide of a celebrity’s girlfriend, an incident only he could foresee, and that action wasn’t in Slitscan’s financial interest. To make matters worse, Laney’s been offered a new job by a menacing representative of the conglomerate that manages Lo/Rez. Slitscan would like nothing better than to destroy Lo/Rez with the scandal of the century. If Laney accepts the job offer, he risks much more than the loss of Slitscan’s goodwill, and if he rejects it…well, let’s just say that’s not really an option. He’s caught between two powerful forces that covet his talent, an ability even Laney doesn’t completely understand.

Something earthshattering is about to happen, and Laney is the only one who can see it coming. He doesn’t know exactly what it is yet, but Rez and the idoru are at its heart. Is Rez just an eccentric rock singer who’s fried his brain with recreational drugs? Is Rei Toei something more than a fancy computer program? What’s inside that mysterious box in Chia’s purse? Inquiring minds want to know, and they’re willing to kill for the information.

In Idoru, William Gibson, the acclaimed father of cyberpunk and author of Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive, takes us once again to a near-future world where the line between the real and the virtual blurs. This time, he explores the nature of celebrity in the Information Age, a phenomenon not fully explained by either reality or illusion. In the world of Idoru, celebrity is a commodity, and its creation and destruction are a profitable business. Fans create a living mythology that shapes both the object of their adulation and themselves. Virtual reality and telepresence create autonomous societies within the infosphere invisible to the outside world and wielding enormous power. True artificial intelligence hovers just beyond the limits of technology, composed, as one character says, of the “aggregates of subjective desire.” When, and if, it emerges, Gibson asserts it will be in a place and of a form that no one would have expected.

Idoru is a gripping story, intriguing and suspenseful. My one disappointment was that all the characters, even the ones who were ostensibly pulling the strings, seemed to be wandering in a fog, pushed about by forces they couldn’t control or fully comprehend. Yeah, I know, life can be like that–a lot–but the story builds up an overwhelming sense of some guiding intelligence orchestrating events from the shadows that ultimately devolves into randomness. Remarkable and frightening things happen, but like Laney, who manifests his analytic gift without understanding how or why it works, I felt like Gibson never quite got around to telling me why these things were happening, or why they were so important and inevitable. There are hints aplenty, but I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, even at the end of the story.

On the other hand, I loved Gibson’s foray into the world of image brokers, fangirls, mafioso of various flavors, and a virtual world that seemed just as real and surreal as the physical world. The characters were interesting and memorable, especially Rez’ security chief, Keithy Blackwell, a Tazmanian ex-con and one of the smartest and scariest hired goons I’ve encountered in a long time. He’s a complex character, and his ethics are, to put it mildly, ambiguous. Another character remarks that the most frightening thing about Blackwell is that “sometimes I find myself getting used to him,” and that’s a pretty good assessment.

Idoru was published in 1996, but it still feels fresh and plausible to me. Some of Gibson’s projections are very close to becoming reality, and a few are already here.

I’d rate the material at an R overall, for a few stretches of raw language, a couple of non-explicit adult situations, and some violence, mostly implied, but perhaps more frightening because it’s implied.(less)

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Mar 11, 2010 Browland rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyber-punk

Gibson is an ideas man: big on 'what', not on 'why' or 'how'. It's been said enough times that his predictions are spookily accurate. This book - written in 1996 - features many foreshadowings of the current time. A time where we hide behind an avatar, led around by geo-aware goggle-boxes. Social networks, always-on broadband, CGI pop stars (nearly).

Gibson's writing has distance. The (lethargic) characters seem behind a transparent wall; you can see but not touch. Laney - one of two protagonists...more

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Sep 19, 2009 tENTATIVELY, cONVENIENCE rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

This is the 6th bk I've read by Gibson. I read "Neuromancer" 1st & was excited by the CyberPunk genre b/c it seemed like an important new development in SF. Since then, it's become a bit hackneyed for me. In fact, I've kindof long since written off Gibson as being not such a great writer. NONETHELESS, I started reading this, knowing that I'd enjoy it for all the same reasons that I've ever enjoyed CyberPunk: its environment of near-future technical sleaze - &, yes, I immediately became e...more

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Jul 18, 2009 Jocelyn Zombie rated it 5 of 5 stars

William Gibson is a very good author, and so far I've loved all the books of his that I've read, but can't read too much of him too close together, because though his writing is excellent and his plotting is great, the strongest aspect of his narratives, to my mind, is the atmosphere his books conjure. Like eating at a high-end ultra-modern sushi bar, it's fantastic in small doses but I'd get heartily sick of it if I went too often. So, I'm still backlisting, and I'm trying to get through his ca...more William Gibson is a very good author, and so far I've loved all the books of his that I've read, but can't read too much of him too close together, because though his writing is excellent and his plotting is great, the strongest aspect of his narratives, to my mind, is the atmosphere his books conjure. Like eating at a high-end ultra-modern sushi bar, it's fantastic in small doses but I'd get heartily sick of it if I went too often. So, I'm still backlisting, and I'm trying to get through his catalog roughly in order of publication. "Idoru" is the latest one I've read, and I especially enjoyed it because it deals with research.

Research isn't really the central point of the book, though. The narrative is split between Colin Laney and Chia Pet MacKenzie, but it's not actually about either of them. Laney is a researcher that worked at a information powerhouse (I think of Lexis), then at a celebrity creation machine (I think of Entertainment Tonight), and then for the company surrounding a private celebrity, Rez of the band Lo/Rez (I think of Bono, but half Chinese). Chia is 15 years old and is part of the Seattle fan-club for Lo/Rez. They both travel to Tokyo to figure out why Rez has announced that he's going to marry Rei Toei, an Idoru, a Japanese idol who exists only in cyberspace and was created by programmers - who might be an artificial intelligence but might also just be a piece of software. Colin is investigating on behalf of the people who work with Rez, who are worried that someone (someone like Colin's former TV show employers?) has gotten to him. Rez's fan base has the same concern, and Chia goes to Tokyo to check this out semi-willingly at the behest of the global fan consortium.

The book, though, isn't really about the narrators, it's about Rez, and about celebrity, and the difference between who a person is and who he is perceived to be when he is famous, and the way that celebrity works, and how it can be manipulated and bought and sold, and who really holds the power over it.

The writing is spare, but the descriptions of place and people are rich and deep, and the way that the main focus of the book is kept at one degree of remove underlines the point the book is making. Lovely stylish book. (less)

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Apr 06, 2009 John rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

While I'm a bigger fan of Gibson's Sprawl trilogy (Neuromancer, Count Zero, and Mona Lisa Overdrive), I think Idoru may actually be the best introduction to this work. Unlike the imaginable-but-still-genuinely-strange world of the Sprawl trilogy, Idoru's setting seems to be about 10 minutes into the future (five minutes, if you've already been to Japan); and in this future, pop sensation Rez is has announced that he is going to marry an idoru -- a virtual pop singer with no corporeal existence....more

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Apr 21, 2012 Nenia Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: x-series-bk-2, x-1990s

This is the first book I've read by William Gibson (though I have Neuromancer lined up and ready to read in my get-to pile but I've already started to realize that his style is a lot like Phillip K. Dick. Except, you know, without the whole acid trip surrealism.

OM NOM NOM. TASTY, TASTY ACID!

According to the back jacket of my book, Gibson is "credited with having coined the term cyberspace" and "with having envisioned both the internet and virtual reality before either existed." While I heartily...more

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May 29, 2008 Afroditi rated it 4 of 5 stars

I' d say this book is more "cyberpop" than cyberpunk but i really liked it.

Gibson creates a breathtaking scenery in futuristic Tokyo that follows the fact that an A.I. pop singer - the Idoru and Rez, singer of the Lo-Rez band are having an affair.

For me, Gibson talks about the present, projecting ideas in the future based on technologies that already exist - in this case, the nanotechnology.

Gibson is trully a very intelligent man and a very talented writer.

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Mar 16, 2013 The Pen Punks rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyberpunk-shelf

From our Blog:

This is not a new book by no means. Published in 1996, Idoru is the second book of William Gibson's Bridge trilogy and yet again a testimony of just how ahead of his time Gibson has been.

There is no need to read Virtual Light (#1 Bridge Trilogy) to understand 100% of this story since both novels are related by world rather than by characters. The backdrop is close enough to our own to be believable yet extrapolated enough to be very imaginative and engrossing. This makes me wonder...more From our Blog:

This is not a new book by no means. Published in 1996, Idoru is the second book of William Gibson's Bridge trilogy and yet again a testimony of just how ahead of his time Gibson has been.

There is no need to read Virtual Light (#1 Bridge Trilogy) to understand 100% of this story since both novels are related by world rather than by characters. The backdrop is close enough to our own to be believable yet extrapolated enough to be very imaginative and engrossing. This makes me wonder if Idoru was Gibson's attempt at exploring that world further rather than build a fulfilling story.

I could have picked up this book without knowing the title, nor the author and would have guessed exactly who wrote it. This novel had some great concepts and thought provoking notions even though this wasn't, in my humble opinion, Gibson's best work.

Colin Laney, one of the main characters, has the most interesting ability, which to me, made this book interesting: he can decipher patterns in any information and cybernetic behavior. He is the private investigator/stalker you don't want on your tail because not only will he follow exactly what you are doing, but he may just pre-empt your behavior before you've even thought about what to do next.

The idea of Idoru, a virtual celebrity which comes to life in both cyberspace and as a 3D projection for everyone to see may be seen as some as an outdated concept. But remember people, this was published in 1996!

Skyscrapers building themselves - now how awesome would that be?

Rez, a famous singer, falls in love with the Idoru, making the perfect vessel for the classic Cyberpunk question - what is it to be human? Does the fact that she is made of pixels and lines of code make her unworthy of love, whether or not she is self-aware? What does he find in a virtual entity he couldn't find in a substantial, live woman?

I won't mention much about the character that is Chia because that is just how little her story affected me. Her character behaved at times along the deus ex machine downfall. As a reader, you are dragged through the novel wondering the entire time what she is carrying (since many dangerous and powerful people want it) , only to find out at the end of the novel under boring circumstances.

The neat concepts were the saving grace of this novel because the story itself was relatively forgettable, the beginning dragged a little (had it not been Gibson, I suspect the editor fairy would have cut all that backstory out) and the ending was extremely disappointing. All the tension built around the forsaken love between Rez and the Idoru just flops like a dead fish where the climax should have occurred. Although in essence, this novel left a trace behind, making me ponder, so I guess in that regard, Gibson succeeded.

http://thepenpunks.blogspot.com/2013/...(less)

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Nov 23, 2007 Ash rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Sci-Fi Fans, People Who Hate LA

Shelves: fiction-novels-plays-stories

I've really been holding out in regards to sci fi. I have a lot of friends who love it, but it took me reading books for school with Gibson footnoted constantly.

Idoru is great and a not too sci-fi introduction to his work. It is a quick read, which is great if you're busy and just want to know what all the hype is about.

It takes place in a future LA and Tokyo and deals a lot with fame in the digital age-- all very interesting if you've ever lived in LA.

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May 29, 2011 Jonathan Ruh rated it 3 of 5 stars

So, I went into this book with pretty high expectations. It sounded close in source material to an old anime that I really liked called Macross Plus. Sad to say, the description on the back of the book was pretty much where the similarities began and ended. Overall it was a decent, and quick, read. I was hoping more for it to deal with the aspects of an artificial intelligence born in the image of a Japanese pop idol, the Idoru of the book's title, gaining sentience, but it's more of a case stud...more

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Aug 11, 2009 Nicholas Armstrong rated it 3 of 5 stars

William Gibson impresses me more with his imagination than with his story or characters. He is the inventor of cyber-punk and steam-punk (there were some others too but forget them). His concepts and worlds are ones that our world seems to use as guidelines. Reading a Gibson book is what I imagine a computer would see if it could take an acid trip.

The characters aren't great, but they are pretty good. More impressive than anything is his world. It is so real that it feels like I'm going to star...more

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Oct 25, 2012 Kaethe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, music, scifi

10/25/2012

Last night my daughter introduced me to one of her hot new things on YouTube: Hatsune Miku, a purely synthetic pop star. In return, I introduced her to this book in which Gibson predicts such a thing, twenty years ago. Then we checked out her other hot new thing, the PBS Idea Channel and among other things, we watched Mike Rugnetta talk about the connections between Gibson, Hatsune Miku, Lana del Rey, pop culture, technology and art. And then I told her about a show that used to be o...more

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Jan 11, 2012 kingshearte rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi, 2012

I feel that Japan can't possibly be as weird as it seems to inevitably be portrayed in fiction, despite the fact that this portrayal seems to be universal, coming from both Japanese and Western writers. And yet something about Japan seems to inspire people to write very strange stories set there. Admittedly, this one is future-Japan, and future-anywhere is usually a little strange. But yeah. I don't know.

Aside from the weirdness, I'm not sure quite what to make of this. Theoretically, it's kind...more

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Aug 12, 2010 Martin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my own stupid fault for jumping into a trilogy by reading the second book first; I daresay my opinion of this one will change when I've read the others.

As a cyberpunk piece it's a bit generic but the little details are fun - stuff that's given a futuristic twist, or things you wish were invented already. The latter half felt like a bit of a letdown for some reason, but considering how it extensively explores issues such as the internet and Japanese pop culture it's not aged too badly. If...more

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Jun 26, 2012 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars

Starting out OK, but not fabulous. But that's the same way I felt about Visual Light, which I rather liked. I think I prefer Gibson when he's telling the story, to when he's setting up the story.

This is Vol II of a Trilogy, but so far, any connection with Volume I is vague. They have mentioned the main characters from Virtual Light, but that's about it. to me. From reading the synopsis, I take it we return to them in Volume III.

The structure, is similar, going from a Male charecters to a young...more

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Jul 18, 2010 Cathy Douglas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, speculative-fiction

The fact that some of the "futuristic" detailing of this story is already here and old hat wasn't lost on me, but didn't bother me either. The story world of this book is a believable take on the not-too-distant future. I loved the fantastic worlds people create together to interact online, and the way their avatars have morphed into fully-loaded alter egos. People create elaborate virtual sets and props for their meetings, parties, escapist fantasy, musical sessions, and just about everything e...more The fact that some of the "futuristic" detailing of this story is already here and old hat wasn't lost on me, but didn't bother me either. The story world of this book is a believable take on the not-too-distant future. I loved the fantastic worlds people create together to interact online, and the way their avatars have morphed into fully-loaded alter egos. People create elaborate virtual sets and props for their meetings, parties, escapist fantasy, musical sessions, and just about everything else. I'm betting this will really happen some day, and it's going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

The gangsters, out-of-work slackers, and tech wizards you expect in this kind of book were all present and accounted for. This grunge factor is what's always turned me off about Gibson in the past; I tend to find the whole scum-bag scene too predictable. Do any of the writers who love gritty realism really function in it, writing and revising by day, hooking in flophouses and smoking opium by night? I doubt it. This time, however, I was in the mood something that could credibly mimic trashy, and Gibson is a pro. He put the usual suspects together in a way that worked, and that's what counts.

Well, almost worked. The one exception was the charmingly-named Chia Pet. I just couldn't believe that a reasonably smart teen would be stupid enough to carry some creepy-ass lady's bag through customs. She's not so naive as all that in the rest of the book, so this action seemed out of character to me.

Since the plot revolves around Rez, a rock star and celebrity of the future, it's a bit disappointing that Gibson doesn't, in the end, give us a very detailed idea of what he's really up to. Rez wants to marry what is essentially an intricately programmed hologram, but his own explanation of this decision doesn't carry much weight. Rei, the idoru, and to some extent Rez himself, end up functioning more or less as a mulligan.

Maybe it's my fault for reading only the second book of a trilogy, but I get the feeling it's more that the point of this is to explore the future world envisioned by the author.(less)

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Feb 05, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, four-star-plus-reads

Neuromancer, Spook Country, Pattern Recognition, All Tomorrow's Parties, Virtual Light: other William Gibson novels I've reviewed here. As I mentioned way back in my first review, one quickly becomes a William Gibson groupie. After reading all these, plus Idoru, I am more of a groupie than ever. I know, of course, that several of these novels are connected by characters, scenes, and themes, and in fact tell a continuing story. Idoru satisfied my itch to know more about the artificial intelligenc...more

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Mar 03, 2013 Collin Winter rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Gibson writes technological fiction, but his technology is too specific, too detailed, and betrays him as someone who fundamentally does not understand how computers work.

This is the passage that made me give up on Idoru:

"""
He watched as she jacked the computers into dataports and called up identical images of a longhaired dirty-blond guy in his mid-twenties. Goatee and a gold earring. The face meant nothing to Laney.

"Clinton Hillman," Kathy Torrance said. "Hairdresser, sushi chef, music journal...more

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Dec 21, 2010 Lee rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyberpunk, fiction, science-fiction

Gibson writes well and convincingly. He incorporates the specifics of his futuristic world. The problem is, he has done it better before, and with greater detail, so fans are not likely to forgive him for a simpler world and story. Still, reading any Gibson book is a treat, especially compared with much of what's out there. His ability to incorporate near-future technology with an exciting story that fits perfectly inside this fabricated world is astounding even on this smaller scale.

Good job o...more

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Nov 17, 2009 Suna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: cyber, science-fiction

Spoilers down here....

I enjoyed this enormously and I only gave it four stars because I am acutely aware I have been spoilt by other science fiction that came after.
If I had read this in the late nineties, it would probably have blown the top off my head for its observations: The obsessive fanclub and its virtual meetings, the psychology and insecurities behind the icons with which they represent themselves, the virtual popstar (Gorillaz, anyone?), etc.

There was one thing that utterly surprised...more

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About William Gibson

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer(1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies wor...more

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Trivia About Idoru

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Quotes from Idoru

“I think I'd probably tell you that it's easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.” — 88 people liked it

“Laney had recently noticed that the only people who had titles that clearly described their jobs had jobs he wouldn't have wanted.” — 18 people liked it

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avg rating	preview: Idoru Goodreads rating: 3.70 (10712 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22325.Idoru?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309201219l/22325.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22325.Idoru?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Idoru by William Gibson[/url]

Idoru (Bridge #2)

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