Pattern Recognition (Bigend Trilogy, #1)

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Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant #1)

3.83 of 5 stars 3.83 · rating details · 20,601 ratings · 1,241 reviews

Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of people is obsessed with these bits of footage, and anybody who can create that kind of brand loyalty would be a gold mine for...more

Hardcover, 356 pages

Published February 3rd 2003 by Putnam Adult (first published 2003)

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Apr 27, 2012 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: cyberpunk, sf-fantasy, 9-11

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 an interesting characte...more

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Jun 22, 2008 Bryce Wilson rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

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 tarnishing ever...more

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Jun 27, 2011 February Four rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. On page 130, Gibson has a hotel clerk "imprinting the Blue Ant card" at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I don't know about you guys, but the last time I saw someone imprint a credit card I was just old enough to barely understand that the plastic card was some sort of replacement for cash. This book is supposed to be current (turn of the century). It was published in 2003, so I presume 2000 is as good as any for last-edits. Can anyone remember if anyone still imprinted credit cards in 2000, much less a fi...more On page 130, Gibson has a hotel clerk "imprinting the Blue Ant card" at the Park Hyatt Tokyo. I don't know about you guys, but the last time I saw someone imprint a credit card I was just old enough to barely understand that the plastic card was some sort of replacement for cash. This book is supposed to be current (turn of the century). It was published in 2003, so I presume 2000 is as good as any for last-edits. Can anyone remember if anyone still imprinted credit cards in 2000, much less a five star hotel like the Park Hyatt Tokyo? Moral of the story: everyone makes mistakes, and so always read as if doing so with a fine-toothed comb? I mean, it was probably meant as a throwaway line (yet I've never thought of Gibson as a writer who did throwaways), and yet it's obviously incongruous enough that I'm obsessing over this.

When I bought the book I had no idea there was going to be an extensive portion set in Tokyo. I keep comparing Gibson's descriptions with those I would use, and at the same time, admiring his facility. His character is so sensitive to brands she constantly uses the words when thinking. Not only that--having the ubiquitous Burberry plaid pointed out just makes one blink and go, "... yes, I noticed that." Yet he noticed, enough to use it in his writing. I need to stop interrupting myself and just read this properly, dammit. Knee-socks are passé now. Wonder if they were passé in 2000.

Dammit, I am stopping constantly to remark at the new-and-not-new world painted in this book. Gibson has only to mention the word Shibuya, and immediately I see the Hachiko exit, the mural and pedestrian scramble, half of the green train carriage, no Hachiko (usually too small to see, considering the HUGE crowd around it all the time), the 109-1 and 109-2 buildings, the Starbucks with the video/bookstore/cinema, the street with all the people walking by the big drugstore, shoestore, up to the McDonalds ... dammit, this is what all those words bring up instantly. Why couldn't I have imagined another exit, on the other side? Like, you know, the one with that huge overhead pedestrian bridge (so big calling it a bridge is akin to calling Central Park a garden), leading to the Malaysian embassy, or to the Shibuya Animate? Why is it ALWAYS there?

I quote, "Every man there has obviously been staring, but immediately looks down or away." *clears throat* No. Tokyoites are actually a lot more practiced about staring at you. Saying _every_ man has been staring had the unfortunate effect of making me immediately dislike Cayce VERY much. And you were doing so well, Gibson, with the talk of soul-delay that every traveller recognizes as a beautiful way to present jetlag. Now you went and ruined everything with one sentence. ARGH.

The constant referencing of brand names gets a little tiring after a while. *sigh* I keep wandering off. I guess this is the mid-book slump people talk about. If nothing else, reading all these books is teaching me a lot about how to structure a book.

I liked the ending; though in some sense it felt a little too hurried, in another sense it was the right pace. Once the mid-book slump was over, the ending rushed up so quickly it's now 5pm and I have no idea where the time went. In the end, Gibson pulled through, and that was the important thing.(less)

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Apr 29, 2007 Alexis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Contemporary Artists (or fans of)

Shelves: all-time-faves

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 meaning to the text rathe...more

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Feb 14, 2008 Monk rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modernlit

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 to fashion a...more

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Mar 12, 2009 Michael rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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.

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Mar 26, 2008 Deborah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Mark, Robbie

Shelves: desert-island-books

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 writ...more

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Sep 14, 2011 Sergey Astanin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 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». Вот именно так.

Как водится у Гибсона, написано бодро и увлекательно, но так до конца и непонятно зачем. И что теперь? Зато можно смотреть на детали.

Частная жизнь в нашем мире сотовых телефонов и повсеместного интернета уже совсем не такая частная. Тайное всё чаще становится явным. Окружающим нас устройствам далеко не всегда можно доверять, особенно, если мы выпускаем их из рук. Как, впрочем, и людям. Однако именно на доверии между людьми и их общей любви строится то, что стало главной тайной романа. Что-то вроде стихийно возникающего сговора.

Понравились некоторые детали. Как, например: стиль одежды главной героини, простые безымянные вещи без ярлыков; парень, собирающий художественную инсталляцию из Sinclair ZX-81; нищие коллекционеры торгующие антикварными арифмометрами; песни Виктора Цоя, просочившиеся в роман. Да-да, Гибсон, оказывается, любит Кино [твит раз, твит два].

Признателен я Гибсону и за такой московский пейзаж:

Номер на двенадцатом этаже просторнее, чем она ожидала. Из эркера открывается панорамный вид на Москва-реку и город на противоположном берегу. В отдалении сверкают купола большой церкви, а на небольшом островке торчит какое-то немыслимо уродливое сооружение. Путеводитель поясняет, что это памятник Петру Великому, который необходимо охранять, чтобы местные эстеты его не взорвали. Больше всего монумент напоминает старомодный фонтан шампанского, заказанный для пролетарской свадьбы.

Занятно было бы сравнить роман с пелевинским «Generation П». Вроде главная героиня тоже человек мира рекламы, как и Татарский, тоже через рекламу сталкивается с сильными мира сего, тоже включается в их игру, тоже разгадывает загадки, так же навязчиво образность романа строится на использовании торговых марок — но на этом сходство заканчивается. У Пелевина — бессмысленное подражание чужому и подчинение всего на свете инфернальному денежному потоку. У Гибсона — зарождение совершенно новых общественных механизмов. Мир, в котором совсем иные границы. Личного, дозволенного, возможного.

Отдельно хочется отметить неплохой перевод. Удачно передана игра слов и стиль автора. Некоторые выражения в переводе получились даже удачнее, чем в оригинале: «This stuff is simulacra of simulacra of simulacra» стало «Это же поддельный симулякр клонированной имитации подобия!». По-моему, хорошо. Глубокий поклон переводчику и за транслитерацию всех названий и торговых марок.(less)

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Aug 24, 2008 Mike Rossmassler rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 "snap" or...more

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Jan 30, 2008 John Huizar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

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.

Fo...more 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.

For instance, in this book there is no male character of even approximately equal importance to Cayce. And I like that. She seeks help from time to time, but ultimately, Cayce stands on her own. The book is nota love story. Well, not in anything like the traditional sense.

The plot of the book revolves around Cayce's attempts to track down the origin of mysterious video clips that have surfaced on the internet. The disjointed, nonsequential footage is almost always of a couple, walking, talking, kissing. No one knows who the couple is, where the footage is being shot, when it was shot, what sequence the clips are supposed to be viewed in, etc. The first clip footage was simply discovered uploaded to a video site several years before, and an underground following has tracked down and collected all of the subsequently released clips. Fans make their own compilations, putting the videos in the order they think they go.

Cayce is a member of one of these online fandoms, but her day job is as a consultant to advertising firms: she is able to 'know' somehow whether certain advertising approaches will be successful, which happens because the ones that are successful are able to tap into culture in a particular way that Cayce is aware of and sensitive to. One of these firms becomes interested in tracking down the origin of the footage as a way of discovering just how it is that something can become an underground sensation, and puts Cayce on the job.

I can't really say any more without ruining the story. But there are Gibson's usual array of fascinating secondary characters who manage to seem both completely human and completely unique. And there are strong existential themes throughout: what is it that comes of always experiencing emotion and touch at one remove (through the camera)? What is the ultimate effect on the photographer, and what is the effect on the audience? This book is an anthem of both unity and alienation.(less)

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Sep 06, 2007 Chris rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern_lit

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 visceral, and...more

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Sep 24, 2010 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 50-books-for-2010, just-because-i-like-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 good number of compl...more

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Jan 20, 2013 Molly Ringle added it · review of another edition

This was a re-read for me, because I remembered it fondly. Just as cool the second time around. I take away a star only because the conspiracy/secrecy part of the plot was so complex that I'm still not sure I have it all pieced together correctly. Nonetheless, I love Gibson's vocabulary, setting descriptions, unexpected bursts of goofy humor, likable and realistic protagonist (in Cayce), and overall geeky super-coolness. Made me feel smarter just reading it. Will give the other Bigend novels a t...more

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Jul 22, 2007 Dave Seah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: to-reread

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 book imme...more

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Jan 21, 2009 Heather rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Nov 07, 2008 Jim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 London,...more

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Mar 04, 2009 Amy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mysteries, cyberpunk

riveting. plus I felt hip reading it.

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May 03, 2011 Bohemienne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, scifi

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

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Dec 09, 2008 Kitte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. When I started Pattern Recognition, I was sucked into it right away. I was caught up in the intrigue and espionage and I genuinely cared for the main character Cayce Pollard and her peculiar affliction. I loved her travels and who hasn't fantasized about traveling the world with an unlimited credit card and helpful staff to arrange everything for you?

Towards the end my empathy for Cayce kept me reading even though as the plot threads started to come together and the mystery was resolved, I was...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Peter rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The thing I like about Gibson's work in general is that it's equal parts style and substance. I find his prose satisfying, his phrasing and pacing superb, and everything suffused with a sense of cutting-edge cool. Pattern Recognition is no different, even with it's present-day setting. This may be the first book I've read that successfully bridges the present, and the weird, unfolding future that creeps in every day.

It's a copout to say that this book is about marketing and advertisement. It is,...more

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Mar 07, 2013 Smcleish rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: owned

Originally published on my blog here in May 2008.

One of the oddest feelings when reading (or, even more, re-reading) science fiction from the past is when time has often caught up with it, and you are reading a novel of the future set at at date which is in your past. This is particularly the case with novels which were important to you personally, which were influential, and which contain much accurate prediction, as is the case for me with Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer. Almost thirty years...more Originally published on my blog here in May 2008.

One of the oddest feelings when reading (or, even more, re-reading) science fiction from the past is when time has often caught up with it, and you are reading a novel of the future set at at date which is in your past. This is particularly the case with novels which were important to you personally, which were influential, and which contain much accurate prediction, as is the case for me with Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer. Almost thirty years after its publication, Gibson produced Pattern Recognition, his seventh novel and the first which is not really intended to be science fiction. (I would bet that most libraries, like the one from which I borrowed the copy I read, shelve it with that genre, however.) Five years later still, it is Neuromancer which seems to me the more contemporary of the two novels; much of the detail in Pattern Recognition seems to have dated quite quickly.

The novel is an Internet Age thriller, but unlike Neuromancer or most other novels that might be slotted into that subgenre (such as Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, or Jeffrey Deaver's The Blue Nowhere), it is not about hackers, programmers or geeks. Its central character, Cayce Pollard, works as a marketing consuultant, a guru on what is cool who has a phobia about logos. Her hobby is the study of a series of film clips, mysteriously appearing one by one on the Internet, which she discusses with fellow obsessives on the Fetish:Footage:Forum (F:F:F). Where do they come from? Are they meant to form part of a single narrative film? Do they have any particular order? what are the motives and influences which govern their production? Do they have any meaning and if so what? When Cayce realises that someone else has been in the flat where she is staying on a visit to London and used her computer, she begins to feel that there might be a bigger picture behind the film segments. The discussions on the F:F:F don't seem to be dominated by conspiracy theorists, but she finds it hard not to connect the films aand the break in with the disappearance of her father on September 11 2001.

Even though Pattern Recognition is not science fiction, it is still ahead of the pack: this must be one of the earliest treatments of what is now called viral marketing (a term I am pretty sure I hadn't heard myself in 2003). There are people being paid to go round bars and mention products approvingly to strangers: I don't know if this actually happens in the physical world, but there are certainly bloggers who are paid to give good press by marketing departments. However, other details seem behind the times: did people still rely so much on physical media for swapping data as recently as five years ago?

Cayce is quite a passive heroine, but her odd phobia makes her quirky and interesting. A reaction to logos does not seem to me to be a very believable problem, as the processing required to recognise the nature of an image is surely too high level for such a visceral reaction as an allergy. Its origins are left unexplained, which makes it seem more divorced from reality. Clearly it is a satirical element, pointing to the emptiness of modern life, where such banal symbols are held in high regard, whether or not the products they adorn are worthwhile. They are such a clever concept, making customers pay a premium to advertise for the producer. Such manipulation seems miles away from the quirkiness of the film footage: but is it?

The film clips themselves are slightly odd as the focus of a novel which doesn't exist in a multimedia format. Of course, the reader can imagine them, though Gibson leaves the exact content of the clips pretty vague other than to tell you things that they don't do - for example, the clothing and backgrounds are sufficiently generic for it to be impossible to work out when they are set. This vagueness is obviously part of the reason why people want to argue about the clips, but it does make them rather lacking as the central focus of a novel, being both timeless and plotless. The passiveness of the heroine together with this indirect focus means that despite the plot of the novel suggesting a thriller, it is not really in that genre - not necessarily a bad thing, but indicating that my initial assessment of Pattern Recognition was not quite right. Since other novels by Gibson succeed very wel lin this department, the diffuseness of this one must be deliberate. However, I still felt that though Pattern Recognition is interesting and worth reading, it is not classic Gibson by any means.(less)

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Oct 22, 2012 Klytia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“Gibson getta uno sguardo magistrale sul presente ed è come se ce lo mostrasse per la prima volta”. Neil Gaiman

L’accademia dei sogni non è un romanzo ambientato in un lontano futuro fantascientifico, né in un vicino futuro cyperpunk: la realtà descritta da Gibson nella meravigliosa trilogia dello Sprawl è stata superata infatti dagli eventi; ciò che viene narrato in questo romanzo è l’oggi. Un oggi in cui l’attenzione del popolo di internet viene catalizzata da una serie di affascinanti filmati...more “Gibson getta uno sguardo magistrale sul presente ed è come se ce lo mostrasse per la prima volta”. Neil Gaiman

L’accademia dei sogni non è un romanzo ambientato in un lontano futuro fantascientifico, né in un vicino futuro cyperpunk: la realtà descritta da Gibson nella meravigliosa trilogia dello Sprawl è stata superata infatti dagli eventi; ciò che viene narrato in questo romanzo è l’oggi. Un oggi in cui l’attenzione del popolo di internet viene catalizzata da una serie di affascinanti filmati di cui non si conosce l’origine – le sequenze – e dove importanti società di marketing vogliono sfruttare questo fenomeno come tramite per comunicare marchi e pubblicità.

Cosa che accade anche nella nostra quotidianità a ben pensarci, tormentoni che prima appaiono su internet e poi diventano testimonial per pubblicità a diffusione più ampia.
Una realtà post 11 settembre, in cui la sicurezza dei luoghi, delle persone e delle informazioni è diventata quasi paranoica ma alla fine senza mai essere completamente efficace. Nonostante i tentativi di nascondere la propria vita e i propri movimenti qualcuno riuscirà a scoprire anche le informazioni più segrete: accade a Cayce Pollard assunta per scoprire l’origine delle sequenze, essa stessa spia per la società per la quale lavora e spiata a sua volta.

Gibson ambienta la gran parte della storia nelle tre città che amo di più: New York, Londra e Tokyo. Città vive e vitali, dove il giorno non sembra mai finire perché la notte è illuminata dalle insegne dei sempre presenti marchi, accomunate dall’essere state ferite da attacchi terroristici siano essi interni o esterni.
Tramite pochi dettagli Gibson ne fornisce un ritratto unico e perfetto, tanto che se le si è visitate le si riconosce immediatamente per quello che è il loro “carattere”. New York è ora Ground Zero, dove sembra sia scomparso il padre di Cayce; Londra è la vivace Camden Town, il mercato di Portobello, dove Cayce incontra alcuni personaggi che l’aiuteranno nella ricerca, il parco di Kensington con la statua di Peter Pan, la metropolitana; Tokyo sono marchi delle bibite Suntory, Pokari Sweat, Calpis Water (provate quasi tutte nei numerosi distributori ribattezzati “bibiteri”), Kiddyland con i suoi pupazzi di Hello Kitty e i panda molli, i taxi con le portiere che si chiudono da sole e gli autisti in guanti bianchi e i quartieri Roppongi e Kabuki-jo, la zona a luci rosse.
In tutte e tre le città gli immancabili caffè Starbucks, esempio di globalizzazione, ma anche salvezza per i viaggiatori, come Cayce, che almeno per quanto riguarda il caffè ricercano un ambiente familiare e sempre uguale.
La parte conclusiva è ambientata in una Mosca in cui i ricchi godono di tutti i privilegi che permettono loro i soldi e, soprattutto, vivono al di fuori delle regole: esempio emblematico sono le macchine con sirene e i lampeggianti che Cayce confonde per macchine della polizia.
Infine c’è il mondo dei forum: microsocietà virtuali di persone con interessi comuni, dove si può scegliere di fare trasparire piccoli pezzi di noi stessi semplicemente dai commenti oppure svelarsi completamente fin dall’inizio; luoghi non-fisici dove simpatie e antipatie nascono basandosi sui messaggi che vengono postati, si creano “amicizie” virtuali che forse diverranno anche “reali” mentre spesso si cerca di sovrapporre un’immagine fisica al nick e all’avatar dei nostri compagni.

A coloro che frequentano i forum risulterà quindi familiare anche lo stupore di Cayce quando parla al telefono con il suo amico Parkaboy, anche lui devoto alle sequenze: “Sembra più vecchio? Sembra diverso”. E anche qui Gibson coglie il vero, su internet quasi tutti sembriamo infatti un po’ più giovani.
(less)

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Sep 08, 2012 Acturi rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

William Gibson has been described by a friend of mine as an author who's really good at world building, and really good at putting pieces into play and getting them moving, but he's not so good at remembering that all of this is supposed to have a point.

In Pattern Recognition, I think he found his point.

Or maybe not. In some ways, he uses the post 9/11 world to make it okay that he doesn't have one. It's a character and a world still trying to figure out where to go next, and latching on to what...more

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Jul 07, 2012 St[♥]r Pr!nc:$$ N[♥]usheen, pictures, pictures ||i've become your star:::tonight::::today:::|| marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Recommended to St[♥]r Pr!nc:$$ N[♥]usheen, pictures, pictures by: GoodReads

Just added this one today cos of the fancy title, two tricky words I like a lot. The story seems unusual but may have contrived stuff like robberies and break-ins...copy-pasted the plotline below:

****************************************************

Cayce Pollard is an expensive, spookily intuitive market-research consultant. In London on a job, she is offered a secret assignment: to investigate some intriguing snippets of video that have been appearing on the Internet. An entire subculture of peo...more

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Jun 02, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pattern Recognition. What can the unitiated reader say about it? I got this book as a gift and realized right away that it was a departure for me. I like the main character, Cayce Pollard, mainly because she has to rely on her wits and nothing much else to get herself out of the maze of international crime she's landed in the middle of. She is able, through an unexplainable second sense, to predict what will be trendy in the future. In this capacity, she serves as a consultant to businesses look...more

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May 27, 2012 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is my 2nd or 3rd William Gibson novel to read and every one is difficult to understand in the beginning. I was probably about 4 chapters deep before I finally caught on and took off with my reading. I didn't bother to go back and analyze why, but wouldn't be surprised if it's a combination of the language--some made up words, lots of verbal phrases instead of sentences, and details and adjectives to the point of tedium and interrupting the flow of the plot--and front-loading background. How...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Moontyger rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, suspense

The thing I love most about Gibson's novels is his prose. It's not that it's beautiful or descriptive, although it is. It sucks me in, so it feels like I'm drowning in it. But that's not a bad thing at all.

Oddly, however, in this particular case, for all the description, I have very little idea about what the protagonist of this novel actually looks like. It's not necessary to know; the story works fine without it, but it's an interesting omission.

While it's shelved under SF, I don't think this...more

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Mar 29, 2012 travelgirlut rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: computers

I picked up this book because I was looking for an author similar to Neal Stephenson. Both What Should I Read Next and Literature Map both said that William Gibson was most like him. And while I had read Neuromancer previously and not been a big fan, I figured I'd give Gibson another chance.

This book was okay. It took me awhile to get into Gibson's style of truncated, choppy phrasing. It's somewhat stream of consciousness and takes a little bit of doing to feel the flow. Once I'd adjusted to the...more

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Mar 18, 2012 John E. Branch Jr. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-contemporary, near-future-fiction

Cayce, the protagonist in this novel, bears a name highly reminiscent of Case, the cyberspace cowboy at the center of Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer. There are clear similarities: these characters live and work at some remove from the powers of the world (which in Gibson's novels are never nation-states); they're offered a mission that they pretty much need to accept, which puts them in the service of one of those powers; and they realize only gradually what they're really doing, whom they're...more Cayce, the protagonist in this novel, bears a name highly reminiscent of Case, the cyberspace cowboy at the center of Gibson's first novel, Neuromancer. There are clear similarities: these characters live and work at some remove from the powers of the world (which in Gibson's novels are never nation-states); they're offered a mission that they pretty much need to accept, which puts them in the service of one of those powers; and they realize only gradually what they're really doing, whom they're serving, what the consequences of their success are likely to be.

In outline, this isn't necessarily an SF kind of story, though it became one in Neuromancer. Hard-boiled detective novels and films noirs often work the same way. It's not necessarily the stuff of future imaginings either. Though our news reports and political campaigns still reflect the traditional view of nation-states as top dogs, most of us recognize the power of corporations and individuals in shaping the world, and we grasp as well that more abstract matters, from celebrities and fashion to marketing and technology, also in some sense rule our lives. Gibson gets all of that and has been dealing with it from way back.

In Pattern Recognition, he adopts for the first time a present-day setting (located in 2002, it feels like that year with upgrades), he addresses aspects of marketing and online video, and he places a woman at the center of his tale (as he had done in one of the three plot threads of Count Zero). Someone is making and releasing onto the Internet mysterious and tantalizing pieces of video. A Belgian man named Hubertus Bigend, head of a highly successful global ad agency, is curious about the videos and can afford to indulge his curiosity by hiring Cayce to locate their source. From there, the story is complicated by chance encounters, deceptions, an artist, a retired cryptographer, a digital watermark, and a handful of suspicious figures.

One of my younger friends found a certain lack of wow in this book. Maybe that was because much of what Gibson saw coming as he composed the novel in the very early naughts arrived within a few years: viral videos and coolhunters are with us, the terms and the concepts a matter of common usage, even old hat. Or maybe it was because the conclusion, as often happens with Gibson, explains almost everything neatly.

That isn't what you'd expect from a writer who in other respects shows postmodernist tendencies. Maybe it's Gibson still honoring those detective novels that colored his earlier writing. Maybe it's his nod to the fictionality of his fiction, for the difficulty of deciphering the world is an underlying theme in much of the rest of this novel and others, and he even indicates here that our hunger for recognizable patterns (that is, clear explanations) can lead us astray.

Regardless, Pattern Recognition remains a favorite for me. The story is richly peopled and has an element of poignancy. Its concern with how marketing works, which fascinates me as crime does some people, is a part of its appeal. And there’s one idea that I found beautiful: Gibson's particular version of the wounded artist. The theme has deep roots in Western literature, and, in the sense that the art is being produced by a non-normal consciousness, it reminded me of the machine intelligence that turns out to be assembling Joseph Cornell–like boxes in Count Zero. Finding it in this book was breathtaking.

That Pattern Recognition no longer describes the near future doesn't matter. As Gibson already said somewhere (I think it's in one of the pieces of nonfiction in the collection Distrust That Particular Flavor), the future is already here--it's just unevenly distributed.(less)

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Jan 18, 2012 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 and then to Russia, culminating in...more 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 and then to Russia, culminating in a dangerous epiphany of not only the source of "the footage," but the answer to what happened to her father in New York City on September 11th.

Nearly all books come with blurbs. Often they are gushing and backscratching and sometimes they are reviews taken out of context. "The most shocking thriller this year"--NY Post. "Nichols is amazing"--Chicago Tribune. Here are a few of the blurbs from Pattern Recognition:
"One of the first authentic and vital novels of the twenty-first century."--The Washington Post
"Gibson's best books since he rewrote all the rules in Neuromancer."--Neil Gaiman
"So good it defies all the usual superlatives." The Seattle Times.

None of the blurbs for this book are hyperbole. This really is Gibson's best work since Neuromancer, yet oddly enough I would not classify it as science fiction as it is rooted very much in the here and the now. Well, it is tinged with science fiction, purely via the un-copyable style with which Gibson writes. Those of you who have read his previous books know what I mean.
In a few of said works, Gibson has a locale known as The Sprawl, a future mega-city where technopunks eke out a living on society's fringes. In Pattern Recognition, it is we who are The Sprawl, our lives awash in marketing brands and corporate logos. The book is a flashframe of our society, a "mirror world," as Cayce Pollard might call it. It is both surreal and exciting, ambient and frightening. Very Blade Runner in its own respect. One aspect that helps build this milieu is that of global networking. There are many characters in this book, but the only interactions that Cayce has with many of them are through email, chat, or other such cyberspace communique. She meets them virtually first, then, in certain cases, in real time much later on.
You may argue that I normally am more critical of books and that here I am merely gushing over a literary idol. I am. But I simply am having a hell of a time trying to find anything to be critical about with this book. If you're looking for a profound statement on our time and digital culture, then you need to read this. If you enjoy a smart cyber-thriller, then you need to read this. If you appreciate intricate and innovative prose style, then you need to read this for there is no finer writer out there now in terms of style than Gibson. Oh hell, you need to read this. Period. Go order the book now. You have no excuse.
Highest possible recommendation.(less)

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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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“The future is there... looking back at us. Trying to make sense of the fiction we will have become.” — 1,471 people liked it

“We have no idea, now, of who or what the inhabitants of our future might be. In that sense, we have no future. Not in the sense that our grandparents had a future, or thought they did. Fully imagined cultural futures were the luxury of another day, one in which 'now' was of some greater duration. For us, of course, things can change so abruptly, so violently, so profoundly, that futures like our grandparents' have insufficient 'now' to stand on. We have no future because our present is too volatile. ... We have only risk management. The spinning of the given moment's scenarios. Pattern recognition” — 58 people liked it

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