About the Author

William Gibson’s first novel, Neuromancer, won the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and the Nebula Award in 1984. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, Burning Chrome, Virtual Light, Idoru, All Tomorrow’s Parties, Pattern Recognition, Spook Country, Zero History, Distrust That Particular Flavor, and The Peripheral. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife.

Reviews

“A masterful performance.”—Chicago Tribune

“Gibson nails the texture of internet culture: how it feels to be close to someone you know only as a voice in a chat room, or to fret about someone spying on your browser’s list of sites visited.”—The New York Times

“Completely contemporary...his best book.”—San Francisco Chronicle Book Review“[An] eerie vision of our time.”—The New Yorker
 
“Pattern Recognition races along like an expert thriller, but it rides on a strong current of melancholy, of elegy for the broken and the vanished...Gibson knows he’s building on ground zero.”—GQ

“So good it defies all the usual superlatives.”—The Seattle Times
 
“It turns out that William Gibson knows as much about the present as he does about the future...a masterful performance from a major novelist who seems to be just now hitting his peak. Welcome to the present, Mr. Gibson.”—Chicago Tribune

“Gibson’s first novel to take place in the present takes you on a reckless journey of espionage and lies and doesn’t promise a safe return...wonderfully chilling...a dangerously hip book.”—USA Today
 
“[Gibson], who invented the future with Neuromancer, shows he’s just as skilled at seeing the present.”—Entertainment Weekly
 
“A serious thriller set in the dystopian present...glossy [and] well-paced.”—Time

In an apparent attempt to write one of the first post-9/11 novels, Gibson, best known for his hip cyberpunk fiction set in a dystopic near future, locates this text in contemporary time. The plot concerns Cayce Pollard, a thirtysomething freelance market researcher, who, because of her phobic reaction to certain brand names that somehow allows her to recognize what will become "cool" and thus profitable, is hired to locate the makers of some cryptic video footage anonymously posted on the Internet. This footage, which inexplicably takes on the status of a modern-day Delphic Oracle, has been an obsession of a cohort of web junkies (including Pollard herself), who prattle on about its possible origin, meaning, and significance. For characterization, Gibson relentlessly employs clothes-catalog descriptions, making this novel virtually impossible to distinguish from the trivialized pop culture it purports to critique. The novel itself may be classified as a melodrama of beset geekdom-focusing on post-9/11, angst-ridden, globe-hopping computer nerds and marketing employees who jet from London to Tokyo and elsewhere, all the while keeping in touch via e-mail and cell phone. This book, which may well reveal the emptiness at the core of Gibson's other fiction, will probably thrill his aficionados but, it is hoped, no one else. Given Gibson's immense popularity, however, it is recommended for all libraries.-Roger A. Berger, Everett Community Coll., WA Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

Gibson, known as the "patron saint of cyberpunk lit," has made his reputation with futuristic tales. Though his new novel is set in the present, baroque descriptions of everyday articles and menacing anthropomorphic treatment of the Internet and sister technology give it a sci-fi feel. Cayce Pollard, a market researcher with razor-sharp intuition, makes big bucks by evaluating potential products and advertising campaigns. In London, she stays in the trendy digs of documentary filmmaker friend Damien (away on assignment), whom she e-mails frequently. When Cayce brusquely rejects the new logo of advertising mogul Hubertus Bigend, she earns his respect and a big check but makes an enemy of his graphic designer, vindictive Dorotea Benedetti. Hubertus later hires Cayce to ferret out the origin of a series of sensual film clips appearing guerrilla style on computers all over the world and attracting a growing cult following. Cayce treats this as a standard job until somebody breaks into Damien's flat and hacks into her computer. Suddenly every casual encounter carries undertones of danger. Her investigative trail takes her to Tokyo and Russia and through a rogue's gallery of iconoclastic Web-heads. Casting a further shadow is the memory of her father, Win, a security expert (probably CIA) missing and presumed dead in the World Trade Center disaster of exactly a year earlier. For complicated reasons even she doesn't understand, she connects her current dilemma with her father's tragedy and follows the trail with the fervor of a personal vendetta. Gibson's brisk, kinetic style and incisive observations should keep the reader entertained even when Cayce's quest begins to lose urgency. Gibson's best book since Mona Lisa Overdrive should satisfy his hardcore fans while winning plenty of new ones. Agent, Martha Millard. 10-city author tour; rights sold in Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Spain and the U.K. (Feb.) Forecast: Given Gibson's reputation with SF fans, his grasp of popular culture and state-of-the-art technology and his inimitable narrative voice, this chase thriller should take off right out of the gate. Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.

"A masterful performance."-Chicago Tribune

"Gibson nails the texture of internet culture: how it feels to be close to someone you know only as a voice in a chat room, or to fret about someone spying on your browser's list of sites visited."-The New York Times

"Completely contemporary...his best book."-San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"[An] eerie vision of our time."-The New Yorker

"Pattern Recognition races along like an expert thriller, but it rides on a strong current of melancholy, of elegy for the broken and the vanished...Gibson knows he's building on ground zero."-GQ

"So good it defies all the usual superlatives."-The Seattle Times

"It turns out that William Gibson knows as much about the present as he does about the future...a masterful performance from a major novelist who seems to be just now hitting his peak. Welcome to the present, Mr. Gibson."-Chicago Tribune

"Gibson's first novel to take place in the present takes you on a reckless journey of espionage and lies and doesn't promise a safe return...wonderfully chilling...a dangerously hip book."-USA Today

"[Gibson], who invented the future with Neuromancer, shows he's just as skilled at seeing the present."-Entertainment Weekly

"A serious thriller set in the dystopian present...glossy [and] well-paced."-Time