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Spook Country

Author: William Gibson
Publisher: Viking
Category: Book

Buy New: Ł42.99

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

20 reviews
Sales Rank: 125084

Media: Hardcover
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.5

ISBN: 0670914940
EAN: 9780670914944
ASIN: 0670914940

Publication Date: August 2, 2007
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Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 20

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Spook Country is a science fiction spy thriller set in our times December 15, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful

2006, to be exact. Hollis Henry is a former rock star, now a journalist, set to write a piece on locative art based on the use of GPS systems and other locative technology. This leads her to Bobby Chombo, a strange guy who knows the ins and outs of military navigation systems. Tito is a member of Chinese-Cuban crime family trained in Russian military martial arts and espionage ways, asked to deliver iPods to a certain old man. Milgrim, a drug addict fluent in Russian and able to translate Volapuk encoding, is being held captive by Brown, some sort of operator, perhaps with the government, perhaps not.

It's an interesting mess that sorts out itself eventually. Gibson mixes all sorts of cool concepts and crazy ideas and curious details together to form a rather gripping book. Old spies come out of the woodwork for one last round - the big idea they're working to achieve, that's something quite different and unusual. Gibson's writing is clear and beautiful; I really enjoy his style. With Neal Stephenson he's one of those writers who will tell you a great story and pepper it with all kinds of unnecessary details that'll get your brain tingling and curiosity running.

If you liked Pattern Recognition, his previous novel, you'll enjoy this (and you'll even meet few old friends, too!). Like Pattern Recognition, Spook Country is full enough of contemporary cultural references and trademarks to tie it firmly to our time and make it age in a rather charmful manner. While these trademarks serve less purpose than they did in Pattern Recognition, I believe this book is written to readers who care if the laptop used by the protagonist is a PowerBook or not!!!!!! And if you missed Tino Georgiou's--The Fates--I strongly recommend reading it.

5 out of 5 stars

Superb! October 29, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Loved this, though it only takes a few words to sketch out the plot/narrative. It's great the way he manages to convey the texture of modern life - the little details like blister packs and so on. This is probably the most political of his books, too. It wouldn't be fair to discuss this in too much depth, for fear of spoiling the plot, but the exploration of the role of mercenaries in the service of the modern state, and the curious position of some 'freelance' agencies, is masterful.

3 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing October 3, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Gibson's writing style makes it a pleasure to read his books whatever the content. That said this book is really rather plodding and lacking in surprises.

Basically a kind of spy novel the author spins a tale with a number of sub-plots which ultimately come together for the, rather flat, denouement. While the characters are generally well fleshed, this is a genre which Gibson does not make his own. The novel never engages the reader: there is a complete lack of emotion throughout and his fascination with Voodoo (Vudun?) adds nothing but a rather bizarre feeling to the whole.

There are interesting precursors to the scientific and social changes which characterise the world of his earlier work but these are really of superficial import internally. Aficionados of Gibson's work will be very disappointed with this book.

4 out of 5 stars

GIBSON FINALLY FINDS HIS STRIDE AGAIN September 27, 2007
15 out of 16 found this review helpful

I am a huge William Gibson fun, since my university years. I believe his SPRAWL Trilogy to be a strong English Literature Cannon candidate - and, undoubtedly, the Gospel of Science Fiction of our generation.

His next trilogy, however, (Virtual Light, Idoru & All Tomorrow's Parties) took an abrupt downturn after the first book of the series. I will not go into the reasons I did not find them to work at par with his previous monumental works; after all, this is not their review.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when my loyalty (finally...) paid off! SPOOK COUNTRY is a BEAUTIFUL book!

If one is hoping to find a fast-paced SF techno-thriller or a page-turner gore-fest, well, this is not the book to pick. Try Richard Morgan instead.
Even since his more action-conscious Neuromancer, William Gibson had always been a subtle writer; his poetic words painting a stroke here and then a stroke there - until his reductionist prose reveals a magic vista of the human condition no one has put to words before.

Be patient with his books. Short chapters, phrasal fragments, unusual word-hacking and turning brand-names into verbs have always been his functional style. And, boy, does his style function!
Long after you will have finished the last page, the imagery will stay with you. Popping up unexpectantly, in the foam of your next Frappuchino; in your car GPS voice; in the site of a spyhopping orca.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

3 out of 5 stars

Ho Hum September 20, 2007
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

Perhaps Gibson is doing something deliberate that I missed but I could not engage with this novel at all. The characters are written as if we are observing them from behind a pane of glass, the description is beautiful but there is no emotion or motivation to bring you into the story.

It's worth a read as it is still beautifully written, just don't expect to care much about the experience.