The present has recently caught up with William Gibson. The great prophet of the digital future, who not only coined the word ‘cyberspace’ in his debut novel Neuromancer in 1984, but imagined its implications and went a long way to suggesting its YouTube and MySpace culture, has stopped looking forwards. ‘The future is already here,’ he is fond of suggesting. ‘It is just not evenly distributed.’
‘What I grew up with as science fiction,’ Gibson says, ‘is now a historical category. Previous practitioners, HP Lovecraft, say, or HG Wells, had these huge, leisurely “here and nows” from which to contemplate what might happen. Wells knew exactly where he was and knew he was at the centre of things.’
That, to Gibson, seems a very quaint notion: these days, ‘now’ is wherever the new new thing is taking shape, and here is where you are logged on. What he has learnt, however, is that the tools of the science fiction writer are perfectly applicable to describing the jump-cut present. He does exactly this with characteristic black comedy and inventive edge in Spook Country, which involves trademark riffs on such diverse subjects as the ethics of viral marketing, the whereabouts of the billions of dollars of banknotes sent by the Bush administration to Iraq, the elegant scam of boutique hotels, and the potential for the use of satellite global positioning in art (to recreate, in this case, virtual celebrity deaths – River Phoenix, John Lennon – on the exact spot they took place).
My copy of Spook Country arrived Thursday afternoon. As I have with everything of Gibson’s, I’m looking forward to reading it.
I’m not convinced he’ll continue in the world of the present – as he has with his last two novels. But, wherever his craft and curiosity take him, it will be an interesting journey.
Gibson Rules!
I make a habit of rereading the Sprawl trilogy once a year, both as an exercise in nostalgia and to marvel at the beauty of the writing and the immense skill of the author.
I just finished Spook Country. Good read.
Love all of Gisbson’s work.
(sucks to have to wait 4 more years for the next one!) : )
Neromancer, the first novel to win the holy trinity of science fiction: the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Philip K. Dick Award. AAAhhhmazing.
Gibson’s Official Website:
http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/
I bought it the day it came out and started it immediately. I’m not impressed at all thus far. It seems that he’s trying too hard to sound cool. It makes the prose tedious. His political views are also front and center, which detracts from the story. I’ll finish it like I have every other book he’s written but so far, I’d say it’s his worst. I wouldn’t even put it in the same league with his other writings.
The literary crowd will love his stylish prose but it certainly doesn’t help his story telling. Go back and read his earlier works and compare the them to this and you’ll see what I mean. Gibson’s prose used to transport you into an imagined world. I used to tell people you don’t read a Gibson book, you experience it. The tastes, the smells, the atmosphere; it was all there. There are hints of it in Spook Country but it’s just not gelling for me. So far the Spook Country experience is akin to a visit to the dentist. You go because you have to but it ain’t what I’d call fun.
Awesome a new gibson novel!!!