What I’m reading: Pattern Recognition
November 8th, 2008
Think of William Gibson and you instantly think of Cyperpunk. If you are a geek and you haven’t read Neuromancer then you are a soulless geek at best, a jock in geek clothing at worst.
Gibson literally wrote the book on Cyberpunk.
So when I read that he had a new book coming out and it was not of the Cyberpunk persuasion I will admit that I wondered why.
I mean he has Cyberpunk completely sewn up, any book he writes, as long as it is remotely as good as Neuromancer will be a hit. Which admittedly is an unfair limiting of his ability as a writer, this book illustrates that point fortunately.
So with no data ports embedded in people’s skulls, no cybernetically enhanced super dolphins and no ocular implants I decided to see if Pattern Recognition would be as engrossing as the author’s masterpiece.
It is.
Pattern Recognition follows Cayce Pollard who is kind of a marketing savant. She can look at a logo or advertisement and tell you instantly if it will work or not. She is also a footage-head, someone obsessed with particular snippets of footage that have been leaked to the internet from a mysterious source with no information regarding their origin or meaning. People obsess over these brief treasures and endlessly debate over them on forums and chat sites dedicated to the footage.
The book plays out in present tense which I found a little off putting at first but soon got used to it. A lot of the book is also set online and in emails which was pretty cool and familiar, only one reference to Netscape dates the storyline as the computer aspects are all kept fairly vague.
Brand recognition is featured heavily throughout the novel too, which until I realised how tied it is to the central character felt a little forced on to me.
I don’t know if I’ll be so bold as to suggest that this is better than Neuromancer, but it is an extremely engrossing novel that has you rushing towards the end of the book (the ending btw is very satisfying and I would happily revisit the characters).
Also if anyone knows where I can get a Curta Calculator cheaply I would be quite appreciative 
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Categories: Books | Tags: book, cyberpunk, neuromancer, novel, pattern recognition, What I'm reading, william gibson
I don’t know about the book, but that curta calculator is very very cool. I’ve send the link to the vid to my dad, he’ll probably geek out haha.
Arjans last blog post..The many different ways to say ‘comment’
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By Lee on November 9th, 2008 | Reply
I know and the story behind the Curta is quite fascinating. They will set you back around US$800.
Maybe I’ll get one in a couple of years or so
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