Pattern Recognition: Summary and book reviews of Pattern Recognition by William Gibson, plus links to an excerpt from Pattern Recognition and a biography of William Gibson.

Cayce Pollard (pronounced "case") is a legend in the field of market research, paid handsomely to recognize cultural and social patterns that corporations can turn into cash. Google her and you find "coolhunter," and you may see it suggested that she is a "sensitive" of some kind, a dowser in the world of global marketing. The truth, according to her friends, is that her sensitivity is closer to allergy, a morbid and sometimes violent reactivity to the symbols of the marketplace. Hired by Blue Ant, the world's hippest ad agency, for the sort of high-corporate re-branding she's known for, a more intriguing project emerges when the head of the firm asks her to determine who's producing a mysterious series of video fragments that have gripped the imaginations of people around the world. The source of this footage, carefully concealed, has so far proven untraceable. For Cayce's worryingly brilliant employer, the footage is the most effective piece of guerilla marketing ever devised. For Cayce herself, the footage has a powerful emotional resonance as she attempts to come to terms with the apparent death of her father — a former U.S. security expert with ties to the intelligence community — in the collapse of the World Trade Center. But what if the sense of nascent meaning that she and others perceive in the footage is only an illusion of meaningfulness — in other words, faulty pattern recognition? As Cayce begins her hunt for the mysterious "maker", she enlists the help of an odd array of characters, including a young Polish sculptor who works in primitive personal computers , an alcoholic ex-NSA guru hidden away in a rusting house-trailer in the British countryside, an attractive Chinese-American hacker-entrepreneur whose loyalty she questions, and her fellow footage-enthusiast Parkaboy, whom she's come to know (but only, so far, virtually) on a web site devoted to discussion of "the footage". When her rivalry with a fellow worker at the advertising agency takes an ominous turn, Cayce realizes that her investigation of the footage may be not only the most intellectually and emotionally demanding challenge she's yet faced, but dangerous as well. Her borrowed apartment in London is broken into, her laptop is hacked, and she soon learns that her therapist's notes have been stolen in New York. No longer sure who she can trust, she finds herself flying to Tokyo, where a lovesick Japanese game-designer reveals a concealed code embedded in the footage. Back in London, the foul-mouthed former National Security Agency genius supplies another link in the chain, an e-mail address that leads to Moscow. Before the secrets of the footage's maker are finally revealed, Cayce will be drugged, imprisoned, and pursued. She will also, from unexpected quarters, receive the fullest picture yet of her father's last day in New York, in the shadow of the falling Towers. William Gibson is credited with having coined the term "cyberspace" and envisioned the Internet — and its effects on daily life — before such phenomena existed. Many of his descriptions and metaphors have entered the culture as images of human relationships in the wired age. Now, with Pattern Recognition, his first novel of the here-and-now, Gibson carries his perceptions of technology, globalization, and terrorism into a new century that is now. Suspenseful, wry, and elegantly written, it is his most ambitious and broadly appealing novel to date.

Media Reviews

The Washington Post ..overall, Gibson has delivered what is assuredly one of the first authentic and vital novels of the 21st century, placing himself alongside Haruki Murakami as a writer who can conjure the numinous out of the quotidian.   Pattern Recognition In Gibson's eerie vision of our time, the future has come crashing upon us, fragmentary and undecipherable; as one character declares, "We have no future because our present is too volatile."   The Chicago Tribune It turns out that William Gibson knows as much about the present as he does about the future....Now, in his first book set in the present, Gibson turns loose the full power of his laser eyes and his non-judgmental but awesomely encompassing heart on an exciting thriller that is basically a modern fable, a quest for hints on how to live now....It's a masterful performance from a major novelist who seems to be just now hitting his peak. Welcome to the present, Mr. Gibson   The San Francisco Chronicle ...The completely contemporary Pattern Recognition finds the author rejuvenated, ready to acknowledge that the world has become a stranger place than could have been imagined even 15 years ago. It's his best book in a long time, and perhaps his most accessible one ever!   The New York Times Book Review Elegant, entrancing...Without any metafictional grandstanding, 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. ...Pattern Recognition is Gibson's most complex, mature gloss on the artist's relationship to our ever more commercialized globe.   Kirkus Reviews Some elements could have easily been jettisoned...but for every misstep there's a dash of pure, beautiful insight: "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." .... A slick but surprisingly humane piece of work from the father of cyberpunk.   Publishers Weekly 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.   Booklist - Benjamin Segedin With incredibly evocative prose, Gibson masterfully captures the essence of a specific time and place and the often chaotic sense of disorientation experienced while globe hopping. Gibson fans will not be disappointed.

Recent Reader Reviews

Rated of 5 by kw
very well written - but poor subject material.
very well written - but poor subject material.

Rated of 5 by Disappointed reader
I was really looking forward to this book and couldn't be more disappointed. It was like finding your Adbusters replaced by Glamour, a dull 3-inch excavation of product placement and newbie internet culture. This book should definitely expand...   Read More

Rated of 5 by jpj
This was my first Gibson book and although it's well written and has an interesting plot I felt like the author was on auto pilot. I normally don't read science fiction, (here I use science fiction in the sense of technology fiction) and can...   Read More

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