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Loading... Zero History (2010)by William Gibson
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Gibson weaves together a story that is part a criminal mystery and part a speculation on the near future. Written in 2010, some of his observations on the advance of technology with resulting problems, such as the use of street cameras, have already come about. The mystery is centred around the fashion and music industries and involves design espionage and the aim to capture lucrative manufacturing contracts. With a varied cast of characters, each with their own individual aims, the story explores how successful or not they may be. This makes for an unusual tale, seeming to be a critique of how society values the outward surface, rather than looking at the actions beneath, however I felt that it was rather slight after some of his earlier novels. I am not really sure what to make of the recent Gibson novels I have read. I still think he is one of the best prose stylists writing today, but I don't have a good sense of what is going on in this novel thematically. He has removed most of the dystopian elements which defined his early themes -- how people are trapped in a system where their worth is defined in a brutal assessment of what skills they bring to the table and how a few "cool", highly talented people are able to regain some portion of their autonomy. Usually via interfacing with some sort of gadget. The gadgets are still there, as are the "cool" talented people but now they are functioning in a somewhat mundane capitalist system. Still trapped, but if the theme is "Focus on honing your unique skills, and maybe you too will find the cool gadgets/jeans!" it feels pretty empty. I dunno about this one. I never did figure out what they were doing or who all these people were. So much depended on remembering the two earlier books (which I didn't), and so much that was going on was ambiguous. Usually this is the kind of stuff I like but I couldn't wrap myself around it this time. Still, I read the whole thing, so there. Hollis Henry, whose financial security has eroded since Spook Country (the second book in the series) returns to do another job for the head of Blue Ant, a marketing company whose modus operandi is not unlike that of high level spy craft. In this story, Hollis needs to discover who is mimicking Blue Ant's unique marketing techniques and finds herself being shuttled between surreal hotels as she tries to unravel who is behind a secret brand of clothing. As mundane as the assignment sounds, this techno-thriller quickly escalates into a fast-paced action adventure tale. Gibson brings all the various threads together from the previous titles, updating the technology (iPhones are now in the picture!) and keeping the issues/themes relevant. A great finish to an otherwise somewhat-mediocre series.
"Instead, it feels as if Gibson is going through the motions, as if he's gone back to the pattern once too often, setting up a story — centered by Hollis' efforts to find that designer — that we've seen before." "His trenchant scrutiny of society and culture, and the relentless precision of his prose force us to see his world (and ours) with a troubling exactitude and an extra dose of unease." "To read Gibson is to read the present as if it were the future, because it seems the present is becoming the future faster than it is becoming the past." "What matters are the highly textured, brilliantly evocative prose and the stunning insights Gibson offers into what we perceive as the present moment—the implication being, per the title, that's all we have left." This flatness is the strangest feature of the world of Zero History, and more generally of the trilogy it completes. There's no question that, taken together, these three books represent one of the first great novels of 21st-century data culture. But there's no dirt in view – no muss. The cities of Neuromancer were crumbling into a kipple of obsolete technology, litter and grime. Cyberspace – clean, rational, clutterless – offered an alternative reality for those with the skills and the technology to gain access, while the wealthy could escape to exclusive orbital country-club cantons. Now that the future is here, Gibson's readers, like his protagonists, seem condemned to cities that are all surface, while yearning for a glimpse of something seedier, stickier, more troubling. Belongs to SeriesBlue Ant (3) AwardsDistinctions
Former rock singer Hollis Henry and ex-addict Milgrim, an accomplished linguist, are at the front line of a sinister proprietor's attempts to get a slice of the military budget. When a Department of Defense contract for combat-wear turns out to be the gateway drug for arms dealers, they gradually realize their employer has some very dangerous competitors--including Garreth, a ruthless ex-military officer with lots of friends. Set largely in London after our post-Crash times. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Anyway, there was plenty of action and twists and turns... it sure kept me turning the page! ( )