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Although people around the world look to William Gibson for guidance regarding the future, Spook Country is actually set in 2006, which had its share of unsettling trends. Bigend says Node isn't well known yet because it is cultivating "anti-buzz" or "definition by absence." And there are two references to something called "the darknet," a private Internet, invisible to non-members.

Although Gibson is the first to concede he doesn't understand all the ins and outs of cutting-edge technology, he does an impressive job of seeming to. Partly, that's because, like Nicholson Baker, he looks at things up close, anatomizing everyday objects so that they become fresh and new.

"I've always liked hyper-specificity in fiction. It's very difficult for me to stick with fiction that is satisfied with general terms. If characters simply 'take off their shoes' and you never find what kinds of shoes they took off, that doesn't work for me."

Like a magpie that plucks bright, shiny things off the road, he picks up unusual words -- "knurled" and "spalled" and "breakbulk" -- and invites the reader to enjoy their sparkle. Phrases that tickle his fancy also make their way in: One chapter, about poor bedevilled Milgrim, is titled Spectacles, Testicles, Wallet, and Watch.