Pattern Recognition & Pynchon's Vineland are two of my favorite books. I was fascinated the moment I picked them up by the idea of sci fi set in the recent past, without any sci fi in them. I hope I'm about to get a new favorite book. I'll read The Time Traveler's Wife while waiting for the release.

Iduno what to call these books. I'd call them literary sci fi, or something, but that reminds me of "literate hip hop", which I love to mock. Just give me the hip hop. I guess if I controlled the typography of everything, I'd call them sci fi.

And it appears that Gibson will be telling his story again. Our hero will be selected by a massive power and used to do something to the God-type-thing that it couldn't do itself. The hero will have to struggle against their employer to do what it needs done.

I can't dig it up now, but I remember some adorable and indignant blog post where Professor Gibson responded to someone in the forums who'd asked him to please shut up about politics. "How can you read my books and think they aren't political? Are you using them for making ransom notes?" was the basic idea. Maybe it got deleted because it didn't do wonders for our spindly Canadian's image. Although I loved it.

I wonder if that jackass in the forum contributed to this novel, if only the slightest bit.