Has anyone read the book yet? How do you feel it compares to Gibson's previous novels?

I think we're the only two here so far... I mean.. wow.
This is like the best kept secret around that isn't a secret.


...you'd think if anyone's fans, Gibson's fans would find this sort of site the fastest, you know?

I have read the book. It is recognizably Gibson's work. i enjoyed it a lot.

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Originally posted by tiger68:
Has anyone read the book yet? How do you feel it compares to Gibson's previous novels?

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I got the _Pattern Recognition_ ARC on ebay, and I've read it twice. I consider it one of Gibson’s best novels. In my opinion, it is his most emotionally affecting work yet, and incredibly readable … one of those few books I simply could not put down.

Comparing PR to his previous works is very difficult. This novel takes place in the present day. The world it explores is much more familiar than the world of _Neuromancer_. But seen through his eyes, our world – the things we do, the way we relate to other people, the way we relate to technology – seems an awful lot like science fiction.

I really enjoyed it. In fact, I really, really, really enjoyed it.

I've only been able to get one chapter of Pattern Recognition... How have you managed to read the book before it's printed?

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Originally posted by Molly:
I've only been able to get one chapter of Pattern Recognition... How have you managed to read the book before it's printed?

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Copies of the Uncorrected Proof have been available on ebay for a while. These are the advanced copies the publishers send out to retailers and reviewers to drum up interest. I don't think they're actually supposed to be in general circulation, but in a free-market economy that doesn't seem to stop anybody.

Check out ebay. You'll see what I mean:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&query=pattern+recognition+gibson&from=R8&ht=1&combine=y&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

I should also note that I plan on buying a legit hardcopy when its released ... to support the author and publisher. I'll probably go with the UK edition -- the blank CD image on the cover is pretty damn neat:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670875597/

.. wondering when this place would wake up. As for PR, I enjoyed it quite a bit, a very enjoyable read.

.. especially with the map of London in the background. The english editions tend to look much more serious and appealing, don't they? I mean look at the american H/C of Count Zero, yuck!

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Originally posted by Gage:

I should also note that I plan on buying a legit hardcopy when its released ... to support the author and publisher. I'll probably go with the UK edition -- the blank CD image on the cover is pretty damn neat:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0670875597/

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The book is not translated in Bulgarian, yet.
We, here, are waiting right now for Idoru to be published and it is being amazingly dellayed. Not to mention 1996, but our publishers promissed it by the summer of 2002.
However, it is sad we can not buy it from dealers like Amazon or eBay, because of the highly recommended credit card, which we in Bulgaria do not have, or those who have are the corporative owners.
I really would like to Read it and give an oppinion out.

PR is good Gibson. It's not Neuromancer, but it's a good read. That said; I'm uneasy about making any comment to clinically cricital, given that we are, after all, posting on the forum of the official website of the author.

I would have expected this area to be called F:F:F.

I found it quite entertaining, as I read my ARC of PR, to realise that I'd spent the past few months scouring the net for information, or snippets of it, before it came out. In the same way that Cayce... (yadda yadda. If you've read it, you know :P)

I guess I felt that it needed a Finn. And I was hoping for that same kick I got in Neuromancer, when Case walks past the payphones...

I should point out that you can also find the ARC on the Amazon.com (or .co.uk, or whatever) Marketplace (2nd hand and 3rd party resellers). The whole credit card thing may be less of an issue, for those of you who don't have them. I'm not certain though.

- Ant

... abstruse. How did you find the parts dealing with the F:F:F to be? Were they realistic compared to your experiences with online communities? I actually found the F:F:F segments to be eerily mirror-like to some places I know of on the net. Also I am going to read it again with a proper copy in february, as the "un-corrected" parts in the ARC were distracting. Someone sent me my ARC as a gift.

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Originally posted by armoured-ant:
PR is good Gibson. It's not Neuromancer, but it's a good read. That said; I'm uneasy about making any comment to clinically cricital, given that we are, after all, posting on the forum of the official website of the author.

I would have expected this area to be called F:F:F.

I found it quite entertaining, as I read my ARC of PR, to realise that I'd spent the past few months scouring the net for information, or snippets of it, before it came out. In the same way that Cayce... (yadda yadda. If you've read it, you know :P)

I guess I felt that it needed a Finn. And I was hoping for that same kick I got in Neuromancer, when Case walks past the payphones...

I should point out that you can also find the ARC on the Amazon.com (or .co.uk, or whatever) Marketplace (2nd hand and 3rd party resellers). The whole credit card thing may be less of an issue, for those of you who don't have them. I'm not certain though.

- Ant

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Originally posted by martin:
Also I am going to read it again with a proper copy in february, as the "un-corrected" parts in the ARC were distracting.

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It seemed pretty polished to me, but there were some amusing slips (and a couple rough passages that I hope are changed).

For one, there is an instance where "Cayce" is misspelled as "Case".

Also, Gibson refers to Episode I as the most recent Star Wars movie when talking about _The Phantom Edit_ (no doubt because the book was finished so long ago and the publisher has been sitting on it). I hope they change that in the final version... Actually, I'm just assuming PR takes place in some alternate present; maybe it’s really an alternate history of early 2002, before Episode II had been released.

If the book were in front of me, I’d quote page numbers. However, it’s not, so I won’t.

Anybody notice anything else that seemed funny?

I found Gibson's acute perception of online forums to be unnervingly accurate... down, even, to Parkaboy's friendly, quietly flirtatious geekness.

Being a metafilter.com user, the whole introspective forum thing was all too familiar.

On a different note; did anyone else find that the Dorotea/Anarchia link was made a little too obvious from too early on? Or was it really, really, meant to be, and was I missing the greater irony?

- Ant

Actually I didn't catch that until it was made explicit. Maybe I will when I re-read it in february.

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Originally posted by armoured-ant:
I found Gibson's acute perception of online forums to be unnervingly accurate... down, even, to Parkaboy's friendly, quietly flirtatious geekness.

Being a metafilter.com user, the whole introspective forum thing was all too familiar.

On a different note; did anyone else find that the Dorotea/Anarchia link was made a little too obvious from too early on? Or was it really, really, meant to be, and was I missing the greater irony?

- Ant

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I read the ARC of PR. I liked it. His signature style is alive and well, but it was somewhat strange (in a good way) to read a Gibson book set in the present time.

I expect this book might be more accepted by the large number of non-SciFi readers.

Regarding comparisons to previous novels... I find it hard to compare anything to something like Neuromancer since that is so much of a first love for me.

I've been eagerly awaiting this book ever since finishing ATP. Just from reading the excerpt, Gibson's prose seems better than ever. Can someone who has read PR give a quick plot synopsis? Something to whet the appetite...

i finished reading the book a few weeks ago i think it is an excellent book it felt so now of this time which makes a change. there were things in the book like places labels you know, events that have happened which frame the central story, i hope that the author writes more books like this as well as books set further forwared in time.

if you have read the book is your copy a paper back with a green cover

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Originally posted by richal257:
I've been eagerly awaiting this book ever since finishing ATP. Just from reading the excerpt, Gibson's prose seems better than ever. Can someone who has read PR give a quick plot synopsis? Something to whet the appetite...

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The book pretty much deals with one woman's quest to find the originator of a new form of multi-media. Cayce has a strange allergy to brands, logos and corporate icons which also gives her a unique ability to judge the effectiveness of new advertising media and determine whether a product marketed in a particular fashion will succeed or not. This ability leads her to be chosen to head an effort into finding the maker of several AV files that have been released onto the Internet and which are the subject of much discussion among webheads and may even be developing into a cult following. Such cyber-buzz sparks big interest in a large advertising firm, who wants to figure out how to use this new media reaction for their own purposes. And oh yeah, someone in the shadows is trying to keep her off the trail. Unique characters, global jet hopping, and the integration of technology in our lives (all familiar Gibson elements) are in abundance and handled with the style and quirkiness we all love him for.

... you may like to read this Wired article by WG, which touches on some interesting topics.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.10/gibson.html

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Originally posted by richal257:
I've been eagerly awaiting this book ever since finishing ATP. Just from reading the excerpt, Gibson's prose seems better than ever. Can someone who has read PR give a quick plot synopsis? Something to whet the appetite...

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Thanks for the PR summary, I was initially a little worried when I heard the book was set in the present day. I should have more faith!

can't wait to read it!