Call number
SPEC FICT GIB
Collection
Genres
Series
Publication
Hardcover (2007)
Description
Multilingual Tito engages in sensitive information transfers from his single-room apartment, while journalist Hollis frets over her start-up magazine's censure of its own promotions, and prescription drug addict Milgrim wonders about the military connections of an enigmatic benefactor.
Media reviews
"This novel is a political thriller that is also a satire on advertising, music and the geekocracy, a finely machined mystery whose main pleasures lie in its rich store of miniature aesthetic jolts and unexpected textures."
"Despite its thriller trappings, "Spook Country" is a puzzle palace of bewitching proportions and stubborn echoes."
"If Gibson’s vision has got bleaker, his eye for the eerie in the everyday still lends events an otherworldly sheen."
"In Spook Country, Gibson takes another large step forward and reaffirms his position as one of the most astute and entertaining commentators on our astonishing, chaotic present."
"Compelling characters and crisp action sequences, plus the author’s trademark metaphoric language, help make this one of Gibson’s best."
"Readable and mildly engaging, but not the kind of cutting-edge work we expect from Gibson."
User reviews
LibraryThing member djfiander
If Len Deighton and John Le Carre wrote of the intelligence world of the post-war and cold war eras, then William Gibson is now writing about the same murky world today.
LibraryThing member kalyka
Spooks. They're defined as spies, but also as ghosts, specters of the past. And they seem to be ever-present in this post 9-11 America.
Open to the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. Hollis Henry, former singer of The Curfew (perhaps a play on the Cure?), now turned journalist, receives a 3am phone call
Cut to Brown, who may or may not be a spy, who may or may not have been a CIA or DEA agent, who may or may not still be working for the American government. He takes Milgrim, a junkie with a special translating talent, as hostage and brings him everywhere he goes. Milgrim agrees, only because Brown threatens to cut his drug supply. Brown is on a mission, which may or may not be sanctioned by the government.
Cut again to Tito, a young Chinese-Cuban immigrant, part of a small-time criminal family with ties to Castro and the KGB. He will be recruited by the old man, whose name the reader will never find out, but who speaks Russian, and may be able to shed some light on the murder of Tito's father.
These seemingly unrelated characters' paths will eventually converge in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a certain object links them all, through their own respective legal, illegal, spying, and investigative activities. However, what they do with it is beside the point.
The novel, I thought, started a bit too slowly, but ended too quickly. The characters, while all interesting in their own way, could have been a bit more developed. Character evolution was never really felt, even when the eventual plot is finally revealed.
While this book isn't nearly as suspenseful as anticipated, it is successful at criticizing the collective paranoia in this post-9/11, post-Iraq, post-WMD world we live in, corruption that exists within certain governments, and the "Daddy knows best", autocratic attitude of others.
Really, it's a good social commentary set in a futuristic, not-so-distant past.
Open to the Mondrian Hotel in Los Angeles. Hollis Henry, former singer of The Curfew (perhaps a play on the Cure?), now turned journalist, receives a 3am phone call
Show More
from the Node editor, a Wired-esque European magazine that may or may not exist. Now a freelance journalist, she is on assignment to investigate a new tech-trend: locative art, which can be described as virtual reality on location. Sure, you can see it, but you need a special helmet, which is linked to a GPS, to view it. Node is owned by excentric Swiss magnate Hubertus Bigend, who is particularly interested in a certain Bobby Chombo, who collaborates with most of the locative artist. Thing is, he also works for someone else, doing much more sinister work.Cut to Brown, who may or may not be a spy, who may or may not have been a CIA or DEA agent, who may or may not still be working for the American government. He takes Milgrim, a junkie with a special translating talent, as hostage and brings him everywhere he goes. Milgrim agrees, only because Brown threatens to cut his drug supply. Brown is on a mission, which may or may not be sanctioned by the government.
Cut again to Tito, a young Chinese-Cuban immigrant, part of a small-time criminal family with ties to Castro and the KGB. He will be recruited by the old man, whose name the reader will never find out, but who speaks Russian, and may be able to shed some light on the murder of Tito's father.
These seemingly unrelated characters' paths will eventually converge in Vancouver, British Columbia, as a certain object links them all, through their own respective legal, illegal, spying, and investigative activities. However, what they do with it is beside the point.
The novel, I thought, started a bit too slowly, but ended too quickly. The characters, while all interesting in their own way, could have been a bit more developed. Character evolution was never really felt, even when the eventual plot is finally revealed.
While this book isn't nearly as suspenseful as anticipated, it is successful at criticizing the collective paranoia in this post-9/11, post-Iraq, post-WMD world we live in, corruption that exists within certain governments, and the "Daddy knows best", autocratic attitude of others.
Really, it's a good social commentary set in a futuristic, not-so-distant past.
Show Less
LibraryThing member danconsiglio
I do love a book with multiple story lines that seem totally unconnected until the last two or so chapters. I love books like that a lot. Gibson pulls his complicated plot off well. I'm not convinced that future generations will connect as strongly to the explicitly 'oughties' technology references
Show More
as I did, but Spook Country will make a heck of a period piece in a few decades. Good stuff! Show Less
LibraryThing member Toast.x2
Spook Country, a book where absolutely nothing happens, in detail.
after 100 pages, i was still lost as to the point of this book. every character is dangerously interesting. nothing is cohesive, just chapter after chapter of loosely tied together story. just enough to keep you turning the pages,
there is no “main protagonist” or “main antagonist” every character has their own agenda and none are good or evil. everyone has something going on and you are slowly led through the various stories until they all merge into one semi-cohesive semi-plot. every one of these characters deserves their own book.
dont hold your breath for a big bang ending though. when it all culminates in the last 25 pages, you will either be giggling at the cleverness or unhappy that you sat through it all.
i think this book would make a great film modified and directed by the cohen brothers.
thats it. no more review. as the books semi-plot doesnt have much to it besides build up, i would hate to give up anything specific.
i do really want to listen to the band “the curfew”, though they do not exist, i was left curious about their sound and influence.
after 100 pages, i was still lost as to the point of this book. every character is dangerously interesting. nothing is cohesive, just chapter after chapter of loosely tied together story. just enough to keep you turning the pages,
Show More
but not enough for you to know what is happening.there is no “main protagonist” or “main antagonist” every character has their own agenda and none are good or evil. everyone has something going on and you are slowly led through the various stories until they all merge into one semi-cohesive semi-plot. every one of these characters deserves their own book.
dont hold your breath for a big bang ending though. when it all culminates in the last 25 pages, you will either be giggling at the cleverness or unhappy that you sat through it all.
i think this book would make a great film modified and directed by the cohen brothers.
thats it. no more review. as the books semi-plot doesnt have much to it besides build up, i would hate to give up anything specific.
i do really want to listen to the band “the curfew”, though they do not exist, i was left curious about their sound and influence.
Show Less
LibraryThing member wfzimmerman
This was rather disappointing. Written with Gibson's usual skill, and full of flashes of genius, but in the end not much happening. Can't really call it science fiction, because at the end of the day the whole plot is aboiut (SPOILER) a complicated prank being played on Iraq looters. As a matter of
Show More
fact (and this is high praise) the book is actually quite similar to some of the great thrillers by the late [Ross Thomas]. Good stuff for a Gibson fan, but not a crossover book for others. Show Less
LibraryThing member geertwissink
A strange things happens on the first page: Gibson's new novel Spook Country is actually put in the past, in 2006. It looks like reality is catching up with Gibson! Even if the book is actually describing history, there still some nice new concepts. For example, Gibson describes a new way to
It's more a thriller than a sci-fi book anyhow, in Gibson's hypnotizing prose. The end was a bit disappointing (maybe it comes to close to reality) but I would still recommend the book.
Show More
combine locative art with virtual reality. It kept me thinking in the last days to look for virtual art everywhere I went, a beautiful new way of combining nowadays available techniques such as gps, head mounted displays (vizors), three-point gsm position trackers, 3D computer generated art etc. It's more a thriller than a sci-fi book anyhow, in Gibson's hypnotizing prose. The end was a bit disappointing (maybe it comes to close to reality) but I would still recommend the book.
Show Less
LibraryThing member RobertDay
William Gibson has stopped writing science fiction.
That's not to say that his style or content has changed. Rather, it shows that our world has now caught up to his vision. I thought that when I read his previous book. 'Pattern recognition'; now, with 'Spook country', it becomes all the plainer.
My early impression of this book was "So far, so Gibson", and others have commented that he writes the same book over and over. I soon began to move away from this view. 'Spook country' is set in a very specific political territory: the human landscape of those who the end of the Cold War left beached, without a direction or a purpose. One of his characters is a teenager of a Chinese-Cuban expatriate family, whose "family firm" turns out to have been the KGB, but who have been deserted in the political upheavals of the end of the 20th century when allegiances and political viewpoints changed almost overnight.
Given that the plot quickly begins to involve people for whom sudden death is part of their daily grind, this novel quickly acquired, for me, a clearer focus than previous Gibson offerings. Perhaps this is why others have compared it more to 'Neuromancer' than some of his later intervening works. Certainly, I found it becoming a page-turner as I got closer to the end; I was getting quite excited by the outcome!
The characters, though typically Gibson, are also an interesting bunch. Milgrim, for example; addicted to anti-anxiety drugs, he is held hostage by the one-time (or wannabe?) US agent Brown for his translation skills; does his name, though, possibly reference the originator of the Milgram experiment, the one that showed that ordinary people can turn into sadistic monsters if ordered to do a nasty thing by a sufficiently powerful authority figure? And once more we meet Hubertus Bigend, a character whose name is probably the only deliberate joke that Gibson has ever given us, and a character looking increasingly shady - there now appears to be more to Bigend's agency, Blue Ant, than we previously thought, with its penchant for concealed offices with power-operated drive-in garages, beloved of 1960s spy thrillers, its global reach, and Bigend's sudden intertest in potentially dangerous people and acts. Given that in my mind's eye, Bigend has always been played by John Malkovich, perhaps I'm making him more sinsister than I ought - or am I?
So: a book which turned out to be more interesting than I expected; or is it just that Gibson is turning into the sort of cultural phenomomen that his characters obsess over?
That's not to say that his style or content has changed. Rather, it shows that our world has now caught up to his vision. I thought that when I read his previous book. 'Pattern recognition'; now, with 'Spook country', it becomes all the plainer.
Show More
There is a feature in the novel that we don't have in our world (as far as I know); I'm not aware of locative art, virtual sculptures located in the real world that you need to be online at their presumed location to see, but with smartphones and iPads, that can only be just around the corner.My early impression of this book was "So far, so Gibson", and others have commented that he writes the same book over and over. I soon began to move away from this view. 'Spook country' is set in a very specific political territory: the human landscape of those who the end of the Cold War left beached, without a direction or a purpose. One of his characters is a teenager of a Chinese-Cuban expatriate family, whose "family firm" turns out to have been the KGB, but who have been deserted in the political upheavals of the end of the 20th century when allegiances and political viewpoints changed almost overnight.
Given that the plot quickly begins to involve people for whom sudden death is part of their daily grind, this novel quickly acquired, for me, a clearer focus than previous Gibson offerings. Perhaps this is why others have compared it more to 'Neuromancer' than some of his later intervening works. Certainly, I found it becoming a page-turner as I got closer to the end; I was getting quite excited by the outcome!
The characters, though typically Gibson, are also an interesting bunch. Milgrim, for example; addicted to anti-anxiety drugs, he is held hostage by the one-time (or wannabe?) US agent Brown for his translation skills; does his name, though, possibly reference the originator of the Milgram experiment, the one that showed that ordinary people can turn into sadistic monsters if ordered to do a nasty thing by a sufficiently powerful authority figure? And once more we meet Hubertus Bigend, a character whose name is probably the only deliberate joke that Gibson has ever given us, and a character looking increasingly shady - there now appears to be more to Bigend's agency, Blue Ant, than we previously thought, with its penchant for concealed offices with power-operated drive-in garages, beloved of 1960s spy thrillers, its global reach, and Bigend's sudden intertest in potentially dangerous people and acts. Given that in my mind's eye, Bigend has always been played by John Malkovich, perhaps I'm making him more sinsister than I ought - or am I?
So: a book which turned out to be more interesting than I expected; or is it just that Gibson is turning into the sort of cultural phenomomen that his characters obsess over?
Show Less
LibraryThing member port22
The minimalist style and understated wit of the writing is what pulls you in. The book is not science fiction but part of the plot revolves around an interesting form of art based on spacial technology -- locative art. It is viewed via location-aware helmets that obtain coordinates from GPS. The
The book tells three disconnected stories in parallel.
Hollis Henry is a former punk-band musician who attempts to break into art reporting. The investigation of locative art is her first foray into journalism. She is hired by a magazine that doesn't yet exist, this is used as a ploy by its owner to engage her in finding some answers he needs. The database that hosts the locative art is also a place where secrets of interest are hidden.
Tito comes from a Cuban crime family, he speaks Russian, lives his life within the confines of KGB's rule-book, and relies on a fighting technique based on Latin American religious trance. He is hired for an operation of information smuggling where data is passed on the hard drive of an iPod.
Milgrim, an addict who is held on a leash by a mysterious intelligence agent called Brown, is required to translate anything intercepted from Tito.
The story converges on one central object, a shipping container sought by people in the three different story lines. This objective is vague during most of the book, a subtle sense of disconnect comes out of the pages. It is a masterful way to instill some mild paranoia; and to keep you interested until the end. I liked it very much.
Show More
art is projected on the visual field when helmet is at a precise geo location. In character the art could be abstract or could, for example, recreate a famous scene that took place at that precise place.The book tells three disconnected stories in parallel.
Hollis Henry is a former punk-band musician who attempts to break into art reporting. The investigation of locative art is her first foray into journalism. She is hired by a magazine that doesn't yet exist, this is used as a ploy by its owner to engage her in finding some answers he needs. The database that hosts the locative art is also a place where secrets of interest are hidden.
Tito comes from a Cuban crime family, he speaks Russian, lives his life within the confines of KGB's rule-book, and relies on a fighting technique based on Latin American religious trance. He is hired for an operation of information smuggling where data is passed on the hard drive of an iPod.
Milgrim, an addict who is held on a leash by a mysterious intelligence agent called Brown, is required to translate anything intercepted from Tito.
The story converges on one central object, a shipping container sought by people in the three different story lines. This objective is vague during most of the book, a subtle sense of disconnect comes out of the pages. It is a masterful way to instill some mild paranoia; and to keep you interested until the end. I liked it very much.
Show Less
LibraryThing member rivkat
A former rock star turned journalist is researching a story on locative art—GPS-enabled overlays that can change the way a place looks for those with the right equipment—and finds that she might just be doing more than that, somehow intervening in a secret world of spycraft and subterfuge.
Show More
There’s some physical danger, especially for one of the POV spy-types, but not a lot, and the macguffins aren’t really the point. Maybe the story we get about the target is right, but Gibson really seems to be writing about transience and the inability of one person ever to know what exactly is going on around him/her. I enjoyed it, but it’s not clear that there’s much there there. Show Less
LibraryThing member jshrop
I thouroughly enjoyed William Gibson's latest offering, Spook Country, in this movement, like Pattern Recognition, away from what we traditionally think of as "cyberpunk". This novel combines the detailed workings of a generational ex-KGB crime family with a paranoid, typically solitary "geek"
The subject matter is one previously untouched by Gibson, creating a whole new landscape in "present time". The characters are all in search of a special cargo container, and the intelligence and counter-intelligence surrounding its location. The description of the smallest crime family in the world, and their detailed system of operation is fascinating. No move is made unplanned or in reaction to their emotions, even those that are seemingly random to those watching have been carefully orchestrated to invoke this non-pattern appearance.
The theme that draws our rock band front girl into the mix is not far fetched with today's current technology, the idea of geo-locational artwork. I, as many, already geolocate my photos on vacation with simple tools and small gps devices. With google earth I can see where my pictures were taken on the map, with the pictures displayed, it seems a logical next step to incorporate that into any of the wearable computer displays available and display the photos at the GPS coordinates when you are there in person. I really like the extent that Gibson developed this idea and the "scene" he created around it for the novel.
The anti-climatic ending of Spook Country is perfect. It definately will make you think; your own ponderings instantly fill the vacuum created by the outcome. There is no better way to finish this story, and it would have been ruined by spectacular action at the finish. The action-packed lead up to the relative calm and place for reflection is as enjoyable a journey as the serene, thoughtful, destination.
Show More
searching the complex data streams of international commerce, as seen through the eyes of a journalist with pop-culture roots as a former punk band front girl. Gibson weaves these stories together in a very meticulous way, but not to the degree where the "coincidences" of the three lines coming together are so perfect that it takes you out of the story as unbelievable or riduculous. I think that many authors today could learn from his style, and cool down on the number of mathmatically impossible chances of their storylines so perfectly slamming into each other, that seems to grace the pages of lesser masters of the art of fiction. The subject matter is one previously untouched by Gibson, creating a whole new landscape in "present time". The characters are all in search of a special cargo container, and the intelligence and counter-intelligence surrounding its location. The description of the smallest crime family in the world, and their detailed system of operation is fascinating. No move is made unplanned or in reaction to their emotions, even those that are seemingly random to those watching have been carefully orchestrated to invoke this non-pattern appearance.
The theme that draws our rock band front girl into the mix is not far fetched with today's current technology, the idea of geo-locational artwork. I, as many, already geolocate my photos on vacation with simple tools and small gps devices. With google earth I can see where my pictures were taken on the map, with the pictures displayed, it seems a logical next step to incorporate that into any of the wearable computer displays available and display the photos at the GPS coordinates when you are there in person. I really like the extent that Gibson developed this idea and the "scene" he created around it for the novel.
The anti-climatic ending of Spook Country is perfect. It definately will make you think; your own ponderings instantly fill the vacuum created by the outcome. There is no better way to finish this story, and it would have been ruined by spectacular action at the finish. The action-packed lead up to the relative calm and place for reflection is as enjoyable a journey as the serene, thoughtful, destination.
Show Less
LibraryThing member anderlawlor
I don't know if it's me, but I could barely get through a chapter of this. And the chapters are, like, a page long each. Look, I loved Neuromancer as much as the next guy (when it came out-it doesn't hold up), and I even would say Pattern Recognition was gripping, but Spook Country is a mess.
LibraryThing member elenchus
I still adore Gibson's voice, his use of language and dialogue, his take on culture and technology. They hooked me in the so-called Sprawl trilogy, and though there are frequent references to his "working backward" from a science-fiction future to a barely-ahead-of-us contemporary setting, I think
"Spook Country" is notable for its integration of music (not on-your-sleeve like Iain Banks, perhaps), and continues Gibson's interest in information as power / currency. Technology is inevitably involved. He also continues his use of name brands (designer wear, customised gear such as aftermarket car offerings, and marketing boutiques being most emblematic) as a means of looking at aesthetics, in the sense of "truth" or "beauty" as much as about style.
All that said, "Spook Country" reads fast. I almost welcome the interruptions in reading due to my daily obligations as they afford me an opportunity to reflect on what I've read rather than simply process it sufficiently to pursue the plot to the end. The plot's not the thing, here, it's merely a frame on which to hang the various ideas. But it's easy to forget that, and I write that with admiration.
Conceit: found three distinct usages of the concept of "spook" in the first three chapters, and thought I might be onto something. I can see Gibson doing this as an exercise as much as a game, a nice blend of fun and thematic cohesion. At around chapter 19, I must admit I was forcing it a bit. Thereafter I didn't require there be one, but several subsequent chapters had quite striking examples, so it might be more than the inevitable byproduct of the book's theme, and reflect a conscious effort by Gibson. Especially as his books read like screenplays (loads of dialogue and very short chapters), with little space for a digression in some of the briefer examples, meaning it would be suitable to skip the exercise for those chapters in which it would simply intrude. Regardless of authorial intent, it was fun to seek them out. Maybe I'll post my list of page numbers to allow others to make their own assessment.
Show More
he's simply working through whatever vision he had originally. And I like it."Spook Country" is notable for its integration of music (not on-your-sleeve like Iain Banks, perhaps), and continues Gibson's interest in information as power / currency. Technology is inevitably involved. He also continues his use of name brands (designer wear, customised gear such as aftermarket car offerings, and marketing boutiques being most emblematic) as a means of looking at aesthetics, in the sense of "truth" or "beauty" as much as about style.
All that said, "Spook Country" reads fast. I almost welcome the interruptions in reading due to my daily obligations as they afford me an opportunity to reflect on what I've read rather than simply process it sufficiently to pursue the plot to the end. The plot's not the thing, here, it's merely a frame on which to hang the various ideas. But it's easy to forget that, and I write that with admiration.
Conceit: found three distinct usages of the concept of "spook" in the first three chapters, and thought I might be onto something. I can see Gibson doing this as an exercise as much as a game, a nice blend of fun and thematic cohesion. At around chapter 19, I must admit I was forcing it a bit. Thereafter I didn't require there be one, but several subsequent chapters had quite striking examples, so it might be more than the inevitable byproduct of the book's theme, and reflect a conscious effort by Gibson. Especially as his books read like screenplays (loads of dialogue and very short chapters), with little space for a digression in some of the briefer examples, meaning it would be suitable to skip the exercise for those chapters in which it would simply intrude. Regardless of authorial intent, it was fun to seek them out. Maybe I'll post my list of page numbers to allow others to make their own assessment.
Show Less
LibraryThing member weird_O
Spook Country by William Gibson
I enjoyed this book, though it isn't really William Gibson's best effort. It has a topical subject, clever and twisted plot, captivating characters (though only marginally believable), high tech wizardry, sinister stuff, humor. What's going on here? Who are the good
It is formulaic—Gibson's formula. As in his other books, he switches viewpoint and character from chapter-by-chapter, laying out aspects of the story, making you wonder: How will all come together? It does, of course, come together. Unlike other Gibsons I've read, here he dishes out enough info for you to scope out the denouement, though not all the particulars. In the end, it is calculated to satisfy, with the likable characters collecting their rewards and the bad guys collecting their just desserts.
In [Spook Country] a prime question is whether or not it's possible to get lost, to just sneak off by yourself, with no one who knows you being able to locate you. And with those who see you not knowing who you are. GPS is central to the story. In years past, Hollis Henry, the protagonist, was a singer in a cult band called Curfew. Now she's eaking out a living as a free-lance writer, and as the story begins, she's on assignment in L.A., developing an article on "locative art" for a mysterious London-based magazine called Node. GPS, which at this time—2000—is strictly military, is pivotal to the art, since the locative artist creates a virtual-reality object or figure in one location, and places in another via gps coordinates obtained by "geohacking."
The reclusive Bobby Chombo, who does seminal gps research and development for the military, IS, quite naturally, the go-to guy for geohacking. If you can find him. Alberto Corrales, introduced to Hollis as creator of a locative art series known as death scenes of the famous (River Phoenix, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Helmut Newton), knows where Bobby is and, with trepidation, takes her to meet him. Bobby is angry and terrified, yet willing to show her around. She returns a day or so later, and Chombo and all his gear have vanished.
In alternative chapters, we meet members of a Cuban family—their bloodlines are an international melange—who are espionage adepts. We also meet a man named Brown who seems to tracking at least one specific member of the family, a young man called Tito. Brown is accompanied by Milgram, who seems to be a captive. Slowly, it comes out that Tito is doing something secret for yet another cypher, known only as "the old man." We learn that Bobby Chombo also is doing something secretive for this "old man." The biggest challenge in these goings on—for all the players—is keeping track of the other guys' locations. Gps, tracking devices, and all that technology. Try it. You may like it.
I enjoyed this book, though it isn't really William Gibson's best effort. It has a topical subject, clever and twisted plot, captivating characters (though only marginally believable), high tech wizardry, sinister stuff, humor. What's going on here? Who are the good
Show More
guys?It is formulaic—Gibson's formula. As in his other books, he switches viewpoint and character from chapter-by-chapter, laying out aspects of the story, making you wonder: How will all come together? It does, of course, come together. Unlike other Gibsons I've read, here he dishes out enough info for you to scope out the denouement, though not all the particulars. In the end, it is calculated to satisfy, with the likable characters collecting their rewards and the bad guys collecting their just desserts.
In [Spook Country] a prime question is whether or not it's possible to get lost, to just sneak off by yourself, with no one who knows you being able to locate you. And with those who see you not knowing who you are. GPS is central to the story. In years past, Hollis Henry, the protagonist, was a singer in a cult band called Curfew. Now she's eaking out a living as a free-lance writer, and as the story begins, she's on assignment in L.A., developing an article on "locative art" for a mysterious London-based magazine called Node. GPS, which at this time—2000—is strictly military, is pivotal to the art, since the locative artist creates a virtual-reality object or figure in one location, and places in another via gps coordinates obtained by "geohacking."
The reclusive Bobby Chombo, who does seminal gps research and development for the military, IS, quite naturally, the go-to guy for geohacking. If you can find him. Alberto Corrales, introduced to Hollis as creator of a locative art series known as death scenes of the famous (River Phoenix, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Helmut Newton), knows where Bobby is and, with trepidation, takes her to meet him. Bobby is angry and terrified, yet willing to show her around. She returns a day or so later, and Chombo and all his gear have vanished.
In alternative chapters, we meet members of a Cuban family—their bloodlines are an international melange—who are espionage adepts. We also meet a man named Brown who seems to tracking at least one specific member of the family, a young man called Tito. Brown is accompanied by Milgram, who seems to be a captive. Slowly, it comes out that Tito is doing something secret for yet another cypher, known only as "the old man." We learn that Bobby Chombo also is doing something secretive for this "old man." The biggest challenge in these goings on—for all the players—is keeping track of the other guys' locations. Gps, tracking devices, and all that technology. Try it. You may like it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member themulhern
A very enjoyable book. The ruminations of the junkie character are often amusing. The reference to Morrissey is funny and the technological and cultural descriptions are pleasant. Bigend's comments about society are amusing.
There is almost no nature in any Gibson novel, the world is composed only
There is almost no nature in any Gibson novel, the world is composed only
Show More
of people and the trends that they embrace or that embrace them. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheAmpersand
"Spook Country" is only the second Willaim Gibson novel that I've read, and I didn't quite find it to be world-changer that "Neuromancer" was. It's an odd, fractured narrative revolving around a McGuffin that pulls in a Cuban-trained network of spies, a government agent working solo, a media
Show More
billionaire, a talented programer who dabbles in GPS-assisted virtual-reality art, and a former alternative rock figure attempting to break into journalism. Gibson's tone here is more literary and less dense than it was in "Neuromancer," but he's still kept his paranoid edge, and the book seems to be more about mood than anything else. In a series of brief scenes, some of which are boring, others of which are effectively unsettling, these characters interact in various ways in a series of chic hotels, urban slums, safe houses and city streets. I think Gibson might be reaching to identify some sort of zeitgeist here, which is a noble enough pursuit: he figures it's technologically advanced, transnational, anxious, and secretive. Not a bad guess, probably. Show Less
LibraryThing member colinflipper
As is mentioned in pretty much every review, this latest novel from William Gibson is set in the present rather than the future (well, that was true for Pattern Recognition too). Early on in the book, I found this somewhat distracting because the references to modern day life would break me out of
By the end of Spook Country, though, I got more caught up in the story. Looking back, from the vantage point of the ending, I can see how little is going on plotwise for most of the book. This, rather than any disruptive effects of current events and brand names, might have been responsible for making the early parts of the book plod along.
Show More
the dreamy state induced by Gibson's often poetic descriptive passages ('...giant orange arms craned in the distance, above a shoreline seemingly solid with the visual complexity of industry'). It's been a long time since I first read Neuromancer, but I remember that book inducing much more sustained enchantment.By the end of Spook Country, though, I got more caught up in the story. Looking back, from the vantage point of the ending, I can see how little is going on plotwise for most of the book. This, rather than any disruptive effects of current events and brand names, might have been responsible for making the early parts of the book plod along.
Show Less
LibraryThing member fojxl1
Really polished prose. Not a word out of place. As he gets further away from cyberpunk, his writing gets better and better, more precise, more economical. Really beautiful words, even though not a great deal happens. Still a great book though.
LibraryThing member aram-mm
I have loved every novel written by Gibson that I have read so far and I was loving Spook Country until something hit me. It was another Gibson novel. I love his prose, I think it is elegant and the epitome of cool writing, however, this time although I knew I was reading a new novel, I had the
The only thing I can object the book that does not come from my having read the rest of his novels is that the content of the mysterious box was a bit of a let down to me.
Other than that I guess new readers will still find the book thrilling and well worth the time it takes to read it.
Show More
impression that I was reading a slightly changed version of a book I had already read. It was like hearing a song that is very similar to another song by the same band. You still enjoy it, but the cutting Edge (even if his prose still has a capitalized Edge) has become slightly blunt and does not cut as deep.The only thing I can object the book that does not come from my having read the rest of his novels is that the content of the mysterious box was a bit of a let down to me.
Other than that I guess new readers will still find the book thrilling and well worth the time it takes to read it.
Show Less
LibraryThing member yarmando
Couldn't sustain interest in this. Three plotlines taking their turns chapter-by-chapter, and I kept losing interest in them. Not bad, just not compelling enough for me to stick with it.
LibraryThing member ellisonite
Gibson is definitely continuing to evolve as a writer. While he still retains the ability to put together scintillating predications that uniquely and immediately characterize things with startling insight and intimacy, his plots seem to be growing smaller. He no longer reaches for the far-reaching
Show More
epic plots that he started with in Neuromancer, but is content to focus in on the more esoteric and oblique. Not that this is a bad thing; it suits him. And this shrinking of scope is only ostensible, underneath he's still trying to say profound things about human reality, "artificial" or otherwise. But it doesn't make his intentions any more accessible. Which is, of course, half the fun of a Gibson book. Show Less
LibraryThing member MikeFarquhar
William Gibson writes like a man who's been to the future and has now returned, and is gently guiding us across the interface between now and then. As he's talked of in interview recently, he has become more interested in the possibilities of now and the near-future rather than the more typical
As such the plot of Spook Country isn't really the point - Hollis Henry, ex-musician turned journalist, is working for a magazine that may or may not exist, researching an article on locative art - virtual art which litters the world around us, but can only be seen with a VR headset. Her story intersects with a young member of a New York crime family, smuggling iPods laden with data to old men in the Park, who may or may not be ex-spies, as shadowy agents hunt him down ... and all of their stories looping around a mystery container at sea, with a secret cargo that holds the key to everything that is going on. In the background lurks the pathologically curious Hubertus Bigend, fantastically wealthy, manipulating public opinion through the skillful playing of viral media.
Spook Country then is less of a conventional thriller, and more of a tour guide to the hidden future that co-exists with our present. The spooks of the title refer most obviously to the old spies still playing intelligence games of a bygone age with new toys, but also to other ghosts - such as the locative art installation of River Phoenix lying dying and dead that Hollis glimpses through her VR headset early in the book. Gibson delights in peeling back layers and overlaying filters onto our conventional viewpoint of our world, and suggesting that we are moving into an age where reality may be about to become much more complex than we are used to thinking of it as. Befititng that, there are some wonderful images and uses of language in here.
The secret of that cargo is almost entirely incidental - the cargo, and the container that protects it are simply McGuffins, there to drive the characters to action. In exposing it, Gibson pays lip service to some of the more prevalent touch-points of our time ... secret torture, the war in Iraq, terrorism and WMDs ... but none of it really matters to what he's trying to say.
In the end though there's nothing particularly new about Gibson's foray into the ghost world that intersects our own and beckons us into the future; you keep waiting for the bold vision statement or striking insight, but it never quite crystallises. Despite that though, it's an enjoyable book, and as interesting for what it says about how Gibson's style is changing to accommodate the blurring of his reality and fiction as anything else.
Show More
science fiction he was originally known for. Along with his last novel, Pattern Recognition - to which this is a loose sequel of sorts - Spook Country is a glimpse into what our world is about to come. Gibson writes of a recognisable now overlaid with the possibility of what is about to come tomorrow - a tomorrow that those on the cutting edge are already living in.As such the plot of Spook Country isn't really the point - Hollis Henry, ex-musician turned journalist, is working for a magazine that may or may not exist, researching an article on locative art - virtual art which litters the world around us, but can only be seen with a VR headset. Her story intersects with a young member of a New York crime family, smuggling iPods laden with data to old men in the Park, who may or may not be ex-spies, as shadowy agents hunt him down ... and all of their stories looping around a mystery container at sea, with a secret cargo that holds the key to everything that is going on. In the background lurks the pathologically curious Hubertus Bigend, fantastically wealthy, manipulating public opinion through the skillful playing of viral media.
Spook Country then is less of a conventional thriller, and more of a tour guide to the hidden future that co-exists with our present. The spooks of the title refer most obviously to the old spies still playing intelligence games of a bygone age with new toys, but also to other ghosts - such as the locative art installation of River Phoenix lying dying and dead that Hollis glimpses through her VR headset early in the book. Gibson delights in peeling back layers and overlaying filters onto our conventional viewpoint of our world, and suggesting that we are moving into an age where reality may be about to become much more complex than we are used to thinking of it as. Befititng that, there are some wonderful images and uses of language in here.
The secret of that cargo is almost entirely incidental - the cargo, and the container that protects it are simply McGuffins, there to drive the characters to action. In exposing it, Gibson pays lip service to some of the more prevalent touch-points of our time ... secret torture, the war in Iraq, terrorism and WMDs ... but none of it really matters to what he's trying to say.
In the end though there's nothing particularly new about Gibson's foray into the ghost world that intersects our own and beckons us into the future; you keep waiting for the bold vision statement or striking insight, but it never quite crystallises. Despite that though, it's an enjoyable book, and as interesting for what it says about how Gibson's style is changing to accommodate the blurring of his reality and fiction as anything else.
Show Less
LibraryThing member xmickeyx
William Gibson's second book written in 'real time' and continuing the theme of culture and society in the conjuction with the current political climate. This book didn't grab me as immediately as the last one did. I think it's a little denser.
If you like technology themed thrillers, hard science
If you like technology themed thrillers, hard science
Show More
fiction and stories that weave different threads together I feel you'll like this one. Show Less
LibraryThing member irfon
Very much feeling like a sequel or a parallel story to Pattern Recognition, Spook Country finds Gibson honing his new contemporary style. I really think that it's in these two books that he's finally come into his own.
While Pattern Recognition in many ways was a contemporary cyberpunk novel, this
The way the loose threads are ultimately gathered up is slightly more coincidental and convenient than in PR, but ultimately I think more satisfying, for the triumphs are more personal and you wind up feeling for the all of the people of this story.
A really engaging read. I listened to the audiobook version, read by Robertson Dean, and he did a magnificent job, a slick, polished flatness to his voice that suited the text brilliantly while still providing enough characterization to make the characters each pop out.
Two thumbs up. :)
While Pattern Recognition in many ways was a contemporary cyberpunk novel, this
Show More
novel strays further into character development and character study, with great results. The plot is perhaps less immediately arresting than Pattern Recognition's, and the main character less oddly unique. However, all of the supporting characters truly shine, fascinatingly sketched and engaging. It's really one of the few stories I've read in a long time which presented the material from multiple viewpoints anchored to multipl characters where there were no characters that I disliked and no chapters that I wanted to rush through to get back to my favourite storyline. The way the loose threads are ultimately gathered up is slightly more coincidental and convenient than in PR, but ultimately I think more satisfying, for the triumphs are more personal and you wind up feeling for the all of the people of this story.
A really engaging read. I listened to the audiobook version, read by Robertson Dean, and he did a magnificent job, a slick, polished flatness to his voice that suited the text brilliantly while still providing enough characterization to make the characters each pop out.
Two thumbs up. :)
Show Less
LibraryThing member blueslibrarian
Ex rock 'n' roll singer Hollis Henry has a new gig as a freelance journalist. She is approached by an unknown European magazine called Node, to write a story about the intersection of art and technology. Milgrim is addicted to pills and his addiction allows him to be controlled by a shadowy
Show More
government agent for an unknown purpose. Tito lives off the radar in New York City, as a courier he brokers information. All of these diverse characters come together in Gibson's unsettling meditation on technology, spies, art and the uses of information in the modern world. Show Less
LibraryThing member dukedom_enough
Spook Country is the second book in a trilogy that began with the terrific Pattern Recognition, but the connection is slight and you don't need to have read the first - although you should.
Here the plot is less complex than usual for Gibson. We have three threads that spiral together: a journalist
Set securely in 2006, Spook Country is sf in feel and approach, even though without technological or scientific extrapolation. This is a decidedly post-9-11 novel - but actually, it could be called a post-post-9-11 novel, in the sense that its characters have learned to live with the 9-11 horrors and some of them, at least, are finding new ways to deal with the world. For a book dealing with the results of decades of covert actions carried out by and in our spooky country - as in Kathleen Ann Goonan's In War Times, the war never really ended - Spook Country is positively cheerful.
Here the plot is less complex than usual for Gibson. We have three threads that spiral together: a journalist
Show More
covering hi-tech art, on assignment for a magazine that doesn't quite exist yet, the scion of a very peculiar family whose trade is the spy business, and a drug addict drawn into that trade involuntarily. Gibson's trademark insightful observations and humor are present. For example, as two characters walk into a very expensive condominium: "...they stepped into a space that might have been the central concourse in the national airport of some tiny, hyperwealthy European nation, a pocket Liechtenstein founded on the manufacture of the most expensive minimalist light fixtures ever made." You either love this sort of thing or you don't, I suppose.Set securely in 2006, Spook Country is sf in feel and approach, even though without technological or scientific extrapolation. This is a decidedly post-9-11 novel - but actually, it could be called a post-post-9-11 novel, in the sense that its characters have learned to live with the 9-11 horrors and some of them, at least, are finding new ways to deal with the world. For a book dealing with the results of decades of covert actions carried out by and in our spooky country - as in Kathleen Ann Goonan's In War Times, the war never really ended - Spook Country is positively cheerful.
Show Less
Awards
Locus Award (Finalist — Science Fiction Novel — 2008)
Sunburst Award (Honourable Mention — Adult — 2008)