William Gibson Pattern Recognition

requiem_for_a_starfury · Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:40 am

Any one read this?

I'm about a third of the way through, but there's a bit in the begining,

When she returns to the forum page, her post is there.
It's a way now, aproximately, of being at home. The forum has become on of the most consistent places in her life, like a familiar cafe that exists somehow outside of geography and beyond time zones.

When I read that yesterday I said to myself that's how I feel about DaC, SO STOP FUCKING AROUND WITH IT!

axelgreese · Post by **axelgreese** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:42 am

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 2:44 am

Had to be done. This board was getting too crappy so we went ahead and SHOOK THINGS UP A BIT! So quit

and :spam: and just :eek: thy neighbour so the boards will stop sucking a bit.

That said, I plan to borrow Pattern Recognition from my local library. Thanks for the heads up as to its existence.

Kreegle · Post by **Kreegle** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 4:37 am

Spazmo wrote:Had to be done.

No it fucking didn't.

Lunchmeat · Post by **Lunchmeat** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:01 am

Pattern Recognition is good, but not great.

Doyle · Post by **Doyle** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 7:30 am

I missed something. What did they do?

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 6:50 pm

Lunchmeat wrote:Pattern Recognition is good, but not great.

That's covers every novel Gibson's written after Neuromancer if you ask me. His short stories are where he excels and it's a damn shame that Hollywood made such total wankstain of Johnny Nmemonic by messing with the story and casting Mr. Woodentop in the male lead!

Bridgeburner · Post by **Bridgeburner** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 7:56 pm

that book just arrived at my work(bookstore) today. weird stuff (we don't sell many english books).

requiem_for_a_starfury · Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:00 pm

I thought Pattern Recognition was one of his better novels, unlike the rest it's a contemporary novel and without the usual gimickry of cyberpunk he's really able to bring the characters to life. The main character makes several observations about the internet which just striked a chord with me and the differences between Britain and the States that he highlights were interesting.

Viktor wrote:it's a damn shame that Hollywood made such total wankstain of Johnny Nmemonic by messing with the story and casting Mr. Woodentop in the male lead!

And yet Johnny Nmemonic was still 10 times better than The Matrix.

Role-Player · Post by **Role-Player** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 8:32 pm

Was it really? I have some hard time believing that. At best, Johny Mnemonic was better than Reloaded and Revolutions, not better than the The Matrix.

Lunchmeat · Post by **Lunchmeat** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:14 pm

Viktor wrote:
Lunchmeat wrote:Pattern Recognition is good, but not great.
That's covers every novel Gibson's written after Neuromancer if you ask me. His short stories are where he excels and it's a damn shame that Hollywood made such total wankstain of Johnny Nmemonic by messing with the story and casting Mr. Woodentop in the male lead!

I agree, for the most part. I have a hard time deciding whether I like Neuromancer or his short stories better. I think that his novels that came right after Neuromancer are almost as good though. I just read Count Zero and I enjoyed that quite a bit. The only novels I haven't read are Virtual Light and Idoru.

Viktor · Post by **Viktor** » Thu Jan 22, 2004 11:08 pm

Role-Player wrote:At best, Johny Mnemonic was better than Reloaded and Revolutions, not better than the The Matrix.

I'll go along with that, but probably because on of my favourite cyberpunk stories didn't get shat on by Hollywood when they made the Matrix.

Lunchmeat: Don't get me wrong, I do like the rest of the Sprawl trilogy (Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive), but as I read Neuromancer and Burning Chrome first, I guess the later books didn't have the same impact on me.

Bit like the later Matrix films, I guess in the the first one had me going "Holy fucking shit, this is amazing!", but while the others continued and fleshed out a good story; I never got that "wow!" factor again...

Spazmo · Post by **Spazmo** » Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:28 am

Gibson also wrote a terrific novel in collaboration with Bruce Sterling called The Difference Engine. It's this really neat steampunk-y book set in Victorian England with a twist--working computers driven by steam engines and gears (essentially giant slide rules) exist. Wackiness and a pretty neat novel ensues.

requiem_for_a_starfury · Fri Jan 23, 2004 1:55 am

Viktor wrote:I guess in the the first one had me going "Holy fucking shit, this is amazing!", but while the others continued and fleshed out a good story; I never got that "wow!" factor again...

When I saw the first one I went 'Holy Shit what a load of crap' come on the power rangers movie has a deeper and more involved plot than the matrix, better acting too. The only thing that impressed me about the matrix was the bullet slo mo, and that idea wasn't exactly new just the implementation.