The Diva Review:
I probably wouldn't have picked this book up on my own. A close friend of mine recommended it. In fact, he not only recommended it, he actually bought it for me and put it into my hand. Then, he got irritated when it took me a little while to get to it. Since I didn't pick it, and it isn't the kind of book I'm normally attracted to, it just didn't seem like a high priority. But, to save my friendship and because I do, at the end of the day, trust my friend and his recommendations, I started reading.
Keep in mind that this is my first Gibson book so I don't have the vast perspective and frankly, baggage, that some of his long time fans have. I'm reviewing it as a standalone book, not as another installment in a series of books.
This is a cool, post-modern tale of twists, turns, conspiracies and deception. It's one of those books that weave several strange and seemingly unrelated stories together that are ultimately all headed to the same place. But it takes a long time to figure out where that place is - and, how any of the subplots could possibly have anything to do with one another. This can be frustrating, especially because some of the chapters are so short that you just get your head into one character's life, you're thrust back into another's. Each life is so different that it can be jarring. My friend and I laughed over lunch one day at how certain extremely detailed characters appear, have no real purpose, and then are never seen again. All of this serves to create a highly textured, sort of interesting view of reality. Yes, I read the reviews on Amazon and I know that some Gibson fans found this irritating and a little cloying. I found it amusing. You'll have to make your own determination.
We have a singer from an alternative band turned journalist, a kidnapped tranquilizer addict, several shadowy ex-CIA, and secret service men, artists working in a new medium of GPS called locative art, enigmatic businessmen and businesses that may or may not exist. Oh, and throw in a healthy dose of a Cuban-Chinese-Russian boutique crime family operating in New York, and you have an off the wall tale of intrigue. There is no romantic subplot, which is refreshing. After all, in the real world, not everything ends in a love story.
At first I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on, but a few chapters into it, I couldn't put it down. All in all, I found it a thoroughly good read and I'll definitely give Gibson another look.
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