Pattern Recognition

Over the years, I keep trying to enjoy William Gibson's writing. So many people cite him as an influence, he's relatively prolific and he has so many cool ideas, I just keep hoping I'll enjoy his work. I think, “Maybe I've matured enough,” or “perhaps I will ‘get' him now”; but it turns out, I just don't dig his writing enough to enjoy his books much.

Pattern Recognition has one central idea that is really cool–the main character, Cayce, can intuit whether or not a logo will be successful or not, in part because she has visceral reactions to such patterns (seeing the Michelin man makes her physically ill). This is a fantastic idea. There's also the sci-fi-that's-not-futuristic aspect of this book, which is kind of fun. It's interesting to see how dated this book is, which I'd guess was purposeful on Gibson's part (everybody uses hotmail; and a character “pulls out his Palm” at one point).

...and, that's about it, as far as I can tell. Yeah, there's a soooper-dooper-mysterious set of film clips being released, and Italians trying to kill her, or something. But I've no emotional investment in Cayce, or anyone else in the book, because the minimal character development doesn't give me any reason to. And the mystery-clip plot just didn't draw me in.