Gibson

I recently finished re-reading William Gibson’s latest novel (now out in paperback), Zero History.  It occurred to me that it and the previous two books form a loose trilogy with several of the same characters.  So I re-read the others and gained new insights into Zero History as well.  Gibson seems to do this loose trilogy stuff – he did it with his first three; I haven’t had a chance to go back to the middle three yet to see if he does it there.

Zero History re-connects us with Hollis Henry, a former musician and now freelance searcher who has gone back to work for Hubertus Bigend and his global marketing company, Blue Ant.  Her job is to search for the designer of a secret brand of clothing called Gabriel Hounds.  The clothes are only sold periodically at locations around the world.  Only a few people find out about the sales through e-mail or from friends. Someone is following Hollis and she doesn’t know at first whether it’s Bigend being paranoid or someone more dangerous.  The book is full of Gibson’s usual cast of weird characters, generally loners who find others they can work with. 

Years ago, in reference to Gibson’s earlier novels, someone said to me that they found the books too dark.  True, particularly in the first three, the world is not a nice place – think similar to the world of “Blade Runner” – but for me the hope lies in the societal misfits who manage to save themselves and their friends.  There’s a touch of “Mission Impossible” about this book – the old television series, not the Tom Cruise movies.

I like how Gibson twists the realities of our present world to show us its bizarreness and make us look again.  In Pattern Recognition  (the first of this trilogy) he introduces a woman who is allergic to logos and brands and uses this talent to hunt for the newest and coolest trends.  For Blue Ant of course.  Hollis Henry appears for the first time in Spook Country (the second in the trilogy) writing for Node magazine, which turns out to be a front for Blue Ant.  She is researching a new type of virtual locational art that may be of interest to the military, or is it the technical support person they are interested in and if so why?  And who is the other covert group  that keeps turning up and what do they want?

Gibson’s books are always entertaining and thought provoking.  I look forward to seeing what he takes on next.