This must be the most articulate action SF thriller from William Gibson I read so far. No weird phrases, made up terminology and slang, no LSD-like scenes after which I do not know what happened, no convoluted setups and twists.

Story is very straight forward. I wont go into details because I do not want to spoil the story to anyone. Let's just say in here we have a prank [of sorts] gone badly. Very, very badly.

Setting-wise we are presented post apocalyptic California, San Francisco being especially hit by it (portrayed very much like modern day SF, Oakland and surroundings). Entire world is broken down into series of small states and huge corporations controlling them. So, in general classical cyberpunk dystopia. While all ingredients are in, Gibson is master of page filler and tangential story lines and this sometimes gets in the way. I mean you have a gunfight and then protagonist sees something and then we have some sideline story line explaining something related to that character. If this was relevant it would be good but I could not find any purpose for it in the main story line. It does flesh out the characters but in general is not required. So after thinking about the ex girlfriend we get brought back into the middle of gunfight ... Okkkkk.......

And then there are parts with Japanese historian and Skinner. These parts look like different story all together. I assume this is build up for follow up stories (I truly hope) but again for this novel.... pure page filler.

That aside story is pretty solid, and has a very believable ending (on the happy-end part of specter but OK). Technology is believable , and menace from these black-ops/undercover guys is very palpable. Author manages to build the atmosphere and you truly can feel paranoia and fear oozing from the pages.

As for tech stuff, it is present but it is in the background, acting as a world building element. Whenever you start thinking that that novel takes place in our times, author shakes up things and shows us that story takes place in the future with hi tech that is very imaginative, I have to say. Again this is period where Japan dominance was expected so everything coming from this country is treated as a special piece of technology. But even with this technological aspect of the novel is pretty well done, from vehicles, weapons, homes to corporate buildings and very interesting motorcycles made of ultra light materials. There are no mad AIs in here but hackers that create chaos in the network and make corporations and remaining states very angry :) And I have to admit I like this more human-first approach to these underground communities.

Remotely controlled drones of the corporate elites were particularly scary (and today, maybe not even that far off).

Very good action thriller. Truly was a surprise, I am now looking for the rest of the stories in this series.

Recommended to fans of thrillers and cyberpunk action in general. ( )

Okay, so this was basically just a McGuffin chase. It doesn't really matter to the story what the X-Ray binoculars or whatever were for. I was mainly here for the description of near-future Los Angeles and San Francisco, which are all too believable, and for the characters: including a Flawed Ex Cop and a heroine who isn't a Strong Woman, but makes a mean can of coke. It's a great story and it kept me turning the pages.

Maybe 5 stars is generous but I'm sticking with it. I certainly preferred it to the similar Snow Crash because it's more tightly written, more believable and has much better characterisation. ( )

Vibrant! ( )

I liked it, especially the settings, characters, and edge. The story itself took a backseat to a lot of the other things that were going on....but it was there and satisfying in its own (virtual) light. ( )

Engaging characters and snappy writing. Gibson is becoming one of my most favorite authors. ( )