308 pages
English language
Published Jan. 5, 2003 by Berkley Books.
This felt like he just took the outline of Virtual Light and rewrote it with a different cast. That might have been fine if I'd read it years after, but I just read VL the day before, so it was annoying. I also didn't find the environments in this one to be as clear or well-described. I loved it up until Chia gets to the restaurant/flat, but then it lost its intensity for me.
I was a big fan of Gibson’s virtual light so thought I’d give the second book in the series a go and it was a huge disappointment. It is like a completely different person has written it, Gibson’s voice in virtual light was fantastic, a really gritty noir style whereas this feels like a cheap imitation. It’s tough to give this a low rating because the idea is there, social media has almost a life of it’s own, big companies are able to mine your data to find out what you plan to do and probably know more about you than you do, and a rock star has taken things a step further and plans to marry a being that only exists in virtual reality. Ya see, it does sound interesting and I’m impressed that Gibson came up with this in 1996 and it all feels pretty accurate.
So the …
I was a big fan of Gibson’s virtual light so thought I’d give the second book in the series a go and it was a huge disappointment. It is like a completely different person has written it, Gibson’s voice in virtual light was fantastic, a really gritty noir style whereas this feels like a cheap imitation. It’s tough to give this a low rating because the idea is there, social media has almost a life of it’s own, big companies are able to mine your data to find out what you plan to do and probably know more about you than you do, and a rock star has taken things a step further and plans to marry a being that only exists in virtual reality. Ya see, it does sound interesting and I’m impressed that Gibson came up with this in 1996 and it all feels pretty accurate.
So the concept is good, it’s just let down by the book. Laney is dull and I struggled to see what he brought to the story, a bit like Indiana Jones and that film where they open the melty-face-ark, the outcome wasn’t influenced by Laney and would be the same if he wasn’t there. Chai is a more interesting character but is very young and Gibson didn’t do much with her. Then we have my biggest issue, a human is marrying a virtual reality character, there could have been so much done with this, does she really exist, does she have the right to marry, does she has other rights, could they have kids virtual/real? It felt like a missed opportunity. Gibson does a good job again of predicting future technology and then he gets something wrong which makes me chuckle, still using faxes in the future.
An interesting idea for a story but it falls flat in the end, maybe it was written before it’s time or maybe it is just me being grumpy. I still recommend reading virtual light but would give this one a miss.
Blog review: felcherman.wordpress.com/2022/02/01/idoru-by-william-gibson/
As always, Gibson delivers a fascinating read and affective insight into the direction of our contemporary media culture. Our desire towards the immaterial and informatic is poignantly revealed here.
What does being a celebrity actually mean? Where does a creation of media end and person start? Gibson creates a universe where it's possible for lives of completely different people meet and do so with a bang. Life of a 14 year old schoolgirl obsessed with a pop-idol, ex-prisoner turned bodyguard with knack for tomahawks and data analyst able to do pattern recognition on big databases. They all want to know what is happening with Rez and Rei Toei. Will they like what they find? Find out! :-) I liked devastated scenery of Virtual Light more, but Idoru is nevertheless a fine addition to another great Gibson trilogy.
awesome. cool. hip.
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A Book Review of William Gibson's Idoru
Gibson's prose is so solid you can bang your head to it. It is shiny and elegant and compact - like a Macintosh product. Gibson's no-nonsense approach to dialogue is apparent here. It is told in third-person omniscient. There are a lot of interesting characters.
Chia Pet McKenzie. Zona Rosa. Keith Blackwell. Colin Laney.
Gibson has this gift of giving his characters wonderful, hip, names.
The idoru is this virtual superstar in Japan. An idol.
Another character is this aging, world-famous rockstar, adored by millions of teenage female fans. These female fans form fan clubs. CHia is from the Seattle branch of the fan club. ZOna Rosa is from the Mexican branch. Chia is sent to Japan to confirm on the rumor of their famous beloved rockstar marrying the Japanese idoru.
Nanotechnology is involved.
And Colin Laney, the 'quant' …
awesome. cool. hip.
------------------------
A Book Review of William Gibson's Idoru
Gibson's prose is so solid you can bang your head to it. It is shiny and elegant and compact - like a Macintosh product. Gibson's no-nonsense approach to dialogue is apparent here. It is told in third-person omniscient. There are a lot of interesting characters.
Chia Pet McKenzie. Zona Rosa. Keith Blackwell. Colin Laney.
Gibson has this gift of giving his characters wonderful, hip, names.
The idoru is this virtual superstar in Japan. An idol.
Another character is this aging, world-famous rockstar, adored by millions of teenage female fans. These female fans form fan clubs. CHia is from the Seattle branch of the fan club. ZOna Rosa is from the Mexican branch. Chia is sent to Japan to confirm on the rumor of their famous beloved rockstar marrying the Japanese idoru.
Nanotechnology is involved.
And Colin Laney, the 'quant' ties all these threads together.
Gibson's Idoru is catered to those who have already read his other works - Neuromancer, Mona Lisa Overdrive, etc. Though of course you can read it on its own. One develops a taste for Gibson's style. It then turns into an addiction. And soon one finds oneself having withdrawal symptoms. Right now, I am aching for that novel following this one (All Tomorrow's Parties) which I cannot find in the bookstores here in Manila
Mar 20, '11 10:44 PM
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