I finally finished the Blue Ant books, aka the Bigend books. Pattern Recognition remains my favourite. I got through Spook Country, and I was really enjoying Zero History until my favourite character from the first book showed up. I was thinking that was what he was going to do, but hoping he wasn't, and it was even worse than I imagined - she wasn't herself anymore. Not a fan of that choice at all. Would have loved for her to return but as herself. And much like Spook Country I didn't enjoy the last 1/3 of the book which devolved into a lot of pointless conversations. Overall, I would suggest everyone read Pattern Recognition, but stop there, just don't bother with the other two in the series. In my view they only lead to disappointment in the end. I'll probably re-read Pattern Recognition now though. It's a world I love and miss.