Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21592 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Synopsis
Set in futuristic Tokyo, rebuilt after an earthquake, this is the story of a rock star who decides to marry a non-existent, virtual reality girl; the bemused American security consultant who has been sent to take care of him; and a teenage fan. This novel is a witty futuristic thriller. "Fast,witty and lovingly painted" - "GUARDIAN." "Confirms Gibson as a realist writer for the post-Net generation" - "TLS." "A true BLADERUNNER for the Nineties" - "GQ."

Customer Reviews

Idoru

William Gibson offers a fresh squirt of cyberpunk panache with Idoru, named for the Japanese celebrity that doesn't exist, around which the story pivots.

A few decades from now, the celebrity is where the money's at. Colin Laney is the man who can see through the data-trails that such people - or any people - leave as they pass through a high-tech life: credit card transactions, internet surfing, online purchases, the TV channels you watch, the flights you catch. Hired by a media company, Laney tries to find the trail of Rez, one half of the hottest musical partnership Lo/Rez. Rez is also the man who has recently announced that he wishes to marry the idoru, a celebrity who exists only as a digital avatar ...

Also searching for Rez is one of his biggest fans, a 14 years old named Chia who wants to know if the crazy rumours are true. Flying to Tokyo where the idoru is based, she soon falls into a maze of trouble involving nanosmugglers, an evolution of the Russian mafia, and a group of otaku technogeeks operating out of the virtual Walled City.

Chia serves as the innocent eyes viewing the insanity of the world that Gibson is presenting, the same universe in which his 1993 novel Virtual Light is set. It is frantic, post-modern and frothing with insane tech. The nature of the world is the nature of the novel, which has the TV-remote-rapidity of earlier hits like Neuromancer, which set the stage for the genre and inspired such films as The Matrix. The writing is sharp and fast, described accurately on the cover as being "as glacially poetic as J. G. Ballard's", which pretty much hits the nail on the head.

The dialogue is modern and snappy, but the technology of this future contrasts with the modish gadgetry of the Neuromancer universe, sometimes coming off a little trite (virtual reality experienced through boxy goggles and wired-up gloves, for example). The frothy exposition and fast-paced narrative rapidly swallow any such minor complaints though, leaving the text roiling with cool gimmickry and spunky, laconic characters. As the story unfolds, the reader is exposed to not more of a thinly-constructed world, as in a lot of post-modern science fiction, but of new layers of Gibson's new Tokyo, stacked both upwards and down, slotted within the underlying accounts of an earthquake that levelled parts of the city, which are left to crumble further as other areas are rebuilt with rampant nanotech.

Thankfully Gibson deals with his world with total confidence, which beams through every page. The text is neat, precise and engaging, with realistic characters the reader is comfortable relating to. A fast, thoroughly entertaining read that cyberpunk fans will exhilarate in assimilating.

Idoru
'Idoru' is something of a follow-on to Gibson's earlier novel 'Virtual Light', sharing the same background world and carrying over a couple of minor characters, though with the main central plot and lead characters being new to this novel 'Idoru' can be read alone without too much confusion. The storyline features the proposed marriage between a real-life rock star and a virtual media creation (the 'idoru' of the title), following the investigations of a teenage member of the rock stars fan club and a man with a preternatural ability to read data patterns. In terms of construction this is very similar to 'Virtual Light' with it's split (and eventually dove-tailing) narrative linked by a technological maguffin (in 'Virtual Light' a pair of sunglasses, here a nanotechnolgy unit), and as with that book it is not so much the characterisation and prose (stark but functional) or the plot (linear and curiously languid) that lift this out of the ordinary but the details of the world Gibson paints: his near-future post-earthquake reconstruction Toyo is a vivid beguilling setting, and after being immersed in this world the reader will only grudgingly return to the real world. An enchanting trip into a potent science fiction landscape.

Unflawed crystal ball
William Gibson remains the best example of why "speculative fiction" should replace "science fiction" for the generic term "SF". His temporal reach carries today's people into logical extensions of society into a world where the growth of today's technology is likely to confront them. Idoru is a superior example of Gibson's talent in making the projections he's rightly noted for. Like all his best work, technology here is present, but it's the characters, their outlook and dealing with events, that chains the reader's attention. Don't expect dashing heroes, attendant ladies, stygian villains performing in ways to divert you from reality. Gibson brings tomorrow's realities to his pages, realities you may be facing in your lifetime.

The pivotal element is the desire of a rock star to marry a hologram. Idoru is an electronic construct, the symbol of universal desires. She, too, is an entertainer, a "synthespian" in future Hollywood jargon. The term is pure Gibson, projecting today's fascination with special effects and animation supplemented films. Colin Laney, who bears special analysis skills has been hired to search the data streams to determine the reasons for this unusual liaison. It's a daunting task, and Gibson provides us many glimpses of our future while guiding Laney through the corporate entertainment world.

Laney also carries a dark secret, the suicide of a woman whose data he was tracking. She had perceived his observing her and he's concerned about who else might be detecting his surveys of information. His talent had always enjoyed anonymity. If Alison Shires could detect his intrusion, who else more powerful might also be watching? The idoru, whose visible projection Laney assesses as the "tip of the iceberg of an Antarctica of information" evokes fears of what powers may lie behind the projected image.

Most of the story takes place in New Tokyo, a rebuild of the city destroyed by the Great 'Quake which, have no doubt, is certain to come. Here, Gibson engages in subtle forecasts of how today's technologies will unfold in many ways over the next few decades.
Buildings will result from enhanced forms of biotechnology enabling them to "grow" instead of being constructed. Even something as mundane as sewage treatement receives his attention in taking his characters through their world. Your world, tomorrow. Take note of how Gibson forecasts it as the story unfolds. Any one of you might be tomorrow's Laney, Chia or even a model for the Idoru. It bears thinking about, but only if you read Gibson's captivating prose on what the future might hold for us all. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]