Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6783 in Books
• Published on: 2007-08-02
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Synopsis
Tito and Alejandro's Aunt Jauna had all the skills that were needed in Cuba - a thousand tricks of the forger's art. But now the boys are in New York, and it's a new world. Soon they're dealing with a mysterious American who can speak Russian and who seems to be on the trail of something big, something political. Trouble is, as the Cubans find to their cost, he's competing with a few other parties, too.

Customer Reviews

(Get) Back to The Future
I've loved all of Gibson's books, and the short stories he has recently published - featuring a more stylised and reductive prose than his previous work - had whetted my appetite for this latest effort.

The prose here is indeed beautiful, but otherwise I found 'Spook Country' very disappointing. The characters come across almost as cardboard cutouts of Gibson stereotypes - 'Ex rockstar turned style magazine journalist' 'Junkie techie' etc - and it takes a very long time for nothing very much to happen to them. Overall, the book reads like a humourless parody of a techno-thriller.

Possibly I'm missing something, as this book has been widely praised as a return to form. However, I enjoy Gibson for the endless surfeit of strange ideas and futuristic notions that are a feature of his earlier books. That aspect of his work isn't really present here.

Disappointing
I have read all of William Gibson's books, since back when he was writing about a dystopian future heavily influenced by Japanese culture.

Some of the old Gibson is still there in this book, like separate characters converging at the end. However, the plot is thin & weak, and characters are just wandering in and out of rooms and cities without much to do or even say.

All we learn in the first 300 pages is that there is a container on a ship somewhere that interests a lot of people. It is only in the last 30 pages or so that things develop from there, when one of the shady characters decides to confide in our heroine (whom he has never seen before - huh?) and finally tells her (and us) what is going on. So now we know what is in the container and why these guys are after it, and the book ends soon afterwards. OK then.

The only character that is remotely interesting is the junkie, whose contribution to the plot is translating several sentences from a form of written Russian in latin alphabet. He is the only one with a credible inner world, thoughts and ideas. Gibson actually uses him on several occasions to voice his own thoughts on US stance on torture (blurted out when he was high), war on Iraq, etc.

In all, a disappointing book for those of us who know about Gibson's masterpieces. Perhaps he is getting old. Or maybe he should go back to writing about the future.

Ordinary...
Needing a break from fantasy, William Gibson's Spook Country seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. As the author of works such as Neuromancer and Pattern Recognition, I thought it would make for a wonderful reading experience.


Unfortunately, though the book is good enough, it is clearly a far cry from what one has come to expect from a writer of William Gibson's caliber. Interestingly enough, the story never quite takes off. Moreover, the ending is about as lackluster as it gets.

The main problem is that one can never really grasp what this book is all about. Short chapters allow us to maintain a level of interest, and the story and characters are intriguing enough to keep us going. Gibson sets a very good pace, making this one a thriller in terms of style.

Having said that, Spook Country lacks that edge, that little something special that sets thriller apart from other fiction subgenres. It lacks that spark that keeps us promising ourselves that this is the last chapter we're reading before our bedtime. Although there are a few cliffhangers, this one is never a particularly exciting read. Indeed, the story sort of creeps up on you, very slowly.

I found the main characters -- Hollis, Tito, and Milgrim -- to be a fascinating bunch at the beginning. And yet, their back stories turn out to be more interesting than the "real time" events.

Still, regardless of the novel's shortcomings, William Gibson succeeds in keeping us interested in what is occurring. As I mentioned, since the reader doesn't understand what is going on, curiosity makes you eager to discover what Spook Country is all about. The author's narrative is as evocative as is usually his wont, which helps the reader along. Sadly, the ending is so disappointing that it killed this one for me.

Spook Country showed signs of brilliance early on, yet the story deteriorates into something quite ordinary before Gibson brings this one to a close.

Nevertheless, it's still a good read for the morning commute or the plane. But there's no denying that Gibson has accustomed his fans to much better works over the course of his career.