Book Review: Pattern Recognition

Pattern Recognition, by William Gibson.

I usually like Gibson's stuff. Like most cyberpunk writers, he's got a major hardon for last-minute deus-ex-machina plot resolutions (though the king of those is Neal Stephenson -- when he's got a plot) but in this one the deus was at least introduced before he got around to the ex machina part of it, so it didn't feel nearly as out of left field.

On the other hand, it annoys me if I can't make sense of a title, and aside from the fact that the main plot revolved around identifying and tracing a digital watermark, I didn't really get any kind of "pattern recognition" resonance out of the book. Oh, sure, I could pull an English major-ish stunt and locate a bunch of examples of pattern recognition in the story, but they didn't resonate as significant.

What's more, I was expecting Gibson to build a pattern for the reader to recognize, and if he did, I completely missed it. Though my pattern recognition skills aren't the sharpest, and I'll admit to having read the book in two to three page spurts, which isn't the best way to sort and process data for patterns, so maybe there's something there after all.

Aside from that disappointment, though, it was a pretty good book. Nothing I'm going to feel compelled to re-read anytime soon (and in another few years, it'll feel hopelessly dated) but I'm not sorry I read it. It had some interesting concepts and a few fun tropes, Gibson is always excellent about characterizations.

All in all, for a book I picked up from the used bookstore, I'm pretty sure I got my money's worth. I give it two thumbs up... but one of them belongs to the Michelin Man.