# William Gibson's Spook Country - not worth the time

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-gibsons-spook-country-not-worth-the-time/461189>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [August 25, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-gibsons-spook-country-not-worth-the-time/461189 "2008-08-25T13:44:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-gibsons-spook-country-not-worth-the-time/461189/1 "2008-08-25T13:44:37Z")

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I find his stuff hit or miss. I enjoyed Neuromancer and Burning Chrome and Pattern Recognition; really didn’t care about Mona Lisa Overdrive (but love the name) and the Difference Engine.

This one? Meh. A couple of interesting ideas - “locative art” where you where a GPS and Virtual Reality glasses and when you stand in a specific location you see an art piece that someone has set up there.

But overall - he takes a few different plot lines and alternates across them per chapter - you know they are going to come together but there needs to be a much more compelling reason than what he provides.

It’s all hat and no cattle - Gibson can evoke a sense of cool intrigue with the best of them, but if there is no payoff then his stuff is even more disappointing…

Sorry if everyone else has moved on; I just got to this over vacation…

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**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [August 25, 2008, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/william-gibsons-spook-country-not-worth-the-time/461189/2 "2008-08-25T14:14:40Z")

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OH great!

I just started reading this.

I loved Pattern Recognition and most of his cyberpunk stuff as well.