Friday, January 7, 2011

William Gibson - Spook Country

Don't call me a hater. I've been on board the William Gibson train since I read Neuromancer in high school in 1985. But man this book was slow. Atmosphere counts for a lot but it can't be everything, surely. Spook Country reminded me of a quote by Katherine Mansfield about EM Forster:

E. M. Forster never gets any further than warming the teapot. He's a rare fine hand at that. Feel this teapot. Is it not beautifully warm? Yes, but there ain't going to be no tea.

Gibson waits a long time to give us any tea and then its an under brewed chamomile. Of course there was some good techy-geeky stuff along the way and one really funny quote about a club in Hollywood that wasn't as trendy as it thought it was: "If a cruise missile hit the bar, there would be no great need to change the cover of the next People." Heh.