Zero History

The third in Gibson's Blue Ant Trilogy (after Pattern Recognition & Spook Country) is a curiously flat affair. Once again we have ex-rock star Hollis Henry being employed by über-advertising chief Hubertus Bigend (yes, I know), this time to track down the secretive designer of a “secret brand” of clothes called The Gabriel Hounds. Ex-addict Milgrim, one of Bigend's pet projects, is a sort of cool-hunter assigned to accompany Henry on the hunt. There's ex-special forces, secret military contracts, rumours of a coup at Blue Ant....and the usual Gibson obsessions with cutting edge technology: drones, surveillance techniques.

But it all comes across as a bit of a mish-mash. The “secret brand” McGuffin sort of fizzles out. Characters get moved around like chess pieces but to no real advancement of the plot. Bigend is his usual godlike self, apparently on the verge of moving to “another level', but again this is never really explained properly.

But worst of all, for what is ostensibly a techno-thriller, it is slow. The book drags. The detailed descriptions of hotel rooms pall after a while. The resolution is too neat and its all a bit “Oh, is that it?”.

The first book in the trilogy, Pattern Recognition, was engaging and probably the best of the three, but overall these have been a disappointment after the Cyberspace and Bridge trilogies.

I'm hoping Gibson's new book, The Peripheral, touted as his return to Science Fiction, lives up to the hype, because on top form he's a great writer.