Denver Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club

On an intellectual level, Pattern Recognition is fascinating.  Gibson depicts the modern world so adroitly that it makes one wonder whether we have reached the point where it takes a science fiction writer to describe reality.  Gibson has a flair for conveying cultural differences - between the U.S., England, Japan, and Russia, not to mention between geography-based and web-based sub-cultures - even as he shows how communication and information technologies are breaking down the barriers between those cultures.

Also interesting is the way Gibson uses Cayce Pollard as an everyperson to illustrate the perils of modern life.  She is allergic to trademarks, which are impossible to avoid.  She struggles to come to grips with 9/11, which may have claimed her father's life.  Her closest friends are people she interacts with on the Internet, whom she has never met.

Yet on an emotional level, I did not respond strongly to Cayce's story, I think largely because Gibson's characterization in this book does not work for me.  None of the supporting characters are very well defined (except superbitch Dorotea).  Cayce's partner Boone Chu is particularly nondescript, and so Gibson's attempts to build tension between Cayce and Boone fall flat.  As for Cayce herself, Gibson tries to get us inside her mind, and yet somehow I never felt connected to her nor gained any insight into her fascination with the mysterious videotape footage that is at the heart of the tale.  The unique, and uniquely modern, story of Cayce's search for the maker of the footage was thus interesting to me, but not compelling.