Rating: WARTY!
I fell in love with William Gibson after I read Neuromancer, but from that point on, he's been a bit of a disappointment. One or two of his books I've read since then have been entertaining, but none of them have blown me away like Neuromancer did or made me want to read them again later, and several of them have been real disappointments, including this one, which I DNF'd because it was so boring and so obsessed with product placement and rambling asides. I can't tell you what it's about (read the blurb!). I can tell you it was an awful read and I'm done with Gibson now.
The reading of the audiobook by Shelly Fraser didn't help. That was drab and lifeless enough as it was, but it was the story itself that was at fault. It dimply did not move. It rambled into endless asides with Gibson seemingly more interested in describing consumerism than actually getting on with the story he was purporting to tell, which evidently revolved around the anonymous positing of small snatches of video online. The video wasn't even described - not in the portion which I could stand to listen to, except in very brief terms, so I had no idea what was in the clips, and this was another issue. If you're going to write about them, at least have the courtesy to tell your reader/listener what's in them so we know as much as the main character does! I can't recommend this one. Not at all.
