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I saw this book in the Kindle Daily Deals, and recognising the author (I'm sure I'd heard great things about him) I took a chance on it. This will very likely be the first and last William Gibson novel I read.

I can only describe the writing as "over-stylised" and it feels like it's trying so hard to be hip that it ends up being quite dull to read - it doesn't really have any personality. It reminded me of early Coupland but without the likeability - Gibson's writing here just feels pretentious.

The name dropping was tedious (who cares about her precious Buzz Rickson's), the character's "allergy" to trademarks was (ok, I guess kind of relatable) a bit odd - why doesn't the bitten apple bother her when she uses her computer etc?

I'm not sure if it was meant to appear remarkable or outlandish, but I thought Cayce's talent and job seemed quite normal and believable. If they have talent scouts for football, music etc, then why wouldn't marketing have people out looking for the next big thing?

The way the characters ended up weaving together felt like literary incest. The set up of how Cayce bumps into 3 characters that play a pivotal point is like something from the laziest of Hollywood hacks. Then there's Dorotea (zero surprise who she turns out to also be), the Blue Ant personnel, Russians. For me, there wasn't a single likeable character in the book.

Disappointed. It's always a great feeling to stumble upon an author you've never read before that you end up really liking where you can read their back catalogue. Unfortunately I'll be avoiding Gibson's like the plague.