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Pattern Recognition by William Gibson - 3* - My Review

Protagonist Cayce is a marketing consultant with an allergic sensitivity to logos, giving rise to the ability to spot which ones will work on a massive scale. When shown the work of a design firm, she can give the nod to go to market or a shake of the head to go back to the drawing board. She gets interested in odd bits of film-clips that have appeared on the internet to the fascination of a portion of the populace. Are they just bits of a work in progress or are they completed products? No one knows for sure, which of course inspires lots of speculation. She is hired by a tech guru to find out who or what is behind these clips. Not long afterward her living space is invaded, her computer hacked, and her phone tapped, and she is thinks she is being followed. She embarks on trips throughout the world (London, Tokyo, Moscow) to figure out what is going on. She experiences psychological disorientation as she digs deeper into the mystery.

So, the premise is intriguing. Published in 2003, parts of it seem prescient and other parts dated. There is a lot going on here, too, with a secondary storyline involving her father’s disappearance on 9/11 in NYC. It conveys interesting ideas about mirror-worlds, globalization, and consumerism. It explores the human tendency to look for patterns. Where it falls down is in the payoff at the end, which did not match the rest of the book. It is the first of a trilogy so perhaps the sequel provides what I was looking for in this one. I am not big on reading books in a series, so probably will not continue. I liked it but didn’t love it.

PBT Comments: This book is partially set in Japan, part in Russia, and part in England. It is tagged Japan 6 times.