Review: Pattern Recognition/Spook Country by William Gibson

I could have waited until I was done with "Zero History" and reviewed the entire Blue Ant trilogy of William Gibson's, but I'm feeling like typing blog stuff, so...

Pattern Recognition

I have to admit, this is one of my "comfort read" books. I must have re-read this novel a couple of dozen times. "Pattern Recognition" is found in the science fiction section of most bookstores, but I would not call it a sci-fi book by any stretch. It's really more of a peculiar thriller. Set a few years after 9/11, it tells the story of Cayce (pronounced "Case") Pollard, a marketing consultant who suffers from a peculiar psychological reaction to marketing. As such, she serves as a sort of tester of marketing ploys for big companies when she's not "coolhunting". Cayce is a follower of a web phenomenon known as "the footage", a sort of mysterious online film that is released in small segments. The creator is a mystery and has developed a cult following. Cayce finds herself in a contract with Blue Ant, an unconventional advertising agency run by one Hubertus Bigend, a Belgian Tom Cruise-lookalike who is wealthy and wants to know who is creating the footage. Bigend convinces Cayce to assist and... yeah. The story gets a bit weird from there.

I honestly can't say why I like "Pattern Recognition" so much. At the end of the book, I look back and realize it's sort of a peculiar story with a somewhat anticlimactic ending, but all the same it haunts me.



Spook Country

A sort of sequel to "Pattern Recognition", "Spook Country" is set an unspecified time after "Pattern Recognition". For the most part, there's new characters consisting of Hollis Henry - a former rock musician turned journalist, Milgrim - a drug-addled translator of Russian, and Tito - a member of a Cuban-Chinese crime family trained in Russian systema.

As with the previous novel, "Spook Country" goes off in some weird directions set in the modern world. There's a fascinating crew of background characters, including a return of Hubertus Bigend. The story also is kind of hard to describe, with a somewhat anticlimactic ending. And yet I have to say I find this one haunting me as well.



I'm about 80% through "Zero History", the third novel, and see a pattern emerging. Fun reads, though.

Review: Grim Workshop's Everyday Carry Tool Roll Wallet

Okay, on their website, they call it the EDC Tool Roll Organizer, but in their Kickstarter campaign, it had the moniker of being called a wallet.

As a backer of that Kickstarter, I do have to say it's really more of a tool roll than a wallet, but it does work as a very beefy wallet.

Whatever you call it, the Tool Roll thing is a beefy-but-pocket-sized thing of beauty that can fold out with many pockets and elastic bands to hold small tools, knives, and the like as well as cards and cash. It folds into a fairly compact size that's kept shut by a restraining strap of the same Buffalo leather that the main roll is crafted from.

This thing is a beast, but it's a tough beast. Gotta say I'm more than a little in love with mine.