I'm afraid I'm a massive fan of William Gibson. So, when Caroline and I were recently visiting my father in Dursley, I took the opportunity to pick up some of my old favourites for revisiting. On first reading, I was slightly let down by Virtual Light, in much the same way I found Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently books a disappointment after HHGttG. And in just the same way, when I come back to read it again later, I find it stands up much better than I originally thought.
Somehow Mr. Gibson can't but write novels of their time, telling us not so much about the future as the time they were written. Just as Neuromancer is insanely '80s, Virtual Light is powerfully '90s. Ah yes, the early '90s, when the internet hadn't caught on, and virtual reality was just around the corner. The references to nanotechnology are fairly prescient, though. It's great to read it a decade later.
I suppose at this point I should talk a bit about the plot, characters, etc., but I can't really be bothered. If you've know what William Gibson's like, you'll know whether or not you'll want to read it. If you haven't read any of his work, you should. In that cae, you should probably start with Neuromancer, though.
Posted 2007-05-28.