Idoru

Idoru follows the stories of 14 year old Chia, who has been sent to Japan by her chapter of the Lo Rez fan club to investigate a marriage rumor, and of Laney, whose ADD allows him to focus focus and spot patterns that show more probable outcomes and who has been hired to focus focus on the marriage rumor. Their stories converge around the rumor that rock star Rez plans to marry Rei Toei, an idoru or machine generated character. Chia quickly becomes mixed up in some type of smuggling operation when she carries a bag through customs for someone. She tries hard to find out as little as possible what is being smuggled. As she tries to find out whatever she can about Rez's intention to marry, she realizes that someone is looking for her and is soon much more interested in safely evading the smugglers. Laney's story contains many flashbacks that show his motivations. Because he can spot patterns in reams of data about a person, he once realized that someone he was analyzing as part of his job was going to commit suicide. His attempts to get into a cleaner type of analysis motivate most of his actions. A big positive was the way the stories came together. Although Rei Toei is only background most of the time, she appears and when she does she seems to have been doing more along the way. Little details fall into place, maybe something like details falling together for one of Laney's "nodal points." It is also nice that most of the characters are fleshed out. A negative was that this book dragged and only got going for me near the end. I'm not such a fan of Gibson's writing style, so if you like his style, then this may not be a problem for you.

This being my first Gibson novel, it took a little while to get used to his style of prose: words, ideas, and imagery melding into one another. But then I felt transported into this future Tokyo, rebuilt after a massive earthquake by nanotechnology, and into the lives of the main characters. The point-of-view switches between the two main characters, Laney and Chia, both vividly crafted. This story touches on ideas of fame and worship of the famous, privacy, both the ordinary person's and the famous, and of course potential new directions of current technology. I highly recommend this book for sci-fi fans or anyone who wants a glimpse into our possible future.

In all Gibson has done a better job accommodating his readers that are used to the fast pace of books like Neuromancer and Count Zero than he did with Virtual LightIdoru is the second book in the series that includes Virtual Light and All Tomorrows' Parties. Although in saying that it's not quite a sequel to Virtual light but rather another beginning for the series. The characters and situations from Virtual light are only mentioned in passing. Think of Virtual Light as the prototype for Gibson's new `neo modern' technology and Idoru the production model. Idoru contains more references to technology and its cultural effect. The future he envisions is close to ours but still far from the Neuromancer future. Within Idoru you see more of the origins of the advanced Internet that will later become the MATRIX in Neuromancer. Idoru is a wonderful mix of neo Japanese and pop culture sprinkled with visions of what could be. Idoru revolves around the relationship between a Rock star and a virtual woman (Idoru) Gibson writes about two separate investigations into the relationship, one handled by Chia McKenzie a 14-year-old fan of the rock star. Her story is full of idiosyncrasies of fan culture and all things Japanese. The other conducted by Colin Laney a slightly unstable Data analyst with an unusual gift discerning patterns (nodal points) from large amounts of data. Both Laney's and Chia's tales bring light onto the particulars of the technology that Gibson envisions will be available. If you're new to Gibson start with 'Virtual Light' then read the others in the series. Now brace yourself and take the leap to 'Neuromancer' and its series of books. On the other hand if you've already read 'Neuromancer' or its sequels then read Idoru before Virtual Light and try to put aside the lack of technology and just enjoy the story

Now, when I have finally finished the future I will certainly live in, it seems to me as one of the best book I've ever read. (The last of the best books being `Burning Chrome', which, in it's short-story-esque way, seems to tell the truth better and with stonger emotions than any novel could.) `Idoru' is deep, virtual/real, and it's firmly intertwined with my own ideas of our near-future. I remember taking it up about six hours ago and reading the first page, and realizing that I'm back in the Realm of Gibson, in the realm of highly crafted sentences, in the realm of subtle references, in the realm of true feelings hidden between the black & white lines on the paper... I recognized almost instantly the branches that the sprouts of our modern technology had become. Recognized the things I will be able to do in the Net in the future that are currently merely suggested by the last reformations. Recognized the origins of idoru as a healthy motley of holograms, AI, and Ananova.com. Gibson seems to dissect all aspects of our present-day pop culture in this book. He probes the artificial minds of tomorrow's computers to find evidences of humanity. He burrows deeply into various layers of stardom in search for the hustling power behind it, never underestimating the force of contemporary fan-base. He understands completely the multicultural society we're becoming. And he seems to place all the right details to where they belong, no matter how remote.After reading `Idoru' it hit me that I had actually seen and felt it all in the Sony ad-mag I flipped through the other day, in the first big-credit anime `Ghost in the Shell', in the last Wired issue in my inbox... And I knew that reading the lines on the paper was more visual than `Matrix' ever would.P.S. It still amazes me, though, how Gibson managed to overlook the doubel n in Tallinn in his constant drive towards accuracy.

At first this may seem to be the less than engrossing story of a full of himself pop icon that wants to marry an equally famous piece of pseudohuman Japanese software. However, through the use of the often bizzarre supporting cast Gibson analyzes the differences between our perception of celebrities, and the reality behind them, while investigating the possibility of merging man with technology. An excellent read, with unforgettable characters.