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Summary: And what Costumes Shall Poor Gibson Wear?
Review: If you've been around in the Gibson universes of _Virtual Light_ and _Idoru_, which are tied together here, this book is an enjoyable enough read. However, it does not measure up to the rest of Gibson's work. If you want action and attitude, you're better served with the _Neuromancer_ trilogy, if you want communities, you're better off with _Virtual Light_ or _Idoru_. _All Tomorrow's Parties_ shows the communities of the two previous novels in decay: The physical community of the bridge is assaulted by commercialism, anarchy, and sabotage. The virtual communities of _Idoru_ are devolving into people calling each other on cell phones and hiding behind virtual representations. The book does not have much of an intelligible plot, leaving the characters mostly just as confused as the readers. This does not mean that _All Tomorrow's Parties_ is entirely without redeeming qualities. Gibson still has a great eye for character and scene descriptions and dialogue, and his (somewhat autobiographical) references to watch collecting and auction sites show maybe the first glimpse of modern technology in Gibson's work that the author actually uses himself.
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Summary: Background may help
Review: I've only read Idoru, of Gibson's earlier works. I'd been wondering how much I would have gotten out of this had I not read that. Rei Toei in particular seemed a little bit hastily sketched, and it seems to me that she might have been hard to understand without having read Idoru. And I wonder what I missed now that I know how many characters came from Virtual Light. When Rydell starts his journey on the behalf of Laney, what motivating backstory was I lacking? Would it have made a difference to my reading of the book if I'd known Chevette and Rydell had once had a history? In any case, it's a very smart book. Dark, moody, and rich.
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Summary: Conversation in a waterfall
Review: You're having a conversation (or you're being talked at) by several people at once, not all of whom speak English as a first language. Sometimes you catch meaning in a lapse between one word and the next. Sometimes you don't understand at all. Parts of this conversation are just over your head. On top of that, you're in a club. There are crowds of people all round you and a band playing on the stage. It's hard to make out what gets said over the sheer noise. You can't hold a conversation in a waterfall. Now take a look down, beneath your feet. This is the strangest club you've ever been in. The dancefloor is an ice floe. Not only that : the pressure from the feet of all these people - the sweat from the bodies in this place - is making the ice melt. You find that you're trying to understand what is being said to you and maintain balance on the rapidly fragmenting dancefloor beneath your feet. It won't be long before everybody disappears beneath the water, the rate that ice is melting, but nobody seems to care. Everybody belongs here. The only stranger is you. That's what it feels like. Reading William Gibson. This is what it feels like reading "All Tomorrow's Parties". Those people talking to you. There's Laney, a sort of psychic techno-geek living in a box in a subway in Tokyo who sifts data all day long. He thinks he has become aware of a nodal point. A nodal point is a sort of cataclysmic event. The last nodal point occurred in 1911. Something to do with the Curies. Laney thinks the world is going to end. Laney contacts Rydell and asks him to make his way to San Francisco, which he does, in the company of an alcoholic country singer called Buell Creedmore. Rydell follows Laney's instructions and intercepts a package that contains what looks like a thermos. Only the thermos isn't a thermos. It's a kind of projector. People - enemies of Laney, enemies of Rydell - want Rydell dead. Mix an old black guy called Fontaine, a semi-autistic kid called Silencio and a former girlfriend called Chevette up in the brew and simmer until a mysterious shadowy killer in the employ of the bad guys but working out his own agenda appears and scratch your head. It isn't that Gibson is a bad writer. He's a very good writer. Some of the prose here crackles like static electricity. It's just that - as a whole - "All Tomorrow's Parties" doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Chapter to chapter, you can - for the most part - join the dots and figure out who's doing what. The problem arises when you try to work out the picture the dots make. The why. Why is any of this happening? What does any of this mean? Why should I continue to read? At crucial points in the narrative, Gibson becomes abstract and elusive (in the same way that James Ellroy becomes abstract and elusive in the LA Quartet) : things are happening but it isn't clear what. Like I said earlier : conversation in a waterfall. Right there at the end of it all, Fontaine says "probably ... never know what any of this was about, in terms of causality, though he's sure he's been a witness to something."
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Summary: Gibson's Evolution
Review: This novel stands, in my opinion, as Gibson's best to date. However, it is still imperative that one read the previous two books before tackling this one. Gibson evolves considerably as a writer in this work though. He takes much more literary freedoms with the language and style of this work and its characters. Gibson manages to invoke significant connections to nearly ever character in the work and brings you to the environment through them, as opposed to bringing the environment first then allowing you to witness the character dynamics as they evolve in his previous works (most notably Neuromancer, which is in and of itself also a remarkable work). It should prove very interesting to see how Gibson will mutate further in future works.
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Summary: Really bad book.
Review: I can only assume that all the good reviews here were writen by Gibson's family and friends.
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Summary: Read the rest first, less graphic
Review: Nice character work in this book, less technology (no colour descriptions!) but more data oriented. The plot is raher vague but basically its a chase for something with the usual Gibson pieces added bridges, bums and cops I think this book is about culture verses globalisation. Works well a more human book Good Gibson.
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Summary: Solid but rushed
Review: It's been a few months since I read this, so I can only give general comments. I felt that this was a fascinating story, told with that edge that only Gibson seems to possess, that razor-sharp, diamond-hard prose that comes from piling on all the right adjectives. I did, however, feel uncomfortable with the ending. Everything seemed to happen too fast, and I was left thinking, What? Mind you, I've reread every Gibson book so far, at least once and usually more like a dozen times, picking up more each time. So maybe I just need to burn through this one again (and burn through I did - I got it for my birthday and was done within, literally, hours).
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Summary: Gibson's poetic voice shines!
Review: Surrealistic images of darkness, an uncertain set of friendships, and inner city urban landscapes changed by violence and confrontation make for a futuristic story of change. Gibson's poetic voice shines in these contrasts between night and day, light and dark personalities in a changing world.
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Summary: Not as good as most Gibson novels...
Review: All Tomorrow's Parties was a good read. The pace was fast (but not too fast), and the characters were all pretty solid. However, the plot was somewhat thin. When i finished the book, i had a sense that i hadn't really gained anything from reading it. It wasn't wasted time, but the book didn't have the 'oomph' that i expect of Gibson at this point. A lot of stuff happened, but it didn't seem quite important, really. Most Gibson novels are so intense you can't put the book down until you finish it, but i can't say that about this one.
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Summary: And what parties!
Review: It's hard not to feel a little sorry for William Gibson. No-one deserves to have their books compared to the seminal Neuromancer trilogy and if anyone ever does, it's Gibson. The canny Gibson does not try to rival the arcane horrors of his most famous work. He manages to gives us here a book that is lighter without being vapid and which turns Virtual Light and Idoru into a Trilogy. All Tomorrow's Parties is peopled with characters for which the struggle to survive is always just beneath the surface. The drug dealings so realistic that reformed junkies should think twice about reading this book. Many of the criminals are the sort of 'wannabes' that populate the seedier parts of every city and are presented in a way that Elmore Leonard would be proud of. All in all, the human race has the collective self destructive urge shown by so many of Gibson's character's, yet there is hope. In some odd way I am always optimistic when I finish reading or rereading one of Gibson's books and the adventures of Laney, Rydell and the lovable Chevette was no exception.
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