Rating: 
Summary: Kindergarten cyberpunk
Review: I've been a great fan of Gibson's writing ever since i read Neuromancer. Throughout his books he has maintained a vision of a society very much like ours, but with a whole new world surrounding it. I think Iduro is a very good book, but it lacks the vividness of Gibson's earlier work. It follows a very clear line, even though the reader doesn't get to see it all the time, and the characters only walk along that line. My advice is: Read this book and marvel, then read the earlier ones and you'll see what I mean.
Rating: 
Summary: Boring, plotless, derivative, annoying...save your money
Review: Being a Gibson fan, I was looking forward to Idoru. Gagh, what a waste. Throughout the entire book I kept wanting to chuck it. There's nothing new here, and the rehash is of substantially lesser quality than Gibson's earlier fiction. The plot is unoriginal and plodding; the characters are *very* poorly developed, even for Gibson (I didn't give a damn about any of them, except maybe Blackwell the incidental bodyguard); and the "style" (if you can call it that) was cheap, flashy, substanceless, and very derivative. The silly tense-switching device Gibson used was amateurish and fell completely flat -- he should read Heinlein's Moon is a Harsh Mistress to see how to play with grammar convincingly. Blech, this book was an insult. Gibson must've needed the bucks in a hurry, or something. If you're not a Gibson fan, skip it; and *especially* if you're a Gibson fan, skip it and spare yourself the disappointment.
Rating: 
Summary: Gibson is god.
Review: A few years ago I was a bit disappointed after reading 'Virtual Light'. I felt that Gibson had lost his touch. But with this new novel I can clearly see that Gibson is still the best writer alive today. Idoru is a beautiful novel with great characters and awe inspiring settings. I felt the ending of the book was excellent. I can't wait to see if he follows Idoru up with another novel with some of the same characters( Laney, Chia, Zona/Mercedes, Rez-Rei, and Blackwell).
Rating: 
Summary: A week in Rappongi's bars - and an "Idoru" is born.
Review: John Le Carre's latest work was imagineered by watching old television reruns of "Our Man in Havana", the book shows a lack of imagination as it is derivative. Similarly William Gibson's latest novel IDORU starts out with a kind of mish- mash of a week of cruising the bars in Rappongi - the foreigner's bar district in Japan - and then watching a few dozen manga videos, and all of the sudden a book appears. A book - mark you - and it's odd that Gibson is still working in obsolete genres. Obviously he hasn't seen EVANGELION yet! The best part of the book is the overt racism of a non-Japanese speaker having his Japanese characters speak in a bizarre formal way right out of World War II films, or comparatively, the old Charlie Chan detective serials. In this case though the criminals are Russians, although how the yakkuza could find Russians a threat is very doubtful. The book has little plot, an illworked group of characters but a great cover. Buy the book for its cover, and watch EVANGELION instead! *kanpoi* review by honourable C.K. Dexter-Haven
Rating:
Summary: One of Gibson's most satisfying reads.
Review: Idoru is set in the same universe as Virtual Light, though most of the action takes place in Japan-and has some of that novel's lightness of tone, including some bits of comic relief. The writing is unusually clear all the way through, lacking the fuzzy edges of earlier books. Also gone is the usual plethora of macho butt kicking and incessant street language usually found in Gibson's fiction. The novel begins in a peculiarly languid fashion that drifts pieces of the story together into a mosaic of interrelated elements. Giibson probably got the idea for the Idoru from a recent trend in Japan to create a completely fictitious teen idol, worship her, write songs for her, establish fan clubs for her, film videos of her from computer-generated animation, and in general treat her like a real person. In the novel Rez, of the superstar band Lo/Rez, announces his plans to marry the beautiful Idoru-a virtual holographic personality named Rei Toei-which sets off the novel's action. It's as if Paul McCartney had suddenly decided to marry R2-D2. The hero, Laney, is a computer jockey who wants to elude his old employers, Slitscan, who dig up dirt about celebrities to destroy their public image as a form of television entertainment. A "Hard Copy" sort of tabloid news show, Slitscan is one of those enormously powerful corporations in the Gibson landscape. "Slitscan was descended from 'reality' programming and the network tabloids of the late twentieth century, but it resembled them no more than some large, swift, bipedal carnivore resembled its sluggish, shallow-dwelling ancestors. Slitscan was the mature form, supporting fully global franchises. Slitscan's revenues had paid for entire satellites and built the building he worked in in Burbank." Laney probably has a more developed sense of morality than any previous Gibson hero. A pawn in the hands of Slitscan, he had been hired to find patterns in the data banks of celebrities' lives that Slitscan could use against them. His world crashes one day when he learns that his spying has driven a victim to suicide. Horrified by what he has done, Laney betrays Slitscan to its enemies, then escapes to Japan where he goes to work for the Lo/Rez corporation. Chia Pet McKenzie, a 14-year-old member of the Lo/Rez fan club in the States, travels to Japan to find the truth about her idol, Rez. For once, Gibson creates an important female character who isn't brilliant, sexy, tough, street smart, or even beautiful-but she is plucky, computer savvy, and very resourceful. She's a middle class kid from a broken home innocently caught up in an international game of high-stakes technological smuggling. Hers and Laney's story blend together in the novel's climax in typical Gibson fashion. Gibson creates a number of memorable characters and revives a couple from Virtual Light, including cameos of Rydell and a fleshed out Yamizake. Chevette, alas, is never mentioned. Blackwell, a hulking Dickensian underworld character, loyally guards the Lo/Rez interests, but finds it hard to accept the Rez/Idoru alliance. Another character, a Kombinat storm trooper, is both menacing and comical with his cowboy boots and curious Russian accent. And Zona Rosa, Chia's virtual friend, plays an unexpectedly clever role in the plot. One of Gibson's most satisfying reads, Idoru shows a new sureness and maturity in style once it gets rolling, but lacks some of the flash of earlier novels. The Idoru herself (itself?) is a stunning, poetic creation. Searching through the data banks of Rez's life, Laney encounters her in one of Rez's villas: "But the central marvel here-click on bedroom-was Rei Toei. Propped on white pillows at the head of a sea of white, her head and gowned shoulders showing above eyelet lace and the glow of fine cottons. *** She smiled. She was very beautiful here, floating in the whiteness." What the Idoru is and what she represents is the real mystery of the novel. Think Neuromancer, but don't think too hard. Just relax and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A good buy and worth $7.00
Review: Good characters and interaction, especially with the "hero" Laney. Good scenes that made the book hard to put down at times (especially the one in the love hotel). Although Idoru had a decent story, there were parts that I couldn't buy, even in a SF novel. I found the AI construct that Gibson creates too conveniently powerful and wise. Still, this book compares well with the others on the shelves and I can easily recommend it for purchase.
Rating:
Summary: Idoru is fantastic
Review: This book is just great. The humour is wry and dark, the plot is thick and well planned. The characters are somewhat clichéed but the fantastic setting breathes new life into them. The only other thing that hurts this book is the fact that we ourselves are living in a more Idoru-like setting.Laney and his iceed latté habits, for instance, are just straight out of real life. Oh well. Read it it's great.
Rating:
Summary: A winner by any other author. Only "pretty good" by Gibson.
Review: Pity poor William Gibson. "Neuromancer," his first novel out of the gate, won him the Hugo, the Nebula and the Phillip K. Dick awards. So what's to pity? Well, no matter how brilliant a novel he writes from now on, it won't compare favorably with that first one. It can't -- because there is no higher praise the SF world can give him than he has already received. "Idoru" is not the brilliant book that will knock "Neuromancer" out of the top slot (heck, not even his best book ever, "Count Zero," could do that). But "Idoru" is a strong work, and a credit to any author's oeuvre. Gibson fans and neophytes alike will enjoy all the tricks that made him famous: The gee-whiz sense of wonder, the despairing techo-angst, the Raymond Chandler delivery and the multiple converging plot lines. All in a sub-genre that has been so thoroughly mined by Gibson and his countless imitators, you'd think there was no more gold to find. "Idoru" is a good step ahead of "Virtual Light", its predecessor in this non-sequential series. If the next novel is as much again an improvement, well, Gibson had better publish it under a pseudonym to get it the recognition it deserves.
Rating:
Summary: it could be better
Review: With all the fuss about William Gibson, I was excited to read IDORU, but it proved out to be a mediocre book. The story is poorly developed and the plot seems like "you've seen that before" type. If you really want to read some fine sci-fi, don't read this particular book. You can also try something else from Gibson, but not this one
Rating:
Summary: I Don't Adore You, IDORU...
Review: After reading IDORU, I found that WG had, once again, written a completely incomprehensible story. He evidently likes scribbling lots of descriptive easy-peasy-japanesee crap, as it's flash painted in the book; and the characters are listless twits to boot. Which is not too pallatable a menu to feed off on, if you wanna know my take on it. For Instance: WG instilled in me a real interest in how the security guard (the only character with real character) was going to handle Laney's ex-boss; but instead of getting a nice hard conclusion, WG delivers a flaccid closure as evidenced from a vague questioning session between Laney and the other news station character. Also, WG went limp again in another vignette that required closure, namely the conclusion as to what happened to the IDORU (as if anyone gives a damn what happens to that artificial character either); specifically, in connecting the DNA generator with the IDORU software. I wish he did! Then at least his drivel would make sense! Though perhaps that's the tradition that's being created in cyberpunk lit. -- vague and flaccid endings/closures. If that's what WG intends to promulgate within the SF Lit-world, then he should seek professional help. He should also get off the pot so that others can have a chance with the literary stream! However, should he ever, ever, ever get off the pot, he shouldn't epoxy the lid to the seat with these vague endings (like in VIRTUAL LIGHT as well) or something equally incomprehensible, so that the chiclet-minded SF editors won't get the impression that he's trying to cement vagueness in cyberpunk fiction, then demanding that this become a trendy literary criteria that must be followed for everyone else who wishes to get their own stories published.
Hell, call me Mary Pickford for all I care, I'm pretty damn sick of reading vague crap that tries to pass itself off as cyberpunk. Makes one think that the author has flash-fried his brains on some truly esoteric and amazingly expensive (yet still wonderfully worthless) designer drugs....
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