Rating: 
Summary: Interesting book. hard to read for me
Review: I found Gibson book Igoru hard to read and difficult to follow in every jumping detail he continually introduces into every new scene. On the other hand his scene settings and atmospheres he creates are very vivid and cinematic. It seems that he writes movies scenes rather than articulate literal chapters and paragraphs. I particularly enjoyed the way he invents new words even if at times I find it difficult to follow what he exactly means by them. Probably the first and last novel I read by him.
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Summary: Great cure for insomnia...
Review: William Gibson's Idoru is a great book for insomniacs. Gibson's obsessive attention to details begins as loose flowing intrigue but ends in a thick mud of mental constipation. Chia McKenzie is the most believable of Gibson's creations in Idoru. And though the world through which she ventures is rendered with such retro and random, post millenial decor, it is at times like her wonderland does not take her anywhere all that exciting. She is merely admiring the moss at the bottom of the rabbit hole. What can we learn about ourselves from the IDORU? That we are gullible to the falsity of the world we have created for ourselves. That our idols don't need to be more than a collection of pixels contained behind a computer screen, or stored in a computer chip. The IDORU seems to foresee a world of empty numbers and codes that only the trruly gifted "sifters" like Colin Laney can see through. But what Laney can see is about as exciting as the plot of the IDORU. Not only are the cities of this future constructed with these hollow bricks of information, but so are the celebrities. The one thing the IDORU has going for it is the occassional bits of unexpected details, like the bubble gummed cafe walls, or the DNA hair tester at the airport. But these eye opening details are so imbedded in rambling chaos that I would suggest you stick with Lewis Carroll and put your Gibson under the fantasy section of your bookshelf. Counting sheep fantasy that is.
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Summary: "god is in the details," but where else?
Review: gibson's been blessed with a gift. it allows him to ramble on and on about a wall for three pages at a time. he describes his environments beautifully, eloquently, in excruciatingly wonderful detail. he visualizes his worlds (real or virtual) with such wild and lovely abandon that he tends to forget something rather important. now what was it that was missing?... oh yeah, HIS STORY! how is it that i read this entire book, but not know any of the events that are apparently taking place right in front of me? because gibson spends too much time staring at the ceiling, thinking of how to describe each and every crack in it. another problem is your seeing these places and "experiencing" these events through the eyes of two people who are only vaguely connected to the actual events in the book. they can't help you to understand the contents of the story, but they're good at looking at stuff! events unfolded before me and characters were introduced to me that were supposed to be important to the story, but just weren't worthy of the same attention as a staircase... this was my first complete reading of a gibson book. and while i completely appreciate him, it's just not to my personal taste. if you like gibson, i'm sure you'll love this, if you don't like him, this won't suade you to start, and if you've never read him, this is as good a place as any to start. enjoy?
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Summary: not that impressed
Review: This is my first time reading a William Gibson novel. I have heard many good things about his works but I must admit that I was not very impressed with 'Iduro'. I sensed that the story, in many ways, was underdeveloped. The characters seemed a bit shallow revealing very little new information about them after the first few pages. The plot itself did not seem very solid, it felt as though it was more about the imagery than the story. The imagery that Gibson created was spectacular, describing a world filled by technology of the near future - some of which seemed practicle and convincing. But unfortunately it was weighed down by the more unsubstatiated descriptions and portrayals of these future technologies. The pacing of the book is very choppy (alternating chapters describe different stories) but I got used to it and I don't think it actually takes away from the novel. The only thing is that throughout the book you wait for these two story lines to cross and when they do it is not that exciting. On the whole I was not that conviced by the futuristic world in 'Iduro'. My advice would be to perhaps try one of Gibson's other books.
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Summary: A book any Gibson fan will love...
Review: My first foray into the mind of William Gibson began with 'Neuromancer'. A novel, and an experience I'll never be able to quite put into context. How else can you describe what it's like reading a novel that's a miasma of futurism, design, and language that's slowly entreaching intself into our very own society? Gibson is a stylist , a genius, and perhaps even a madman. Not in the sense of insanity, but simple that it's difficult to see one man responsible for coining the terms: virtual reality and cyberspace. Which leads me to 'Idoru', a story that's a lot more contemporary. At least, by Gibson's standards. 'Idoru' takes place in the not-so-distant future in which Tokyo, brought to near ruin by an earthquake, is rebuilt through the use of nanotechnology. The idea of nanotechnology is nothing new to me. Yet, Gibson seems to to use it here very liberally. Nanotech is responsible for the rebirth of an entire metropolis. Enter 'Lo-Rez': a member of one of the hottest rock groups in the world. Rez makes a decision to head to Tokyo (I feel the need to refer it to 'Neo-Tokyo' for some bizarre reason) and marry Rei Toei, the most recognized idol singer in Japan. There's just one catch: Rei isn't real. Rei Toei is the 'idoru', and she doesn't exist. Along with data-miner, laney, Rez travels through the seedy underbelly of the Tokyo underworld in order to find the idoru, and make his fantasies come true. It's certainly not one of the deepest of plots, but it doesn't downplay the novel to much. I enjoy Gibson for his stylistic flourishes, and the way he develops the world in which his characters exist. The counter-culture bar, and the 'west' world are some of the places that Gibson lays down for the reader. I enjoyed reading some, and dread sloshing through others. There were often times when I felt like Gibson has fallen in love with the development of his world, and has lost sight of his plot (such was the case with Laney's enemies shuffled in for cameo's sake). Nevertheless, 'Idoru' was a decent enough read. If you're a Gibson fan, chances are you've already given this book a once over. If you're not however, I still urge you to give this novel a try. You'll either love it or hate it. There's very little gray area when it comes to Gibson. A fun read for me.
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Summary: details details
Review: A fast paced, intensely detail orientated book by long time cyber fiction writer Gibson. The story plot is a mixture of Japanses pop culture/ Russian espionage with an innocent girl and confused man caught in the middle. The plot seems like a decoy for Gibson to speculate about future gadgets and new technology. The writing is choppy and boring. The characters are not thought out, and several meaningless red herrings are thrown in just for the heck of it. Overall, I found it not very stimulating. But maybe it's just me.
Rating:
Summary: This Ain't No Neuromancer
Review: Idoru has a decent setup, and ok characters. What damns it is the worst ending ever. Don't invest time in this joke of a book.
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Summary: Come on, Gibson!
Review: We want more from the guy who came up with Burning Chrome and Neuromancer! To William Gibson: "You can do it! You did once, so it must be in there. Go back and start fresh and do it again! " I've read all of Gibson's works so far, and I have to agree with the review by Josh and others. This book wasn't even as good as Virtual Light. Definitely "light reading for that ride on the train". I will, for now, keep buying and reading his books, but I really, really miss the old Gibson.
Rating:
Summary: Idoru
Review: I have never even checked in with what others have said about a particular book, until now. I agree with nearly every work that Joshua said in his review, so I won't restate the details. I just got more and more bogged down until I was thinking it was just me. I love Gibson's other works and read a lot of SF most on the themes of cyberspace, technology, sci fi culture, but this was certainly a disappointment on many levels. Now approximately 7/8 done, I will finish, but it won't go up there with the best of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasantly surprised
Review: It's funny reading most of the reviews which took a very negative review of this book because I loved it! I never made it all the way through Neuromancer which I found very muddled to read, and have found a lot of cyberpunk-like works to be a bit difficult and too "out there" for me, but found this book to be engaging and entertaining. I found myself at the edge of my seat reading it, wanting to find out what was going to happen. The action is rather slow-building, but it definitely gets interesting. The characters I found very good, and development of them was entertaining. This book made me want to read more of his works.
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