Rating: 
Summary: This is no Neuromancer
Review: For Gibson fans looking for shades of Neuromancer, FORGET IT!. Idoru might as well be Count Zero #4. Like his unimpressive follow-ons neither the plot nor the setting have the innovation and stimulus of Neuro. Unlike the forward-looking Neuro with a truly imaginative and intersting future, plot, and locations, Idoru is merely modern Tokyo and US with robots and nano-tech tacked on as if they were afterthoughts. The plot is usual Gibson. Cynical-yet-gifted 'alternative' misfits plodding through the plot and getting by on 'instinct' without seeming to care about anything. I am truly disappointed, both by the book and its misleading reviews.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but not nearly as good as Neuromancer.
Review: When I read Neuromancer I thought I had found a new favorite author. After reading Idoru I'm not so sure. He seems to have taken a step backwards in the complexity of his writing. While some of the story is interesting enough to hold your attention, most of it makes you feel like you're ready a Sweet Valley High novel.
Rating: 
Summary: wow
Review: I never actually put the book down. Just sat in my chair for six hours turning pages.
Rating: 
Summary: As Gibson matures, his touch gets lighter and lighter...
Review: Another novel set in the de-centred multicultural post-earthquake world of _Virtual Light_ - this time focusing not on the disintegrating cities of LA and San Francisco, but on a regrown, superorganised Tokyo. Some of the characters and technology of the previous book recur. Rydell, a Gibson "loser" if there ever was one, continues his downward career path, ending up as a security guard in a corner store. Once more the "macguffin " is related to nanotechnology, the microscopic robots that rebuilt tokyo and access to the use of which is energetically pursued by a number of competing players: flipped out pop star Rez, a narcissistic american gangster transplanted, limo and all, into Japan and yet another gang of klunky , grammar-mangling Russian mafiosi. The story tells how two innocents - the freaked out Colin Laney and a teen fan of Rez's - get caught up in these nefarious doings and unwittingly help all to end well.As he matures, Gibson's touch gets lighter and lighter. The gee-whizz technology and cyber-effects that dominated his earlier writing is mere backdrop, while his attention is focused on the disorienting multicultural world of the near future, where white anglo-saxons have become a marginalised constituency of trailer camp nazis, reborns, meshbacks and contactees, and where new cultural forms are born out of the contact between celtic tradition and the East. My only reservation is the way in which the talents of Colin Laney, a man with an interesting attention disorder, is handled. The notion of compulsive channel/web switching as a modern day divination is very cute -but at the end of the day it is once again explored in the well-known data-as-pattern gimmick Gibson has done so many times in the past. These things aside, a witty and pleasurable read.
Rating:
Summary: Gibson hasn't "lost" anything
Review: There's still a fanbase that secretly wishes Gibson would return to the steel-and-biosoft world of his "Cyberspace Trilogy." They overlook the fact that Gibson's surgical eye for nuance and grit has simpy found new turf. This book reminded me of the issues tackled by Philip K. Dick.
Rating:
Summary: A midget's view from its own gigantic shoulders
Review: To those new to Gibson; please don't judge him by "Idoru". The incredible contextual framework he has created with his previous works still makes this a good read, but the scope of this particular story is degrees of magnitutde smaller than that of even one of his unforgettable short stories from "Burning Chrome". Gibson has gone from porn-movie barker to candy maker. ALSO READ: "Snowcrash" by Neal Stephenson.
Rating:
Summary: Light entertaining read - don't buy it new
Review: The book did not have the same character development Gibson usually does. This made it hard to actually associate with any of them and truly get into the story. Also, its ending is more of a whimper than a roar.
Rating:
Summary: The best author Of the kind
Review: He knows the future like no one else and all we got to do is to read it.
Rating:
Summary: Like the nano-construction work, it grows on you
Review: I didn't like Idoru at first - I felt cheated. It was too...now, not furturey enough - unfortunately the whole idoru concept had already been hi-jacked by sStar Trek's holo-decks et all. And I didnlt feel drawn in by many of the characters. But, after I'd finished the damn thing, it sorta percolated away in my brain. I became intrigued by not so mujch the idoru herself, but Rez/Lo's obsession with her. It's another of those wonderful Gibson pondering-points: like the Tessier-Ashpools, or the box-making machine in Count Zero. What does it say about late 20th century life that someone would want to spend their life with a hologram? Escecially someonelike Lo/Rez, who has presumably seen the superficial side of life close up. Anyway, don;t slam this on first reading, just because it's not instantly impacty. Take time to let it seep into you. It stayed with me much longer than Neuromancer did, and has become my second favoiurite Gibson novel, after 'Mona Lisa OPverdrive'
Rating:
Summary: A different world
Review: Idoru had no believable characters, no apparent climax, and at best, a decent storyline. Gibson, however, has been able to create an amazing world in which cyberreality has become real. His skills in language are immense, and his scenes are fantastically vivid. Read it for the world it transports you to.
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