Tuesday, October 23, 2007

73. Count Zero by William Gibson

I started to read Spook Country, Gibson's latest, and about 60 pages in, I realized that I just didn't care about any of the characters. So, I wondered, am I just not in a Gibson mood, or do I really not like this book? I had Count Zero sitting on my shelf, so I decided to give it a try. 28 pages in, with only brief character sketches of at least 3 major characters under my belt, I did care about them, so I am thinking I wasted my money buying the hardcover Spook Country.

CZ was an interesting blend of the corporation-is-all, cyberspace technological society with religiosity, in the form of voodoo. It is frighteningly easy to imagine a world where corporations practically own the people who work for them, and governments can't do much about it. The huge class differences in this book, where the rich, talented company employees seem to live in an entirely different world than the poorer people also seems like not too much of a stretch. The characters in this book seem like real people, with interesting motivations, strengths and flaws. This was a very good book.

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