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2lst century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Neon rain. Light everywhere blowing under any door you might try to close. Where the New Buildings, the largest in the world, erect themselves unaided, their slow rippling movements like the contractions of a sea-creature. Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is not, he is careful to point out, a voyeur. He is an intuitive fisher of patterns of information, the "signature" a particular individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney knows how to sift for the interesting (read: dangerous) bits. Which makes him very useful—to certain people. Chia McKenzie is here on a rescue mission. She's fourteen. Her idol is the singer Rez, of the band Lo/Rez. When the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club decided that he might be in trouble, in Tokyo, they sent Chia to check it out. Rei Toei is the beautiful, entirely virtual media star adored by all Japan. The idoru. And Rez has declared that he will marry her. This is the rumor that brought Chia to Tokyo. But the things that bother Rez are not the things that bother most people. Is something different here, in the very nature of reality? Or is it that something violently New is about to happen? It's possible the idoru is as real as she wants or needs to be—or as real as Rez desires. When Colin Laney looks into her dark eyes, trying hard to think of her as no more than a hologram, he sees things he's never seen before. He sees how she might break a man's heart. And, whatever else may be true, the idoru and the powerful interests surrounding her are enough to put all their lives in danger.
William Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina, grew up in southwestern Virginia, attended school in southern Arizona, and moved to Canada when he was nineteen.
Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina, and spent much of his youth in Virginia with his widowed mother. He grew up shy and bookish, discovering science fiction and the literature of the beats at a precociously early age. When he was 15, he was sent away to private school in Arizona, but he left without graduating when his mother died suddenly. He fled to Canada to avoid the draft and immersed himself in '60s counterculture. He married, moved to British Columbia, and enrolled in college, graduating in 1977 with a degree in English. Around this time he began to write in earnest, combining his lifelong love of science fiction and his newfound passion for the punk music evolving in New York and London.
In the early 1980s, Gibson met writer and punk musician John Shirley and sci-fi authors Lewis Shiner and Bruce Sterling. All three were blown away by the power and originality of Gibson's stories, and together the four men went on to forge a radical new literary movement called cyberpunk. In 1984, Gibson's groundbreaking first novel, Neuromancer, was published. Daring and revolutionary, it envisioned such techno-marvels as AI, virtual reality, genetic engineering, and multinational capitalism years before they became realities. Although it was not an immediate sensation, Neuromancer struck a chord with hardcore sci-fi fans who turned it into a word-of-mouth hit. Then it won the Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards (the Triple Crown of Science Fiction), catapulting Gibson into superstardom overnight.
Even if he had never written another word, Gibson's impact would be clearly seen in the works of such cutting-edge contemporary authors as Neal Stephenson, Pat Cadigan, and Paul DiFilippo. But, as it is, Neuromancer was just the beginning -- the first book in an inspired trilogy that has come to be considered a benchmark in the history of the genre; and since then, Gibson has gone on to create even more visionary science fiction, including The Difference Engine, a steampunk classic co-authored with Bruce Sterling, and such imaginative post-9/11 cyber thrillers as Pattern Recognition and Spook Country .
Anonymous
Posted January 2, 2012
It is heartening to see what nearly 20 years of seasoning can do for an author. Idoru is a sophisticated, delightful twist on Gibson's previous formula. The characters are more real and engaging, the plot more intuitive and less formulaic than his previous endeavors. Idoru is like great jazz music: when you try to pin down what makes it work, the full answers slip through your fingers.
I had respect for Gibson when I read Neuromancer, but despite being more famous, it reads like a first novel. This book is seasoned talent let out to play, and it's a joy to behold.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 1, 2012
Awful. Not believable, complicated and disjointed. Not worth paying any price.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted April 16, 2009
I read all of William Gibson's earlier novels after first reading Spook Country. I was never disappointed. Idoru is fine as a standalone novel, but it is great as a lead in to All Tomorrow's Parties.
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Posted February 10, 2005
The two positive things i can say about this book is that is has great (really great) characters and a few nifty ideas, most notably the 'New Buildings'. Other than that there is absolutely nothing here. The entire book i was waiting for all this stuff that was happening to boil down to something, but it just never did, nothing grand or very exciting ever happened. This is no where near as good as Neuromancer
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Posted November 6, 2003
I have been a big fan of William Gibson's work since I read Neuromancer so many years ago. Although I was somewhat disappointed by Virtual Light, the follow-up, Idoru, renewed my faith. As the middle book in the Bridge Trilogy, Idoru sets up a diverse cast of characters, including a virtual pop star, a rock star, an avid fan, and a computer technician (for lack of a better term) who sees patterns in fields of data, and draws them all together in post-earthquake Japan. Although Gibson's plot takes some unusual, typically-Gibsonesque leaps, it is the interaction of the characters that will draw you in. A lesser writer would have bungled this, but Gibson's poetic prose is up to the challenge. Like most good science-fiction, Gibson uses his created world to make points about our own, lingering especially long over the topics of the nature of celebrity and the fine line between advanced artificial intelligence and human life.
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Posted June 24, 2003
After I stumbled upon 'Neuromancer' a couple of years ago I read nearly all of Gibson's books (I have tried to pace myself as I would otherwise run out of his titles). Of both triologies I think that 'Idoru' is the best story he has written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd recommend Gibson to anyone, but I would especially recommend this title if you're ready to pursue a really fantastic cyber punk story.
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Overview
2lst century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Neon rain. Light everywhere blowing under any door you might try to close. Where the New Buildings, the largest in the world, erect themselves unaided, their slow rippling movements like the contractions of a sea-creature. Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is not, he is careful to point out, a voyeur. He is an intuitive fisher of patterns of information, the "signature" a particular individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney ...