In the jagged cities of science fiction, there is a God — or at least a Wizard of Oz — and his name is Thomas Pynchon. ”Pynchon is a kind of mythic hero of mine,” William Gibson has proclaimed. Gibson, who must be tired of hearing himself identified as ”coiner of the term ‘cyberspace,’ ” has gone to worlds not yet reached under Commander Pynchon’s rule. <\/p>\n
Critics of science fiction grouse that Gibson can’t get far while steering the same old postmodern spacecraft, and dismiss his inventiveness as mere bells and whistles. But some die-hard fans lament that he’s deserting the mother ship every time he tries something off the flight path of his first novel, ”Neuromancer” (1984). All of which puts Gibson in the unenviable position of being able to displease many of the people much of the time. <\/p>\n
If his elegant, entrancing seventh novel offers an answer to his detractors, it could be roughly translated as: so sue me. ”Pattern Recognition” is almost nose-thumbingly conventional in design. Despite the requisite tech toys, it’s set squarely in the present. But then the dates of Gibson-action have been creeping steadily backward. Predicting the future, Gibson has always maintained, is mostly a matter of managing not to blink as you witness the present. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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