Hey... Sorry for being late. It was supposed to be published Friday, but it's being published now, on Saturday. Sorry about that. Now back to the Blue Ant Trilogy...
As I wrote before, usually the second book on Gibson's trilogies are not all that good. And this one, well... Let's talk a little before, right?
There's a problem when a creative guy like Gibson writes on
a contemporary setting: he gets dated. Fast. Don't get me wrong: in
Neuromancer, he was amazing. It's not dated, it's still relevant and still
a possible future, even today. Spook country... Not so much. Right at the beginning,
Hollis is presented to the 'genial' idea of virtual reality combined
with GPS to show spots where celebrities died. Oh, you mean QR code?
No. GPS with information on the spot. What? Where is the server that
would store this information? Good question. Where is the modem that would provide that information? Oh, hidden somewhere near? Does it offer free WiFi? No? How do you mask the signal then? Oh. You don't? Then it's simply and utter bullshit. Sorry, I worked as an IT man. Those things doesn't work that way. Not even at the time you wrote this. And it evolved in a totally different way. I don't know if he understands that at the point where he wrote this book. But ok. It's the problem of writing something groundbreaking in this near-level sci-fi future. It's one of the causes that this genre in particular never get too big.
OK, as an IT man & geek, I must nitpick the technological aspect of this idea. Let's start with the GPS locked images: the way he says it, it's insane. If he constructs ALL images on his computers, using textures and overlays as he said in the book... Sorry, it would be a huge file. It would be something on the level of several gigabytes. How on earth is he downloading this images with a crappy hidden modem? It would need some hardcore server to store it online, a huge broadband to upload it, probably with a dedicated server link. It costs LOTS of money to maintain that. And no, there's no way around it, there's no cheap way to up this on the net. It costs money. As I said LOTS of money. And all this textures, all this 3D environment overlapped on the actual space? What technology he uses? Is it something akin to google glass or oculus rift? The way he describes it looks like an oculus rift, but the way it works is more like a google glass... there's no consistency on this. It is translucent and overlay images OR it creates a new environment. There's no way to be both, at least in the way it was described. It is very confusing. And way over the capabilities of the time. Or of our current time...
OK, as an IT man & geek, I must nitpick the technological aspect of this idea. Let's start with the GPS locked images: the way he says it, it's insane. If he constructs ALL images on his computers, using textures and overlays as he said in the book... Sorry, it would be a huge file. It would be something on the level of several gigabytes. How on earth is he downloading this images with a crappy hidden modem? It would need some hardcore server to store it online, a huge broadband to upload it, probably with a dedicated server link. It costs LOTS of money to maintain that. And no, there's no way around it, there's no cheap way to up this on the net. It costs money. As I said LOTS of money. And all this textures, all this 3D environment overlapped on the actual space? What technology he uses? Is it something akin to google glass or oculus rift? The way he describes it looks like an oculus rift, but the way it works is more like a google glass... there's no consistency on this. It is translucent and overlay images OR it creates a new environment. There's no way to be both, at least in the way it was described. It is very confusing. And way over the capabilities of the time. Or of our current time...
And what about the 'uncanny valley effect'? You know... computer generated human beings, too similar to us, get an automatic rejection, since we don't recognize, in an unconscious way, the micro-expressions that we, as a race, use to communicate. Specially if it's someone we are familiarized with.
Do you really want me to believe that some random guy can overcome what has been studied and tried by thousand of scientist and artist for at least a decade and became common place? That it's a bunch of underground people doing this around the world? Because seriously, if those guys reached that point, they wouldn't be doing this kind of garbage. (I have a major in art's history, focused on analysis, so I'm qualified to say it: what they are doing is crap.) They would be swimming in money working for ANY video-game company. But no. Oh, but he has a Japanese performance booked. Sorry, this kinda of stuff usually don't go first to Asia. If they were Japanese, ok. But usually technology from other places are a little slow to go there. And this kind of conceptual art is more frequent on the western world. Or cinema. I'm sorry, this idea can sound amazing to someone else. It sounded really stupid to me. To me, that was what sealed the fate of this book to me. No, I didn't like it.
Now, let's talk about the problems with the characters. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the bitchiness from Cayce. She's so palpable, real and even similar to some people I know. But even being annoying sometimes, I liked her. A lot. Why couldn't he take her in the rest of the trilogy? I understand that the way it was presented, Cayce wouldn't have the slightly interest on this. Nor would she feel compelled by Bigend. It's out of her sphere of interest, of her job, out of her life. Oh well. We have Hollis. And by the way, this case is ALSO out of Hollis' interest, job and life. The only difference is that Hollis was broke in the beginning of this book. As a matter of fact, all characters in this book started broken and without a penny...
Do you really want me to believe that some random guy can overcome what has been studied and tried by thousand of scientist and artist for at least a decade and became common place? That it's a bunch of underground people doing this around the world? Because seriously, if those guys reached that point, they wouldn't be doing this kind of garbage. (I have a major in art's history, focused on analysis, so I'm qualified to say it: what they are doing is crap.) They would be swimming in money working for ANY video-game company. But no. Oh, but he has a Japanese performance booked. Sorry, this kinda of stuff usually don't go first to Asia. If they were Japanese, ok. But usually technology from other places are a little slow to go there. And this kind of conceptual art is more frequent on the western world. Or cinema. I'm sorry, this idea can sound amazing to someone else. It sounded really stupid to me. To me, that was what sealed the fate of this book to me. No, I didn't like it.
 |
| This is what people thought was amazing at the time... |
Now, let's talk about the problems with the characters. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED the bitchiness from Cayce. She's so palpable, real and even similar to some people I know. But even being annoying sometimes, I liked her. A lot. Why couldn't he take her in the rest of the trilogy? I understand that the way it was presented, Cayce wouldn't have the slightly interest on this. Nor would she feel compelled by Bigend. It's out of her sphere of interest, of her job, out of her life. Oh well. We have Hollis. And by the way, this case is ALSO out of Hollis' interest, job and life. The only difference is that Hollis was broke in the beginning of this book. As a matter of fact, all characters in this book started broken and without a penny...
Hollis was part of an underground band and is still remembered as kinda of a celebrity. A
minor, underground band, that as a matter of fact is world-wide know. Yeah, this kind of idiosyncrasies is very classic for Gibson. It seems as if there is not an 'above ground'
society. Or that they are mindless consumer drones that are feed by what the media trow at them... OK, that hit closest to home than I imagined... Anyway, remember the bitchiness from Cayce that I was just talking about? Yeah... Hollis tries, and fails, to be on the same level. She sounded at the same time very intelligent and very dumb some times. Oh, and in a totally unrealistic way...
The story of Tito starts in a boring way.
Yeah, he's an expat from Cuba, works with a cousin that works with
falsification and spying, but in a modern time, falsifications are way harder to
do, yada yada yada... As an expat myself, I get him. Sometimes it's hard to be an expat.
But not all that much. Specially if you came from Cuba. I've been there. Believe me: you would kill your family to get out of there. What bothered me the most is his complains of the cold. I'm in the cold & wide North in Toronto and I
don't feel cold all the time as Tito. Sorry, the 'terrible winter of NY'... Sorry mate, we go over -25 Celsius over here on a sunny winter day and it doesn't bother me all that. And I came from Brazil, which is very close to the Cuban climate. Oh, and as
someone that has ties & knowledge of umbanda, all the deities from
Cuba leaves an strange aftertaste in my mouth... but that's more of my nitpicking. I understand that it probably sits well or are even interesting to someone that doesn't know any better. Over all Tito is a mediocre character, with an unrealistic set of skills, and a bizarre relation with the orishas that is also presented in a stupid way...
Milgrin... Is interesting. As a junkie & hostage, his parts were the most interesting. It felt bland in the beginning, but it grew on me. The way he is conducted by the drug, his interest on the insanity of heretic middle-age, his strange relationship with his captor... I liked his ending. But I really would like more focus on him, since he's the best character on the book.
What really annoyed me is that the book was without direction till a quarter of it was read. A mysterious container. No more information. Not only that, I felt the rhythm of the book sluggish at best and tiresome in some parts. It was not a fluid reading like other books from Gibson. It felt like a car that someone else was driving and missing the passage of the gears. The three viewpoints have different paces and the passage between then was not well done. When I finally read one third of the book I was sighing: "still only one third? Gosh..."
I usually like the way Gibson presents mysteries. But here, it was excessive. Everything is a mystery.
There are a lot of names dropped everywhere. I don't care about the dead bassist of Hollis band. He was never touched and then he's dead and I should feel the pain of loss? Oh and he died of overdose? No. Some duo is following Milgrin? Who are they? Why should I know their names if they never showed before? Oh, they are working for his drug dealer? So? There are a lot of things that simply popped into existence and I'm supposed to care or be intrigued? If I simply say "hey Karen, hope you enjoy this essay" it will be weird. Especially if I never explain who she is and why would she enjoy, or not, this text. It doesn't work this way. And the worse part is that I thought Gibson knew how to make a good mystery! Hell, he did a great job on his other books, especially the first one of this trilogy! What the hell happened?? At this point you can tell: no, I did not like this book...
In the first book, Gibson did a well conceived story, focused on only one character, but the side stories converged in a interesting way, with discoveries, searches and a sense of time. Here, it feels like the characters are walking on a constant deus ex machina, with all the pieces falling in place like magic, everything happens like in a play: cue, meet the sister of the technician by using your contacts; cue, Milgrim finds the specific ship with the container; cue, Tito is going after the container... Everything happens in a unnatural way, like a real bad action movie. It starts to get in your nerves really fast.
In the first book, Gibson did a well conceived story, focused on only one character, but the side stories converged in a interesting way, with discoveries, searches and a sense of time. Here, it feels like the characters are walking on a constant deus ex machina, with all the pieces falling in place like magic, everything happens like in a play: cue, meet the sister of the technician by using your contacts; cue, Milgrim finds the specific ship with the container; cue, Tito is going after the container... Everything happens in a unnatural way, like a real bad action movie. It starts to get in your nerves really fast.
The mystery of this book, this container that, barely, links all three narratives is stupid. You don't know what it is, what it can do, why so many are after it... It almost isn't there, like it's a magic trick used to link this stories together. And the payoff? Money??? Laundered money from the Iraq war? Really? Sorry Gibson, if you want to talk about Iraq, war, intrigue and corruption, watch & learn from the best: Hideo Kojima. No one, I said no one, can make this topic as interesting and intriguing as Mr/ Kojima. You sir, are out of your element and way out of your league. I like stories about wars. I like stories about military, or semi-militaristic, combat. I have read great stories on this setting. Sigma Force by James Rollins. The Chronicles of the Black Company by Glen Cook. Any Metal Gear by Hideo Kojima. Hell, I really like this genre, now that I think about it! And damn... this book was so tiresome, so unappealing... I can't like it. Nor recommend it. Sorry Mr. Gibson, but you blew this time. And the thought that I must review one more book on this trilogy, again with Hollis, is not palatable. I really hope you finish it with your golden touch, like you did on Mona Lisa Overdrive.
But after this one, I'm not really all that motivated to read it.
But after this one, I'm not really all that motivated to read it.
Tomorrow: I was going to talk about a more interesting story, going deep on some hard differences on Eastern vs Westerns, in particular on concerns about sex, privacy and relationships, but I just finished this manga and I need to talk about it. So, you must delve into Glaucos and the current problems of the manga world...
See ya
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