All Tomorrow's Parties - William Gibson Book Review

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Review Summaries

"Several characters from Gibson's earlier novels, _Virtual Light_ and _Idoru_, turn up again in this millennial tale. Colin Laney, who, due to drugs given him as a child, can sense shifts in the "nodes" of world information patterns, is living in a cardboard box in Tokyo but senses San Francisco will be the site of the next big shift. He sends cop wanne-be Berry Rydell to investigate, right about the time Rydell's ex-girlfriend Chevette Washington is running from LA to SF to escape her latest abusive boyfriend, with her documentary filmmaker friend Tessa. Rei Toei, the first non-human, all-cyber megastar and the stuff of men's greatest fantasies, figures into the plot along with a nearly mute Hispanic boy with a fascination for watches, a professional killer working for PR magnate Harwood Levine, and Fontaine, the black owner of a watch and curio shop on the Bay Bridge, which has been abandoned for transport after the last quake and is now inhabited mostly by the homeless. Gibson's novel has neat ideas and toys of the future, and some decent action, but the characterizations are thin."
David Loftus, Resident William Gibson Scholar

"Colin Laney has realized that the disruptions everyone expected to happen at the beginning of the year 2000 are still to come. His sense tells him that the big event will happen in San Francisco. "
Manuel Derra, Resident William Gibson Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book - depressing/sad
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Tech./$$$/Info hunt Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying - weapon - cloning technology - info about lifeform(s)/society/phenomena
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - police/lawman - bodyguard
Age: - 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events? Yes
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - killer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an above average amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged - mean, arrogant
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Earth setting: - near future (later in 21st century)
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd - rotating 1st
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - a lot of techical jargon
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - vague references only
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog - little dialog

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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