Spook Country-William Gibson

William Gibson is synonymous with science fiction thrillers. After all, this is the man who is credited with coining the term “cyberspace”. So most people who know enough to recognize his name and think they don’t like science fiction would probably be inclined to skip this book. To those folks, I would say you are doing yourself a disservice. After all, take away the technological trappings and science fiction stories are just like any other-at the core there is romance, thrills, and horror, amongst other things. Science fiction is more like a setting, and I could probably write a lot more about the whole science fiction genre-its’ subcategories and while not all science fiction is about robots and aliens. But I’ll save that for another post, and stick to reviewing Spook Country by William Gibson.

At its’ heart, Spook Country is a mystery/crime novel. There are three major groups of characters involved, and each chapter revolves around one set. Hollis Henry is the former lead singer of a band called the Curfew, and she is trying her hand at journalism. She is freelancing for a magazine called Node, which hasn’t yet been published and no one seems to have heard of. Her primary subject is a new form of art that involves GPS and virtual reality style helmets. Tito’s family is involved in the transfer of information. He is Cuban, yet his family speaks Russian and they have all been trained in what seem to be Russian/Soviet spy protocols. Milgrim is a junkie who speaks Russian and has been “recruited” by Brown, who seems to be involved with the government. Brown is tracking Tito’s family, and needs Milgrim’s help as a translator. All three of these sets of characters intersect-Hollis is looking for Bobby Chombo, who is a sort of system administrator for the artists using the GPS techniques, and Bobby is looking for a mysterious container, along with Tito’s family and Milgrim and Brown.

I seem to have a knack for finding stories with short chapters, and this is no exception. The characters are also interesting, and since each chapter focuses on a different set, the reader gets drawn in. The story is also set in 2006, so with references to 9/11 and the Iraq war today’s reader will be comfortable. The references will also help future readers understand the context of the story.

I said earlier that this is a mystery/crime novel. However, this is not a cut-and-dried whodunit. There are questions that remain unanswered, but they are questions that are best left to the imagination. This book is like taking a peak into some sort of spy operation, where maybe you don’t get to see the big picture, only the pieces that you are allowed to see.

I borrowed this from the library, and I recommend you do the same if you’re looking for something different.