William Gibson Cody’s As mentioned in my last post – Ling and I attended a signing and reading of William Gibson’s Spook Country last night. About 50 + people attended (full house) the event at Cody’s (last remaining) Bookstore on 4th St in Berkeley. Ling and I have attended these kind of events before ( for Neil Gaiman and William Gibson ) and it follows a usual pattern of the author reading a chapter, answering some questions from the crowd and then the book signing. This was indeed how the night went. Gibson read chapter 42 of the book ( perhaps an homage to Douglas Adams someone in line suggested ).

Gibson said he chose the chapter for its action. I have to admit that I have not done my research into what this book’s focus is, infact thats how I usually read Gibson. I buy his books, stick them next to my bed, give them a mental high priority and usually devour them in a week or so. So I will be following that same pattern for Spook Country. The chapter he read was exciting but out of context for me, I appreciated its fast pace but will look forward to seeing how it fits into the greater whole.Probably the most exciting part of the night was the Q & A. Gibson gave at the end of the reading. he had some interesting things to say and I am sure Ling will go into more detail on this but I am going to give some highlights (bullet points):

  • No longer writes science fiction better labeled speculative fiction
  • Like to provide “Hi-res” descriptions of characters so the reader can really visualize his characters
  • He writes about “last Tuesday” since writing about the future cannot be anywhere as weird as writing about the here and now (the future is now).Won’t be revisiting his older characters like Rydell or Chevette.

There is so much more that he said but I believe that Ling will elucidate on that in his post. Right now I need to finish up the last book in Alec Effingers series about Marid Audran and then I am off to Spook Country…