Something Spooky this way slides

I very much enjoyed William Gibson's Pattern Recognition, so when I saw a new book from him I had to read it. Spook Country continues the theme of postmodern artistic futurism and the role of artists in interpreting a world that is so irascibly fungible. That said, it was still a pretty good read. ;)

Much like a mini-episode of MTV's Whatever Happened To ... segments, Spook Country starts out following ex-rock star Hollis Henry as she tried to transition to a second career as a journalist/writer. As interesting as she was, my reading eye was more enthralled by the path of Tito through the novel; he has a strange world view that interweaves communist ideology, spy games, mysticality and a teen's abstracted innocence together in fractally complex ways.

Also of note was the reuse of some of Gibson's previous supporting cast of characters, such as Mr. Bigend from Pattern Recognition. Neil Gaiman is another author who has done this to great effect, and it is delightful to re-meet these characters in new circumstances.