All Tomorrow's Parties
by William Gibson
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Book Summary Information
Author: William GibsonEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-04
ISBN: 0425190447
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Berkley
Book Reviews of All Tomorrow's Parties
Book Review: It's the Bay bridge, not the Golden Gate bridge.
Summary: 3 Stars
All through the novel, with its references to Terminal Island, Bryant Street, Oakland, and a second level, I never pictured the Golden Gate, even though it is on the cover. Gibson is depicting the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. Look on a map.Not that this means much to the story, which felt like just a ride to me--a milk run with scenery through the not-to-distant future.
Although I could not follow all of the story, the metaphors, it seemed to me to be a story about two orphans with special gifts--one trying to use it for the common good, the other for himself with others as collatoral damage. I don't believe the mysterious node means much. It's about how they dealt with this upcoming crisis that was the story, and who they were aligned with, along with a view of the local dystopian scenery.
Because of the love Laney had shown Rei Toi, & Rydell's love, she chose to be loyal to their cause. She even mystified the most mystical character, the assassin, whose willingness to work for Harwood mystified me. She was the only one to truly move him. He loved who she represented to him. I wonder who he was searching for. Did he think Harwood knew where his dream girl was?
An intriguing book, but not one I'll read twice as I have some of Gibson's others. I've always been lost in his work, but enjoy it nevertheless.
I think love has something to do with this story. Love conquers all. Or being humane. I know this sounds corny, but look at how Silencio responded to the first gift he ever got from someone, that being the watch from the assassin.
Love, or true caring, true humaneness, saved Rydell and Chevette from certain death, when Fontaine was humane enough to let them in. The assassin--humane in some way to protect them all.
Laney and Harwood were marginally effective in their separate aims in spite of help from their helpers. Did the bridge people save themselves? City govt finally kicked in, sort of, with water to the fire. The bridge people were a motley community of caring neighbors. Is that love? Companionship? Humaneness? Harwood failed in his attempts to take control as well.The orphans both lost their lives, I assume.
Good vs evil and both are vanquished? What's left? Love, community, nanotechnology. I thought the nano stuff would be used for ill will, and though it has that potential, we see in the end that it depends on the user, as with anything else. It can actually be used for good--like rejuvenating antique watches and making non-humans human.
Love Gibson's writing though this was not a favorite for me. I still value the first three of his books--mona lisa overdrive, countzero and the other one I forget right now.
Summary of All Tomorrow's Parties
The flow of information is about to be disrupted?
Colin Laney, sensitive to patterns of information like no one else on earth, currently resides in a cardboard box in Tokyo. His body shakes with fever dreams, but his mind roams free as always, and he knows something is about to happen. Not in Tokyo; he will not see this thing himself. Something is about to happen in San Francisco?
The mists of San Francisco make it easy to hide, if hiding is what you want, and even at the best of times reality there seems to shift. A gray man moves elegantly through the mists, leaving bodies in his wake, so that a tide of absences alerts Laney to his presence. A boy named Silencio does not speak, but flies through webs of cyber-information in search of the one object that has seized his imagination. And Rei Toi, the Japanese Idoru, continues her study of all things human. She herself is not human, not quite, but she?s working on it. And in the mists of San Francisco, at this rare moment in history, who is to say what is or is not impossible?
Although Colin Laney (from Gibson's earlier novel Idoru) lives in a cardboard box, he has the power to change the world. Thanks to an experimental drug that he received during his youth, Colin can see "nodal points" in the vast streams of data that make up the worldwide computer network. Nodal points are rare but significant events in history that forever change society, even though they might not be recognizable as such when they occur. Colin isn't quite sure what's going to happen when society reaches this latest nodal point, but he knows it's going to be big. And he knows it's going to occur on the Bay Bridge in San Francisco, which has been home to a sort of SoHo-esque shantytown since an earthquake rendered it structurally unsound to carry traffic.
Colin sends Barry Rydell (last seen in Gibson's novel Virtual Light) to the bridge to find a mysterious killer who reveals himself only by his lack of presence on the Net. Barry is also entrusted with a strange package that seems to be the home of Rei Toi, the computer-generated "idol singer" who once tried to "marry" a human rock star (she's also from Idoru). Barry and Rei Toi are eventually joined by Barry's old girlfriend Chevette (from Virtual Light) and a young boy named Silencio who has an unnatural fascination with watches. Together this motley assortment of characters holds the key to stopping billionaire Cody Harwood from doing whatever it is that will make sure he still holds the reigns of power after the nodal point takes place.
Although All Tomorrow's Parties includes characters from two of Gibson's earlier novels, it's not a direct sequel to either. It's a stand-alone book that is possibly Gibson's best solo work since Neuromancer. In the past, Gibson has let his brilliant prose overwhelm what were often lackluster (or nonexistent) story lines, but this book has it all: a good story, electric writing, and a group of likable and believable characters who are out to save the world ... kind of. The ending is not quite as supercharged as the rest of the novel and so comes off a bit flat, but overall this is definitely a winner. --Craig E. Engler
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