2lst century Tokyo, after the millennial quake. Neon rain. Light everywhere blowing under any door you might try to close. Where the New Buildings, the largest in the world, erect themselves unaided, their slow rippling movements like the contractions of a sea-creature. Colin Laney is here looking for work. He is not, he is careful to point out, a voyeur. He is an intuitive fisher of patterns of information, the "signature" a particular individual creates simply by going about the business of living. But Laney knows how to sift for the interesting (read: dangerous) bits. Which makes him very useful--to certain people. Chia McKenzie is here on a rescue mission. She's fourteen. Her idol is the singer Rez, of the band Lo/Rez. When the Seattle chapter of the Lo/Rez fan club decided that he might be in trouble, in Tokyo, they sent Chia to check it out. Rei Toei is the beautiful, entirely virtual media star adored by all Japan. The idoru. And Rez has declared that he will marry her. This is the rumor that brought Chia to Tokyo. But the things that bother Rez are not the things that bother most people. Is something different here, in the very nature of reality? Or is it that something violently New is about to happen? It's possible the idoru is as real as she wants or needs to be--or as real as Rez desires. When Colin Laney looks into her dark eyes, trying hard to think of her as no more than a hologram, he sees things he's never seen before. He sees how she might break a man's heart. And, whatever else may be true, the idoru and the powerful interests surrounding her are enough to put all their lives in danger.
Idoru
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
The author of the ground-breaking science-fiction novels Neuromancer and Virtual Light returns with a fast-paced, high-density, cyber-punk thriller. As prophetic as it is exciting, Idoru takes us to 21st century Tokyo where both the promises of technology and the disasters of cyber-industrialism stand in stark contrast, where the haves and the have-nots find themselves walled apart, and where information and fame are the most valuable and dangerous currencies.
When Rez, the lead singer for the rock band Lo/Rez is rumored to be engaged to an "idoru" or "idol singer"--an artificial celebrity creation of information software agents--14-year-old Chia Pet McKenzie is sent by the band's fan club to Tokyo to uncover the facts. At the same time, Colin Laney, a data specialist for Slitscan television, uncovers and publicizes a network scandal. He flees to Tokyo to escape the network's wrath. As Chia struggles to find the truth, Colin struggles to preserve it, in a futuristic society so media-saturated that only computers hold the hope for imagination, hope and spirituality. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Publishers Weekly
The founding father of cyberpunk again returns to the techno-decadent 21st century mapped in his other major works (Virtual Light, Neuromancer, etc.). As usual, Gibson offers a richly imagined tale that finds semi-innocents wading hip-deep into trouble. Colin Laney has taken a job in Japan to escape the revenge of his former employer, Slitscan, a kind of corporate gossip-mongerer on the Net that he has crossed out of scruples. Meanwhile, Chia Pet McKenzie is active in the fan clubs for Lo/Rez, a Japanese superstar rock duo; while visiting Japan to investigate some new rumors about the group, she is used to smuggle illegal nanoware to the Russian criminal underground. Both Laney and Chia get caught up in the intrigues swirling about the plans of Rez, one half of the band, to marry Rei Toei, an "idoru" (idol) who exists only in virtual reality. Gibson excels here in creating a warped but comprehensible future saturated with logical yet unexpected technologies. His settings are brilliantly realized, from high-tech hotel rooms and airplanes to the infamous Walled City of Kowloon. The pacing is slower than Virtual Light, but Gibson exhibits his greatest strength: intense speculation, expressed in dramatic form, about the near-term evolution and merging of cultural, social and technological trends, and how they affect character. Dark and disturbing, this novel represents no new departure for Gibson, but a further accretion of the insights that have made him the most precise, and perhaps the most prescient, visionary working in SF today. 100,000 first printing; $100,000 ad/promo; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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More About the Author
William Gibson was born in the United States in 1948. In 1972 he moved to Vancouver, Canada, after four years spent in Toronto. He is married with two children.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful
By Jonah Cohen
Format:Mass Market Paperback
As I scanned the other reviews of this book, I found that I couldn't agree less with many of them... but did agree with parts. Don't know what that says about different peoples' perceptions of this book.
I'll start by saying I liked all of Gibson's previous work and I liked Idoru, too. I was a little stunned to read some people who seemed to find it went on too long, as the hardback edition I read is under 300 pages (large print, breaks between chapters.) The plot is admittedly simple: rock star plans to marry a virtual reality character. When do computers become alive? --- recurring theme for Gibson.
Rather than tell it from the POV of these two lovebirds, he alternates chapters between the book's two main characters. One, Chia, is a teen fan. One, Laney, has the the strange talent of... to put it in contemporary terms, he can separate the signal from the noise when websurfing. (That >would< be a useful skill!)
Things I liked? While the plot is straightforward, I preferred it to more overarching books that start out well and have things crumble by the end. There have been plenty of those. Second, I found the charactrers all well defined and appealing, especially Laney, a sort of everyman who ends up in the middle of a lot of weird stuff.
And of course, there's Gibson's writing, powerful and at times even hypnotic. Each chapter reads like a story unto itself, but they do all move towards a clear resolution. Even the title seemed like a subtle commentary on the story. ("Idoru" = "I adore you", perhaps?)
I give it a big thumbs-up.
I'll start by saying I liked all of Gibson's previous work and I liked Idoru, too. I was a little stunned to read some people who seemed to find it went on too long, as the hardback edition I read is under 300 pages (large print, breaks between chapters.) The plot is admittedly simple: rock star plans to marry a virtual reality character. When do computers become alive? --- recurring theme for Gibson.
Rather than tell it from the POV of these two lovebirds, he alternates chapters between the book's two main characters. One, Chia, is a teen fan. One, Laney, has the the strange talent of... to put it in contemporary terms, he can separate the signal from the noise when websurfing. (That >would< be a useful skill!)
Things I liked? While the plot is straightforward, I preferred it to more overarching books that start out well and have things crumble by the end. There have been plenty of those. Second, I found the charactrers all well defined and appealing, especially Laney, a sort of everyman who ends up in the middle of a lot of weird stuff.
And of course, there's Gibson's writing, powerful and at times even hypnotic. Each chapter reads like a story unto itself, but they do all move towards a clear resolution. Even the title seemed like a subtle commentary on the story. ("Idoru" = "I adore you", perhaps?)
I give it a big thumbs-up.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
There's no doubt that Gibson can flat-out write. His line-by-line writing is powerful, clear, and compelling. He knows when to start a scene, and when to drop it to move to another. His characters are interesting. And he draws powerful pictures of a dystopian future of corporate control of the world, people more interested in virtual reality than the increasingly-devastated world that surrounds them, and a deep alienation and sorrow. BUT, and this is a huge but, his plots always seem flat to me. This has been true of the other books of his I've read, and it's certainly true of this one. There never seems enough at stake for the main characters, emotionally, philosophically, or physically. His words suck me in, and his plots spit me back out. This one was okay, but nothing to write home about.
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
When an author writes a first novel as inventive and as startling as Neuromancer, everything that follows cannot possibly compete, no matter how good it is. So it is with Idoru. Gibson's speculative thriller follows two main characters: Colin Laney, a man whose brain has been altered by experimental drugs and who searches the internet for "nodal points" that explain reality at a level most people can't understand; and Chia Pet McKenzie, a Seattle teenager who belongs to a fan club chapter devoted to the rock group Lo/Rez. Laney is hired by Rez's security detail in Japan when the rock star announces that he will marry Rei Toei, a virtual reality pop idol. Rez's people are worried because they believe Rez must be under the influence of someone they haven't yet identified, and they need Laney to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, Chia also races to Japan, to see if the rumors of Rez's marriage to the non-woman are true. Subplots involving a vindictive former boss, nanotechnology, and Russian gangsters increase the stakes as both Laney and Chia find themselves skirting danger in both the real and the virtual worlds. The plot, while thin, is well-paced, and it has the trademark Gibson edginess.
Gibson writes well and convincingly, even with lyricism. He incorporates the specifics of his futuristic world with such confidence that the reader can suspend disbelief for the duration of the novel. The problem is, he has done it better before, and with greater detail, so fans are not likely to forgive him for a simpler world and story. Still, reading any Gibson book is a treat, especially compared with much of what's out there. His ability to incorporate near-future technology with an exciting story that fits perfectly inside this fabricated world is astounding even on this smaller scale.
I recommend this highly-readable novel for cyperpunk/sci-fi fans, as long as they don't expect this to be another Neuromancer. The lackluster ending is a disappointment, but the rest is vibrant enough to capture the imaginations of most readers.
Gibson writes well and convincingly, even with lyricism. He incorporates the specifics of his futuristic world with such confidence that the reader can suspend disbelief for the duration of the novel. The problem is, he has done it better before, and with greater detail, so fans are not likely to forgive him for a simpler world and story. Still, reading any Gibson book is a treat, especially compared with much of what's out there. His ability to incorporate near-future technology with an exciting story that fits perfectly inside this fabricated world is astounding even on this smaller scale.
I recommend this highly-readable novel for cyperpunk/sci-fi fans, as long as they don't expect this to be another Neuromancer. The lackluster ending is a disappointment, but the rest is vibrant enough to capture the imaginations of most readers.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Are you ready?
Can you take it? Do you really want to see what Tomorrow looks, smells, feels, tastes like? This book is UNREAL --- in fact, so unreal, I wonder if Gibson doesn't have a time... Read more
Published 9 days ago by Terry Reed
5.0 out of 5 stars
Favorite Gibson Novel
If you love cyberpunk then you will love this book. For me this is Gibson at his best. The world we live in now or soon to be was shown to us in this book years ago. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Stephen
3.0 out of 5 stars
program is developing self-awareness
Another computer virtual reality type story. A media star wants to marry a video/dance program that lives in some virtual reality place, the idoru. Read more
Published 5 months ago by David Brockert
4.0 out of 5 stars
"and popular culture is the tested of our futurity."
This is an interesting look at the marriage of human and AI in the online community of the future. Colin is a man whose brain had been altered by experimental drugs as a teen. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Amelia Gremelspacher
5.0 out of 5 stars
An SF favorite of mine
Colin Laney has an unusual job--finding "nodal points" or patterns in people's behavior based on their purchases and habits. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Tiger
2.0 out of 5 stars
Stretched Too Far
The best thing I can say about "Idoru" is that it's perfectly readable. The writing is competent. The story has its moments. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Chris Panagakis
4.0 out of 5 stars
Ten Years Later, Re-Classified as Non-Fiction
There is now an actual Japanese Pop Star who is a software construct:
[....]
When will Gibson's other books become true?
[....]
When will Gibson's other books become true?
Published 23 months ago by D. Chapman
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pretty standard Gibson-esque fare
William Gibson has a remarkable predictive ability when it comes to the Internet and other technology. Read more
Published on January 21, 2011 by J. Yasmineh
4.0 out of 5 stars
Exploring the nature of celebrity in the Information Age
Lo/Rez is the hottest rock band on the planet, but their fan club is horrified by rumors that Rez, the band's lead singer, intends to marry Rei Toei, a Japanese idoru, an "idol... Read more
Published on July 22, 2010 by Fred L. Warren
2.0 out of 5 stars
Don't Bother...
Talk about cardboard characters and no plot and you've got William Gibson down to a T!!! The only thing that saves this book - a thought that applies to almost all his work - is... Read more
Published on September 30, 2009 by Big A
