Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
Download to your computer
Kindle Cloud Reader
Facebook Twitter Pinterest

Sorry, there was a problem.

There was an error retrieving your Wish Lists. Please try again.

Sorry, there was a problem.

List unavailable.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See this image

Zero History Paperback – Bargain Price, August 2, 2011

by
William Gibson (Author)
› Visit Amazon's William Gibson Page
Find all the books, read about the author, and more.
See search results for this author
Are you an author? Learn about Author Central
William Gibson (Author)
3.3 out of 5 stars 193 customer reviews
Book 3 of 3 in the Blue Ant Series
See all 13 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
$7.64
— —
Hardcover
"Please retry"
—
$1.27 $0.01
Paperback
"Please retry"
$8.05
$3.40 $0.01
Paperback, Bargain Price, August 2, 2011
—
$2.69 $1.15
Audio CD, Audiobook, Unabridged
"Please retry"
—
$3.98 $2.43
This is a bargain book and quantities are limited. Bargain books are new but could include a small mark from the publisher and an Amazon.com price sticker identifying them as such. Details
Best Books of the Year So Far
Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for 2015's Best Books of the Year in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Back
  1. Spook Country
    William Gibson
    3.1 out of 5 stars 231
    Paperback
    $8.97 Prime
  2. The Peripheral
    William Gibson
    4.2 out of 5 stars 673
    Paperback
    $10.28 Prime
  3. Pattern Recognition
    William Gibson
    3.7 out of 5 stars 398
    Mass Market Paperback
    $7.99 Prime
  4. Neuromancer
    William Gibson
    4.0 out of 5 stars 1,051
    Mass Market Paperback
    $5.99 Prime
  5. All Tomorrow's Parties
    William Gibson
    3.6 out of 5 stars 156
    Mass Market Paperback
    $7.09 Prime
  6. Distrust That Particular Flavor
    William Gibson
    4.0 out of 5 stars 58
    Paperback
    $14.17 Prime
Next

Special Offers and Product Promotions

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE

Product Details

  • Paperback: 416 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (August 2, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0425240770
  • ASIN: B006TQUXW4
  • Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 1 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (193 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #910,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 105 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 starsWeak conclusion to the Bigend trilogy
By R. Hubbard on January 15, 2011
Format: Hardcover
I have been reading William Gibson for many years and read and enjoyed Pattern Recognition and Spook Country. I was looking forward to Zero History but have come away from it quite disappointed and with the feeling that Gibson missed a real opportunity with this novel. One of the great things about Pattern Recognition was how it capture the stunned, dispirited, paranoid zeitgeist of the world post-911. Zero History had the opportunity to do the same for the post-economic crash world. Instead it focuses exclusively on the meanderings of a few wealthy and privileged hipsters who wander around London and Paris talking on their iPhones. I found the Apple fetishism to really detract from the credibility of these characters as being on the cutting edge of cool, outside the ebb and flow of the normal trends followed by boring people like me. If these characters are going to fetishize some piece of technology couldn't it have been something cooler than an iPhone? I have an iPhone for Pete's sake.

The other big disappointment of this book was the very lazy plotting. The characters are incredibly passive with almost all the action occurring around them while they merely react. Because of this no one does anything to move the plot forward; developments just drop into their laps, primarily due to unlikely coincidences. And therein lies my biggest complaint. Many writers use coincidence to propel a narrative. But in Zero History coincidence is the only driver of the plot. The primary action (if you can call it that) is around Hollis and Milgrim's search for a super-secretive fashion designer.Read more ›
5 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 starsNo ideas - just descriptions
By Matkat on February 19, 2011
Format: Kindle Edition
I've been an avid Gibson fan for years, but this novel was very disappointing. I want the old Gibson back - the Gibson who was a brilliant observer of life and culture and made me see things in ways I had not. In this book Gibson follows the path of science fiction hacks who think that description is everything and who add page after page of descriptive fill to their books. I do not care what the brass shower is like in the upscale London club and don't want to read a page of description of it. I do not care about the tea bar in Paris with the two halogen lights shining on a wall of narrow, thin, white shelves with one tea product in each depression and that they don't serve croissants but do serve mini Madelleins (in threes: one chocolate, one almond and one sugar coated). I don't care, I Don't Care, I DON"T CARE!

This book isn't a series of observations about society and how we are effected by it in subtle ways, but a series of detailed descriptions of roads, hotel bathrooms, tea shops, desert plates, armored cars and other uninteresting fill. Instead of a book of ideas, ideas, ideas, Gibson has written a book of descriptions, descriptions, descriptions.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
116 of 141 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 starsZero Gravitas
By Giles Gammage on October 21, 2010
Format: Hardcover
With "Zero History", you get the feeling that William Gibson, finding the world has finally caught up with his Marshall McLuhan-meets-Timothy Leary vision of the future, has decided to escape instead into the world of fantasy.

This accentuates a trend in Mr Gibson's recent novels. Starting with 2003's "Pattern Recognition", the settings of his books have pulled closer and closer to the contemporary world, even as his storylines have pushed further into la-la land. You almost wonder if he's being deliberately perverse. How else to explain "Zero History's" bizarre concoction of macho military fashion designers, ninja rock drummers, Japanese tailors and base-jumping super-spies? And that Mission Impossible-as-done-by-the-A Team ending? Please dear God, let that be a joke.

Don't get me wrong, Mr Gibson remains one of the most effortlessly stylish and readable authors out there. It's his choice of subject matter. I feel like I'm watching Michelangelo doing potato painting.

Let me explain.

"Zero History" completes the trilogy begun with "Pattern Recognition" and continued in 2007's "Spook Country", though it is much more closely tied to the latter. Freelance journalist Hollis Henry returns, again in the employ of insatiably curious marketing bigwig Hubertus Bigend. So is Milgrim, the benzo-addicted translator from "Spook Country", now straight thanks to Bigend's largesse and a stint at a clinic in Switzerland.

Also making a reappearance is the style of "Spook Country", which ratcheted down the flowery language in favor of bare-bones structures, non-linear conversations and off-beat settings. When it works, and it usually does, the words glide effortlessly, supple as old-fashioned denim.Read more ›
10 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
206 of 255 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 starsWhat's at stake here?
By Viking on November 10, 2010
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
ZERO GRAVITAS: The Play

Bigend: "Hollis!....I need to spend insane amounts of money on vague nothingness!....and you, being a woman of dubious talents and with no grasp of finances, need a job!"

Hollis: "I know.....it's true....(pouts)"

Milgrim: "Who?......what?........oh"

Hollis: "I'm being followed...or maybe not...oooo weird wallpaper......why hasn't my boyfriend called?"

Milgrim: "...iPhone..."

Bigend: "Peel me a grape!...here's $10,0000!...I need you in Ulan Bator at 25:00 hours!...Something may or may not occur!"

Milgrim: "Who?......what?....will there be snacks?"

Hollis: "He's talking to me.....well, will there?......I mean, okay...(pouts)"

Fiona: "You may be under surveillance....motorcycles are cool"

Garreth: "I know a very interesting rich guy....No, you don't get to meet him.....oh, and I watched 2 seasons of The Unit"

Evil Spec Ops Villain (off screen): "I killed an entire Afghani village with a dead parrot...now I steal fashion designs and forgot everything I ever learned in sniper school"

Secret Clothing Designer: "I am too cool, to...you know...like, sell OUT?..you know....oh my god..."

Everyone: "Aren't we PRECIOUS!!!.....Hugs all around!"

FIN

PS: Huge William Gibson fan, just starting to wonder a bit ; )
24 Comments Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsIntriguing and Gibson's best in many years

This is my favorite William Gibson novel since his early cyberpunk writing that got me and everyone else hooked. Read more

Published 24 days ago by Steven Petersen
1.0 out of 5 starsLots of unnecessarily obscure words

Not up to Gibson's quality. At times confusing as a plot. Lots of unnecessarily obscure words. Difficult to establish the main point/argument of the story. Read more

Published 1 month ago by ANTHONY P. KEFALAS
4.0 out of 5 starsMarketing of the future

Zero History is a novel about the future of stealth marketing.

Published 1 month ago by Brooke Neal
5.0 out of 5 starsA wonderful technology-based comedy of manners set in 2010

The negative reviews of this book are the result of incorrect expectations --- it is not a Sci-Fi potboiler, it is a finely-crafted comedy of manners set in 2010. Read more

Published 2 months ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsThis one wasn't my favorite but is still a decent story

William Gibson's books are always full of surprising characters, some of which appear in more than one novel, so there's a kind of continuity between books, makes the character... Read more

Published 2 months ago by Roisin Seatle
2.0 out of 5 starsGreat characters

... but aimless, as if they're just wandering around with no special purpose in mind. Parts of the plot center around clothing design, industrial espionage, and something a lot... Read more

Published 2 months ago by wiredweird
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

I love Mr Gibsons prose.

Published 3 months ago by Michael A. Meador
5.0 out of 5 starsI find myself reading this book again and again. ...

I find myself reading this book again and again. Some of the plot is a bit convenient but it's the thought between the actions that makes the book worth reading. Read more

Published 4 months ago by christian
5.0 out of 5 starsThe best book in the trilogy

The best of the Blue Ant Trilogy, a joy to read.

Published 5 months ago by Chris Baker
5.0 out of 5 starsClassic Gibson........

I always forget how much I like Gibson....!
Great language usage, amazing characters, and that unique style of his.......

great....great....great

Published 5 months ago by craig pineau

What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?

There's a problem loading this menu right now.

Learn more about Amazon Prime.



Want to discover more products? Check out these pages to see more: susan mallery books, fire & ice, battletech books