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SPOOK COUNTRY [Import] (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Rausch," said the voice in Hollis Henry's cell..." (more)
Key Phrases: spook country, locative art, gray case, New York, Blue Ant, Union Square (more...)
3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (182 customer reviews)

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Hardcover $2.34   $2.34 $0.10
Hardcover, Import, January 1, 2007 --   -- $3.50
Paperback $9.99   $2.75 $0.01
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Putman; First Edition edition (January 1, 2007)
  • ISBN-10: 0670914940
  • ISBN-13: 978-0670914944
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (182 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #3,752,270 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #75 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Gibson, William
    #92 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( G ) > Gibson, William

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More About the Author

William Gibson
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Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
Rausch," said the voice in Hollis Henry's cell. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
spook country, locative art, gray case
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Blue Ant, Union Square, Bobby Chombo, Los Angeles, Hollis Henry, Miss Henry, Canal Street, Paul Stuart, Free Spirit, Ramone Alcin, New Jersey, Washington Square, United States, Beth Barker, Costa Rica, Philip Rausch, Hubertus Bigend, David Miller, The Hook, Beverly Hills, Mongolian Death Worm, The Swiss, Best Western, Pamela Mainwaring
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SPOOK COUNTRY
81% buy the item featured on this page:
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Customer Reviews

182 Reviews
5 star:
 (34)
4 star:
 (42)
3 star:
 (41)
2 star:
 (39)
1 star:
 (26)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (182 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
88 of 105 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Pattern Recognition this is not, September 15, 2007
By Geoffrey Kleinman (Portland, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Spook Country (Hardcover)
Gibson's Pattern Recognition is brilliant, Spook Country is not. While not a particularly awful book, it's just not a very good one. Gibson tries to tell 3 disconnected stories in parallel - a narrative device that never seems to really connect. When the 3 story lines of the novel do finally collide, the payoff is so weak and anticlimactic that it makes the arduous journey through this book feel even more worthless.

There are some interesting moments in Spook Country and some good characters, but just when you start to connect with them Gibson yanks them away. The problem here is focus, Gibson seems
to be trying to do too much in Spook Country and he isn't able to do all of it well. Had he picked one thread and developed it better he would have had a much better book.

I bought this book in Hardcover right when it was released with the expectations that it would be in the league of Patter Recognition. Unfortunately it isn't. I won't completely warn people off this book because there are so many books out there that are much worse. But I don't feel like I particularly got my moneys worth.
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27 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars character-driven, thoughtful novel, September 1, 2007
By Constant Reader (Gloucester MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spook Country (Hardcover)
I have always been a fan of Gibson's, and so I was surprised by some of the negative reviews of this book-- and even more surprised now that I've read it! Gibson's writing hallmarks are here-- deft characterization, gorgeous writing, a way of presenting the world of (as one reviewer put it) product placement through a new perspective. In this book, echoes of other characters can be found-- musician-turned-journalist Hollis reminded me of Marly, and tranquillizer-addict Milgrim drifts through his experiences with a distance much like Laney's in Idoru. What's changed, however, is that instead of projecting his story into the future, it's set in a present-day which is as much science-fiction to most people as the future could be-- a world where wartime corruption, Malay straits pirates, artists working in GPS, and Ativan addicts come together and drift apart again. Gibson himself pokes fun at his own Neuromancer vision of VR, and suggests that we are all doing it now-- just without the gloves and goggles. This book was clever, thought-provoking, and surprisingly gentle in the end, with its characters and also with its vision of our (possibly not all that bleak) world, with lots of possibilities for redemption or at least continuing forward-- and, I thought, well-paced from beginning to end.

One warning: a lot of the reviews below, esp. the negative ones, have spoilers in them.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars It's Gibson, but not great Gibson., September 20, 2007
By Adam Z (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Spook Country (Hardcover)
Okay, let's start by acknowledging the truth: you are going to read this book, because it's William Gibson, and you and I both read everything he writes.

That said, this is not Gibson at his best. Some of the characters are brilliant, and others are either sketched in or shouldn't have arrived on-scene at all. The plot, such as it is, is basically an excuse to create scenes and have characters react to them. He hasn't lost his voice, but he hasn't got much to say with it here.

So, go ahead and read it, but it will be most satisfying if you go into it not expecting too much.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Smooth as Ceramic, Thin as a Microchip
A slick casing of ultra-modern style hold a waer-thin plot in William Gibson's "Spook Country". Mr Gibson returns to the augmented-reality world of 2003's "Pattern Recognition"... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Giles Gammage

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Solid Novel from William Gibson
There are few authors whose entire literary output I've read, but William Gibson falls firmly inside that camp. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Jeff in DC

2.0 out of 5 stars Spook Country
Reading this book is like having a really talented tour guide lead you through the suburbs of Houston - the excellent delivery and style are incapable of covering up the fact that... Read more
Published 15 days ago by mofolotopo

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant near future speculative fiction
I'm surprised by the luke-warm and negative reviews. This is one of my favorite Gibson books. Made so much more interesting because it is so close to the world we actually live in.
Published 22 days ago by vanderson

2.0 out of 5 stars Gibson Irrelevant?
I had high hopes for this novel. Like others, I'm a huge fan of William Gibson. I think he's done a great deal to change the face of the science fiction genre, in fact I think... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Enfelder

3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad to pass some time, but disappointing for Gibson fans
Most of what I'd like to say about this book has already been said, so I'll just underline a few things. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Captain Practical

1.0 out of 5 stars I admit, I didn't try very hard
But after two chapters I gave up.

I picked this book up because it was only $1 and the cover looked cool. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Aaron D

2.0 out of 5 stars hard start
I am having a hard time starting this book, but I will try to read it thru, so I will be back
Published 3 months ago by StuttsBear

1.0 out of 5 stars HUH???
This has to have been one of the worst books I've ever read. It's almost as if Mr. Gibson wrote this book to be confusing, jumbled and almost impossible to follow on purpose! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Wandering boy

1.0 out of 5 stars A Failure of Pythonic Proportions!
Save for a few chapters, this was a complete waste of time.

Gibson cannot write compelling female protagonists. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Thomas Shows

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