If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.Techno-Dystopia: "Idoru" by William GibsonI think it's very telling - and promising, that this guy who thinks he can predict an apocalyptic future for Earth where 80% of people are killed has had at least the first part of his dystopian fantasy fall at the first hurdle. Just because you got it right on a few obvious ones - Cyberspace, virtual reality, reality TV, etc., doesn't guarantee that kind of thinking is going to take you much f...

William Gibson's books are, like Neil Gaiman's after him, almost exclusively predicated on Super Cool Ideas. And the Ideas in question are indeed Super Cool; there was a Black Mirror episode with essentially the exact same concept, because Black Mirror steals nine out of ten of their "ideas" (I didn't watch the actual episode), and it was pretty popular, around two decades after Gibson's Super Cool Idea first hit the market. Anyway, this is Hatsune Miku.

Good read and good fun. A bit predictable if you know Gibson's works, but good read because not despite of it.

William Gibson's Idoru starts off a slow burner, which is great as it allows him to really delve deep into this then near-future world he has created which is not too far away from what the late 2000s actually turned out to be. It's paced perfectly and allows Gibson to explore his usual themes of emerging technology and its sociological impact, the realisation of an evolving AI in the form of a Japanese idol singer, nanotechnology and humanity's place amongst this high-tech world we find ourselv...

You know, it seems like I would really like William Gibson, from what I've heard of him, but there's something about his writing that leaves too much out. This book is the first of his I've been able to finish. I still don't feel like I understood everything he was trying to say--something about a melding of science and nature, centered around the music star Rez and the idoru Rei. It was interesting, but I kept feeling like it was something I was reading out of the corner of my eye, and every ti...

Alternating NarrativesThere are two alternating narratives in "Idoru". At the end, they merge and become one. "The job worked out."Rez is the singer in a half Irish, half Chinese band called Lo/Rez, which has outstayed its welcome to (and embrace of) celebrity, and released 26 albums (not counting compilations) since their first Dylanesque-labelled "Lo Rez Skyline". The Technology of OnenessTo the dismay of their obsessive (girl) fans, Rez has announced that he intends to marry Rei Toei, an idor...

As with Virtual Light, the selling point of this book is the setting, not so much the story. Gibson's futuristic Tokyo is not too different from present-day Tokyo, but it's still fun to walk the streets of nanotechnology-enhanced Shinjuku and feel the uncanny thrill of a place that is at once familiar and wholly strange.And, as with Virtual Light, I found myself far more engrossed in the coming-of-age side-story than the hardboiled noire backbone on which the novel rests. Chia, the plucky teen w...

10/25/2012Last night my daughter introduced me to one of her hot new things on YouTube: Hatsune Miku, a purely synthetic pop star. In return, I introduced her to this book in which Gibson predicts such a thing, twenty years ago. Then we checked out her other hot new thing, the PBS Idea Channel and among other things, we watched Mike Rugnetta talk about the connections between Gibson, Hatsune Miku, Lana del Rey, pop culture, technology and art. And then I told her about a show that used to be o...

A Goodreads friend commented that William Gibson’s Bridge trilogy was underrated. I would agree and add under appreciated and under hyped.Began in 1993 with Virtual Light, this continues with Idoru published in 1996. Bookended by his wildly popular Sprawl series and his later uber-cool Blue Ant trilogy, Bridge seems to be the Grunge 90s of his set, not as hip-flashy as the 80s nor as Ka-Ching as his Y2K writing. But as Grunge exhibited some refreshing and earthy revitalization of popular hard ro...

Quote: ...I think I'd probably tell you that it's easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.There is an odd surface tension here; some readers may approach Idoru from the wrong bias, through the lens of Neuromancer and the Sprawl trilogy. Those readers will expect the traditional cyberpunk romp of amphetamine-fueled Yakuza battles and twisted violent sex in coffin hotels; those reader...

Was this first published in 1996? No way! It doesn't feel that long ago since I read it. So, 25 years later, Idoru is still a cracking read. It feels almost spookily relevant, too, especially after the recent film Blade Runner 2049. A famous singer declares his intention to marry a Japanese "idoru", an A.I. Can an artificial personality have feelings for a person, and vice versa? Vivid world-building, some convincing characters, and a plot that twists and turns throughout.

I really thought I will enjoy this but it seems too unrealistic for me barely able to finish this.

About half the way into this book I had a rough outline for this review in my head. It went somewhere along the lines of "if Gibson's stories sucked you in as his world descriptions do he would write the best books ever..." And that was when the story grabbed me!So why did I rate it 4 stars and not 5? Well truth is, the hold did not last all the way through and another "problem" is the characterization. Even the main protagonists could be Idorus judging by their bleak impressions and I frequentl...

I re-read it (even though there are about 50 new books that stare at me from shelves) and got reminded why I love cyberpunk and this book in particular. Why hasn't anyone filmed this yet??

Gibson is an ideas man: big on 'what', not on 'why' or 'how'. It's been said enough times that his predictions are spookily accurate. This book - written in 1996 - features many foreshadowings of the current time. A time where we hide behind an avatar, led around by geo-aware goggle-boxes. Social networks, always-on broadband, CGI pop stars (nearly).Gibson's writing has distance. The (lethargic) characters seem behind a transparent wall; you can see but not touch. Laney - one of two protagonists...

Now this book I remember better than its immediate predecessor, "Virtual Light". One might guess that it is because I liked "Idoru" better than VL, but I think it is another subjective factor. From the early to end of the 90s I did a fair amount of traveling and East Asia, including Japan was where I went often. So, I suspect that familiarity with the locations and real-world culture and people helped make a stronger impression on me than people living in San Francisco (which city I have only se...

A fast-paced, exciting story about the intersections of realities and identity. This is also one of the rare books that gets the mindset behind fandom. An impressive piece of cyberpunk.

The fact that some of the "futuristic" detailing of this story is already here and old hat wasn't lost on me, but didn't bother me either. The story world of this book is a believable take on the not-too-distant future. I loved the fantastic worlds people create together to interact online, and the way their avatars have morphed into fully-loaded alter egos. People create elaborate virtual sets and props for their meetings, parties, escapist fantasy, musical sessions, and just about everything e...

After a few of Gibson's cyberpunk novels, I'm starting to see a pattern in the structure of his plots and the composition of his worlds. But they're enjoyable patterns and settings that I'd love to see more of, so I can't really fault him for that.His vision of Tokyo scarred by a massive quake ("Godzilla"), and rebuilt by emergent technology is probably the most glaring similarity between this and the first book in the trilogy, Virtual Light; without having read the third, it seems like they cou...

Not as good as Virtual Light. Tokyo setting yet the plot feels less like jap cyberpunk than Virtual Light. The VR content is cringe. One of the characters is some 14 year old girl who never actually does anything but ride around in taxies & chat with some harlot. The nodal stuff was obvious bullshit but at least on that front the author clearly understood that & subsequently used it merely as a deviceWHICH REMINDS ME. I had planned out a review of this a couple weeks ago in a drunken stupor. So