William Gibson (born 1948, so nearly 80) is a speculative fiction writer and essayist. In the 1980s he pioneered the science fiction subgenre known as cyberpunk. In his 1982 short stories, ‘Burning Chrome’, he coined the term ‘cyberspace’ for the ‘widespread, interconnected digital technology’ which was, at that point, merely a dream and a speculation, and went on to develop the idea in his brilliant first trilogy of novels, starting with ‘Neuromancer’ (1984). The trilogy came to be called the Sprawl trilogy after the name given by its characters to the vast urban sprawl which engulfed the east coast of America when they are set i.e. the mid-to-late 21st century. He also collaborated with Bruce Sterling on the alternate history novel ‘The Difference Engine’ (1990), which became a key work in the science fiction subgenre of ‘steampunk’.

But having established these early (dazzling) achievements, the key fact for me about Gibson is that he wrote two further trilogies of novels, each of which is set closer and closer to the present day, with steadily less and less science fiction in them. In my opinion, the final trilogy, which abandons science fiction tropes altogether to become all about the buccaneering owner of a high end advertising agency, marks a steady decline from his early visionary work, to becoming just a glorification of the GQ, men’s magazine world of consumer capitalism.

List of reviews

• Neuromancer (1984)
• Count Zero (1986)
• Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)
• Burning Chrome (short stories, 1986)
• The Difference Engine (1990; with Bruce Sterling)
• Virtual Light (1993)
• Idoru (1996)
• All Tomorrow’s Parties (1999)
• Pattern Recognition (2003)
• Spook Country (2007)
• Zero History (2010)

List with plot summaries

The Sprawl trilogy (set in mid- to late-21st century)

All set in a thrillingly conceived digital noir future, which Gibson himself snappily described as ‘a combination of lowlife and high tech’. Cyberspace consists of:

‘A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children taught mathematical concepts… A graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding…’ (Neuromancer, page 67)

Neuromancer (1984) In a fast-moving, hi-tech future, after a catastrophic war between America and Russia, digital hackers can insert chips into sockets behind their ears and ‘jack into’ ‘cyberspace’. Case, a young hacker, just 24, is recruited for a final job—restoring his ability to enter cyberspace in exchange for helping a mysterious AI manipulate a team of criminals into carrying out a complex heist.

Count Zero (1986) Seven years after ‘Neuromancer’, three seemingly separate storylines — a corporate mercenary rescuing a scientist’s enhanced daughter, a young hacker nearly killed by mysterious software, and a disgraced art dealer searching for the creator of strange objects — gradually converge to reveal that powerful corporations and a dying billionaire are competing for advanced ‘biosoft’ technology, while fragmented AIs in cyberspace (appearing as voodoo gods!) secretly manipulate events.

Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) Eight years after ‘Count Zero’ and fifteen years after ‘Neuromancer’, the story is formed of several interconnecting plot threads converge — a prostitute hired in a plot to abduct a famous simstim star, a yakuza boss’s daughter protected in London by a disguised Molly Millions (from the previous novel), a damaged artist caring for a comatose hacker linked to a powerful ‘Aleph’ device, and the star herself struggling to regain her cyberspace abilities. The kidnapping is foiled and key characters upload their consciousness into the Aleph, while Mona is surgically altered to replace the star. In the strange ending powerful AIs appear to be evolving beyond human control…

Sprawl short stories

Burning Chrome (short stories, 1986) Ten science fiction short stories, three of which shed light on characters we’ve met in the ‘Sprawl’ universe.

Steampunk / alternative history (set in 1855)

The Difference Engine (1990; with Bruce Sterling) In this alternative history, inventor Charles Babbage not only speculated about a computer, he actually built one, creating an entire new history. So we are in London 1855 but a London with far more advanced technology, and a completely different political system reflecting the rise of ‘the Industrial Radical Party’. In this brilliantly conceived alternative London, multiple characters — including a data courier, a fallen aristocrat, and a radical thinker — become entangled in political intrigue over a set of mysterious punched cards containing a powerful program which could determine the future. It ends as obliquely and puzzlingly as many other Gibson novels.

The Bridge Trilogy (set in 2006 onwards)

When he published the novels, 2006 was a decade into the exciting future. Now, of course, it is twenty years back in the boring past. But in the future of the trilogy California has been wrecked by an earthquake which divided it into the separate states of NoCal and SoCal, and wrecked the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, whose ruins have been converted into a huge vertiginous shanty town of noir low lives and crims – the wrecked bridge being the setting and symbol of all three novels and giving its name to the trilogy.

Virtual Light (1993) Chevette-Marie Washington, a young bicycle courier, steals a pair of advanced ‘virtual light’ glasses that contain valuable data, triggering a pursuit by corporate and security forces. Her story intersects with disgraced ex-cop, Berry Rydell. Together they uncover a conspiracy tied to urban redevelopment and surveillance technology. Half way through the novel I realised that, beneath its digital, cyberpunk gloss, Rydell is basically a tough-guy hero in the mould of John McClane or Jack Reacher, and all of a sudden Gibson seemed less special.

Idoru (1996) Set largely in post-earthquake Japan, Idoru centres on rock star Rez who announces he is going to ‘marry’ Rei Toei, an ‘idoru’, a type of artificial intelligence who exists as a virtual media star. The novel follows two intersecting storylines, that of data analyst Colin Laney and a teenage Rez fan, Chia Pet McKenzie, as they are drawn into a conspiracy about nanotechnology smuggling, which involves corporate forces, criminals, and online networks. The book’s focus on celebrity and identity feel much more contemporary, of our time, and modish than previous novels.

All Tomorrow’s Parties (1999) Reunites characters from the previous novels, namely Berry Rydell (security guard and protagonist of ‘Virtual Light’), computer hacker Colin Laney (the protagonist of ‘Idoru’), Shinya Yamazaki (self-described ‘student of existential sociology’) and bicycle courier Chevette. There are numerous intertwined storylines – Berry is sent to San Francisco by Laney who can predict key ‘nodal points’ in history; Chevette trying to hide from her past; pawnbroker Fontaine looking after young orphan Silencio; and a mysterious assassin working for a powerful media figure — all gradually converging on the bridge, where they disrupt an attempt by corporate interests to control an impending historical shift.

Blue Ant trilogy (set in the present day)

Having retreated from visions of the future, this trilogy of novels was set in the present, and centred on the ludicrous figure of advertising executive and futurologist, Hubert Bigend. When I first read that name it struck me that Gibson was taking the piss out of his legions of fans and devotees in the book world, daring them to swallow such a preposterous moniker. Also, his manipulative behaviour towards young women has shades of Harvey Weinstein and Jeffrey Epstein. Yuk. Creepy.

Pattern Recognition (2003) Follows Cayce Pollard – a marketing ‘coolhunter’ with an unusual sensitivity to branding – who becomes obsessed with a series of mysterious, anonymously released online film clips known as ‘the footage’. She is hired by Bigend and travels between London, Tokyo, and Moscow to uncover their creator, navigating a global subculture of fans and a web of corporate intrigue.

Spook Country (2007) Three loosely connected storylines — rock journalist Holly Henry investigating a new form of ‘locative’ art that uses GPS to project virtual images into real space; former addict Milgrim, recruited by a mysterious government-linked figure to transport a secret shipping container; and Tito, a Cuban-Chinese operative tracking the same cargo — gradually converge to reveal a covert intelligence operation involving stolen data and post-9/11 surveillance networks. A sad decline from Gibson’s early glory, these books are hymns to Dad Rock and boomer aesthetics, all black leather jackets, dark glasses and creepy middle-aged men ordering round pretty young women.

Zero History (2010) A 400-page novel about has-been rock stars and pretentious advertising executive: set: set mostly in London and featuring key characters from Spook Country, namely rock singer-turned journalist, Hollis Henry, and reformed drug addict Milgrim, who are commissioned by advertising guru Hubertus Bigend to track down the mysterious designer of fashion brand, Gabriel Hounds. Flashy twaddle.