Behold the Man
Nebula winner and the New Wave's most notorious provocation: time-travel paradox as theology, handled with a seriousness that outlasted the scandal.
Book Entry · Science Fiction
What is Pattern Recognition about?
Cayce Pollard is allergic to brands — literally, phobically; a Michelin Man can put her on the floor — which makes her priceless as a 'coolhunter' who can taste whether a logo will fly. Hired by the sinister ad mogul Hubertus Bigend to trace the maker of 'the footage' — anonymous film fragments seeding obsessive online communities — she follows it from Camden to Tokyo to Moscow, in the long shadow of her father's disappearance on 9/11. Gibson's first novel set in the present, on the argument that the present had become science fiction; the technique is unchanged, the estrangement total.
Why it matters
The model for SF-of-the-present that much of the literary mainstream quietly adopted; viral marketing, fan forums and brand paranoia mapped before the platforms that perfected them existed.
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