Just Finished Reading: Zero History by William Gibson (FP: 2010)

Ex-musician Hollis Henry knows almost nothing about the fashion world – which makes her the ideal candidate to track down a secret clothing brand known as ‘The Gabriel Hounds’, at least as far as her strangely Machiavellian boss Hubertus Bigend is concerned and no one, but no one, argues with the head of the Blue Ant ad agency. Wearing a ‘hounds’ leather jacket as an ‘in’ with the in-crowd Hollis is given her first clue to the identity of the mysterious designer of this must-have brand as well as an assistant she just can’t figure out. Known only as Milgrim he seems to see things – patterns, objects, trends – that no one else can perceive. ‘Born again’ in a rehab centre after years of near fatal drug addiction he is the latest prodigy created by Hubertus for as yet reasons unknown. Only beginning to find his way in a strange yet familiar world Milgrim has another unique quality that few in the modern ultra-connected world can even aspire to. Because of his years active in the drug underworld avoiding all contact with the authorities he has left little trace in cyberspace. He has, in effect, zero history. So when another agency, even more aggressive than Blue Ant, are determined to get to the Hounds designer no matter the cost – in money or blood – it might be this special talent that saves them all.

I’ve been a huge fan of Gibson since I read his ‘Sprawl’ novels in the late 1980’s. His nearer stuff, like this fascinating story, is both stranger and more down to Earth. Based in the now/very near future rather than decades hence these novels have the same feel of speed, street level culture, hyper violence and cool ‘punk’ technology as any of his tales of Cyberspace – yet with the impact of today’s headlines. As always his characters are brilliant – flawed, real, troubled, with their individual strengths, weaknesses, histories and relationships that immediately feel real. The dialogue is outstanding and does honestly feel that you’re listening in to real people having real conversations as you walk past them in the street. How he does that I have no idea but the ‘feel’ of things throughout the book is very tangible – even when little is actually happening ‘on screen’.

The odd thing was that for at least a good ¼ to 1/3 of the way through the book I had no clear idea what was actually going on – and it absolutely didn’t matter because the writing was just so damned good! When it all started to come together at around the half way mark I found myself nodding and grinning as things fell into place and it all started making much more sense. Needless to say I really, really liked this book. It’s not often that, on turning the last page, you feel like you’re losing access to people you actually want to get to know better and to sit down with them in a bar somewhere and just chat. This novel was chocked full of those kind of people and I really hope that I meet some of them again in his future novels. Highly recommended for anyone interested in adult literature that doesn’t patronise you or treat you like a child. You might need to put some effort into keeping up with things but I can certainly say that it’s worth the effort.