Title: Mona Lisa Overdrive

Author: William Gibson

Rating: 8/10

I read this back to back with Count Zero. It is much closer to Count Zero than CZ was to Neuromancer in terms of continuity. Much of what I said about CZ applies here as well. Gibson keeps the 3 disjunct viewpoints up throughout this book as well. The characters, again, don't have the same kind of grit and style as they did in Neuromancer (for me anyway). I missed the Neuromancer Molly, where she was much more complex. In MLO, she's reduced down to her business woman side. Why poor Mona has to go through what she does, I don't entirely understand. And what was Kumiko's purpose? They are interesting viewpoints from which to tell a story. They are, after all, participants in the drama. However, they seem more like intriguing observers sometimes than actual participants.

Mona Lisa Overdrive focuses on Angie, mostly, and resolves her connection to cyberspace. Well, it resolves everything at the very end with a Deus Ex Machina or sorts (ironic since it is the machines who are behind everything but the final "machina" is probably not what one would expect). This final book also drives home the impact of cyberspace on, and its contention with, reality. It is more and more true now that cyberspace is taking over our lives. Is it all that far-fetched to think that we could project what we do in the real world into a virtual world? That religions, gods, and monster could form in cyberspace? Gibson's imagery is exciting, thought-provoking, and, at its very best, disturbing realistic (or should I say disturbingly possible). That the futuristic feel of it doesn't feel outdated even in 2004 is quite an accomplishment.