Spook Country

By: William Gibson

Narrated by: Robertson Dean

Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

Tito is in his early 20s. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much - which she doesn't. She can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive 24 hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a "producer" and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

©2007 William Gibson (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. and Books on Tape. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“Part thriller, part spy novel, part speculative fiction, Gibson’s provocative work is like nothing you have ever read before.” (Library Journal)

"Set in the same high-tech present day as Pattern Recognition, Gibson’s fine ninth novel offers startling insights into our paranoid and often fragmented postmodern world....Compelling characters and crisp action sequences, plus the author’s trademark metaphoric language, help make this one of Gibson’s best.” (Publishers Weekly [starred review])

"Gibson excels as usual in creating an off-kilter atmosphere of vague menace.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Not Gibson's best

I'm generally a fan of Gibson's work, but this story just didn't grab me. The various plot threads were completely separate for much of the book, the ways in which they finally intersected weren't terribly compelling, and the resolution felt unfinished. Some great lines and scenes still, but nothing I would reread.

subtle and smart

Far more is communicated in this through context than exposition compared to any other of his books I've read. It felt slow at first but the mystery gnawed at me and the conclusion is worth it as all of the things you didn't understand before start making sense and you see things you missed completely that were clever foreshadowing of the plot.

The many spooks

There are multiple characters and scenarios going on in the start of this book. At first it is a bit difficult to discern all the weird happenings and there relationship to each other. Yet, the author slowly brings all of the characters closer and closer together until they all meet, in a way near the end. If anything the end is kind of anticlimactic considering the trouble the author goes to to weave his sterling web.

Spookily brilliant

This book is lower key than Gibson's Neuromancer series, which created cyberpunk, but yet as well-written, creative, and perhaps more compelling because in the end, it becomes more Tom Clancy than Tom Clancy about current events. Gibson avoids moralizing and trusts his audience to "get it." When we finally figure out the heroes and the villains, we are left praying that there still exists Americans like that. A bit more Le Carre and Greene than Clancy, hard care techophiles bear with it, the high tech war of spies unfolds and then builds. For hard core literati, no fears, the tech never overwhelms the story.
Art, as always, remains a major motif, and his take on virtual reality (the emerging locative art set) as the potential to be cluttered with a thousand uninteresting visions from mediocre artists is a strong contrast to the exuberant geekiness in Vinge's equally brilliant Rainbow's End. His bon mots on music are breathtaking.
The narration is good, not outstanding, but the book is so good, heck I could probably read it out loud and people would still enjoy it.

Female protagonist narrated by serious dude voice

It’s just a wee bit jarring to have Hollis Henry, a bad-ass female lead, narrated by a guy who sounds like the Jolly Green Giant. Also, the many accents could have been better. Cayce Pollard was so delightfully rendered! At any rate, the story is so fabulous that I got used to it anyway.

More characters--a superior novel!

I enjoyed William Gibson's previous novel, Pattern Recognition, but I felt as if there was something missing. Now I know what that was--in Spook Country, Gibson goes back to multiple points of view. We get to know several characters, instead of just one, with excellent results.

I have always read Gibson for his visual prose style and his speculations on modern life. But getting inside characters' heads may be what he does best. This go-round we get Hollis Henry, a former singer who's now a reporter; Milgrim, a very intellectual addict; and Tito, a sort of mafia apparatchik with a surprisingly spiritual outlook.

Hollis offers an interesting perspective on what it's like to be a former celebrity--if indeed she is still a former celebrity and not a current one. People still recognize her, yet her band is no longer together and she worries about her bills. Tito is at peace within himself although his circumstances are often uncertain.

Milgrim, however, is worth the price of the book. Frequently left to his own devices by the brutish Brown, he ponders philosophical questions, or reads an arcane book on medieval heresies. However, as an addict, he must remain practical, and the resulting mental balancing act had me laughing out loud on the bus.

All three are involved in a "caper" plot that, unlike some in previous Gibson novels, unfolds methodically, without feeling forced or rushed at the end. I wouldn't call this a thriller, but you will definitely want to listen to the end. Also, there was less angst and paranoia throughout, and more of a sense of hope for the world.

The narrator does a fine job, even with female voices, and his pronunciations were excellent. The production values were quite good as well, with consistent volume and no fuzzy spots.

Highly recommended--the best Gibson I've read in quite a while.

An experience not to be missed!

What made the experience of listening to Spook Country the most enjoyable?

Once in a great while a book comes along that transcends the events written about and explains something of deep and cosmic importance. I was stunned by the real story, uncoiling like an invisible serpent of stars, behind the "on the page" story of a woman hired to possibly write for a new magazine, and a parallel story of intrigue amongst a motley collection of spies.

What did you like best about this story?

This is Hollis in Wonderland as told by Gibson, a sci-fi cyber punk writer of epic proportions. I am practically obsessed with this book, both in print and the audio read in an intimate and engaging way by the incomparable Robertson Dean.

Which character – as performed by Robertson Dean – was your favorite?

Milgrim, although I have to say I loved them all.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The story is interdimensional, with so many levels to explore I can get lost in a single sentence like a maze that opens doors in my own mind. I didn't just read this book, I experienced it like a psychedelic trip down a white Lego lined rabbit hole.

Any additional comments?

These stories coil around each other like a DNA helix to create a new being, a glimpse into a future that could go very wrong or incredibly right. The biggest book, in terms of impact, that I have read in decades. I consider it a classic.

Gibson's weakest story yet.

I've been taking Gibson's novels in order of release. Oddly, I thought Pattern recognition was his best because of the primary heroine and the way he pulled 9/11 together in a way that held meaning in 2022 post pandemic. This one however lacks strong direction or characters and the performance is a baratone bland with poor accents. Gibson continues to attempt and fail at writing latino characters and cultures.

Full of ideas, but feels unfinished

***1/2

Part techno-thriller, part future prognostication, and part examination of the weird intersections of media, post-9/11 paranoia, reality, artifice, and cyberspace, Spook Country is a thought-provoking book, if not as compelling a one as I might have hoped. It's interesting to absorb the bemused viewpoint of the author who coined the word "cyberspace" twenty-five years ago, who seems to understand the concept now less as a trippy second reality and more as an extension *of* reality. Into this gestalt, both Gibson and his characters seem to come as wandering spirits from twentieth century orders, trying to remap a world that shifts beneath them as a new century gets underway.

Gibson is a good writer, with a dry, understated wit, and the ability to write characters who feel like inhabitants of today living in tomorrow without being an overbearing hipster about it. Unfortunately, though, some of the characters feel like sketches and the "thriller" aspect of the book is a bit of a snoozer. Though it begins involvingly enough, the novel doesn't shake the impression of being a set of loose ideas not fully fleshed out. The underlying conspiracy is too fuzzy to be gripping, and the end feels rushed.

Still, I'd like to read Pattern Recognition and whatever Gibson writes next.

stunning visual storytelling

Where does Spook Country rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

A truly memorable audiobook.

What did you like best about this story?

Gibson paints scenes so expansive in concept, I've thought about them for months afterwards.

Have you listened to any of Robertson Dean’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I hadn't heard of Roberston Dean. He's now on my favorites list.

Any additional comments?

Dean's calm, even voice delivers humor and sarcasm with perfect subtlety.