Zero History (William Gibson)

This book shares a universe and several characters with Pattern Recognition, which I loved, but this one didn't work quite as well for me. It seemed more scattered. Pattern Recognition had one central character; this had two or three, and they didn't seem quite as well realized. Milgram, for instance, has "zero history," meaning that he has no credit, employment, or other records, but this doesn't seem to figure in the story much, and no explanation is given as to why Bigend chose this particular drug addict out of the millions in the world to rehabilitate and use as a tool. The plot seems equally scattered, with themes of military contracting, flying robot penguins, rock bands, secret fashion designers, odd hotel rooms, and stock market manipulation. The solution involved a real deus ex machina, for though the character who pulled it off had been mentioned throughout, no justification for his skill set was forthcoming. I probably shouldn't have expected it to live up to its predecessor, but I was disappointed nonetheless.