“Spook Country” Audiobook Update

[Audio_Al]

Note from Audio Al: Science Fiction is my favorite genre and I’m looking forward to a great listening experience…more later. Al


Title: Spook Country (Science Fiction) - William Gibson's first new book in four years…like his bestselling Pattern Recognition. It's a contemporary novel with international implications.

Author: William Gibson

From www.biblio.com:

William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American author, mostly of science fiction novels, who lives in Canada. He is one of the leading members of the cyberpunk movement.

Gibson was born in Conway, South Carolina, USA. In 1968, he moved to Canada, and in 1972, he settled in Vancouver, B.C., where he began to write science fiction and has spent his adult life. His early works are generally futuristic stories about the influences of cybernetic and cyberspace (computer simulated reality) technology on the human race living in the imminent future. His '80s fiction, especially, has a noir, bleak feel. His first novel, Neuromancer, won three major science-fiction awards (Nebula, Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Memorial Award).

More recently, Gibson has begun to move away from the fictional dystopias that made him famous, toward a more realist style of writing, eschewing his trademark jump-cuts in favour of continuity and narrative flow. The novel Pattern Recognition even saw him enter the mainstream bestseller lists for the first time. There is, however, still the focus on technological change, and in particular on its darker, less predictable social consequences.

In addition to his paper works, he also wrote an electronic poem called "Agrippa (A Book of the Dead)" in 1992, and flirted with writing a weblog from January to September 2003. Gibson had also written a highly anticipated treatment of Alien 3, few elements of which ever found their way into the ultimate film.

Despite all these, Gibson never had a special relationship with computers. In fact, he only recently started using e-mail.

Narrator: Robertson Dean – Has acted on and off Broadway and in regional theater, and has also appeared on television and in films. He can be seen in the film “Forgiving the Franklins” and can be heard narrating several other audio books.

Publisher Synopsis: Tito is in his early twenties. 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 anti-anxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four 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.

Other Background: "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)

The following is a summary of some of the published works of William Gibson:

Series:

Sprawl
1. Neuromancer (1984)
2. Count Zero (1986)
3. Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988)

Bridge
1. Virtual Light (1993)
2. Idoru (1996)
3. All Tomorrow's Parties (1999)

Novels:

The Difference Engine (1990) (with Bruce Sterling)
Johnny Mnemonic: The Screenplay and the Story (1995)
Pattern Recognition (2002)
Spook Country (2007)

Collections:

Burning Chrome (1986)

Unabridged:
Number of CDs: 9
Number of Hours: 11
List Price: $29.95
Downloadable: www.audible.com

Abridged: N/A

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Publication Date: August 7, 2007

Hardback/Paperback: Hardcover from Putnam Adult, 384 pages, 07 Aug 2007

Audio Sample: www.audible.com