<p> Done. Enjoyable. There&#39;s a sense of humor in these three books that I don&#39;t remember from any of his prior novels, though it&#39;s been an admittedly long time since I&#39;ve re-read any of them.</p> <p> That said, the distinguishing feature of the trilogy begun with <em>Pattern Recognition</em>–and <em>Zero History</em> make sure you know that it&#39;s truly a trilogy, with the three books tied quite firmly together–seems to be that when I&#39;m done with them, I don&#39;t feel like I&#39;ve really been presented with anything new. More like I&#39;ve been given a tour of exotic locales, with an interesting plot to tie them together, and characters who interest me. But it&#39;s a stark contrast between this and, any of the Sprawl books, or even the eschaton presented in the Bridge novels. That&#39;s not bad, but it confounds my expectations somewhat.</p>

<p> Now that <em>Zero History</em> is out, I decided to go back and re-read the prior two Bigend Books.</p> <p> I first read <em>Pattern Recognition</em>, on a trip to Miami in 2003 just after it came out. At the time, I thought it might be my favorite of William Gibson&#39;s books. Now…well, I still enjoyed it, but it felt a little light on substance. Perhaps it&#39;s that it was trying to posit something changing just a little too close to the present, and as a consquence, it seems more glaring when it misses the mark. The whole idea of the Sekrit Footage, when considered in light of YouTube just doesn&#39;t quite have the resonance it did 8 years ago.</p>

<p> From <em>Pattern Recognition</em> I moved on immediately to <em>Spook Country</em>.</p> <p> I enjoyed this more the second time through, though if I hear the phrase &#34;locative art&#34; again, I may scream. It&#39;s another one of those ideas that doesn&#39;t seem to have gotten any traction in the last four years, and in the end just served as an annoying distraction from the rest of the book, which I quite enjoyed. It made me look forward to <em>Zero History</em>, which I started yesterday.</p>