William Gibson is famous for a lot of reasons. His debut novel, “Neuromancer,” was the first book to the “triple crown” of science fiction awards – the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award. He arguably launched two entire genres of sci fi – cyberpunk and steampunk. And he coined the term cyberspace – about a decade before it actually existed.
In fact, many now believe that Gibson’s sci-fi work in the 1980s actually determined the eventual trajectory of the World Wide Web. All those engineers and designers in the 1990s, after all, had grown up with Gibson’s books. When it came time to actually invent cyberspace, Gibson had already provided the conceptual blueprints.
But for science fiction fans of a certain intensity, Gibson is probably most famous for his utterly distinctive prose style. Dense, multivalent and hyper-specific, Gibson’s writing requires a lot of attention from the reader. His books have the effect of slowing the reader down, even as they depict a world where everything is moving impossibly fast.
This Tuesday at 7 pm, Gibson will be reading from his latest novel, “Zero History,” at the Reynolds Theater in the Bryan University Center at Duke. Gibson will also be signing books afterward, and the event is free and open to the public.
The third book to take place in Gibson’s contemporary setting, “Zero History” follows the fates of three characters – morally ambiguous marketing mogul Hubertus Bigend, musician and journalist Hollis Henry, and the chameleon-like recovering addict known as Milgrim – as they work to uncover a government conspiracy.
The new book shares many of the same characters and concerns as Gibson’s previous two novels, “Pattern Recognition” and “Spook Country. The setting? “About five minutes into the future.”
Speaking in his friendly, laconic drawl from a hotel room in Denver, the previous stop on his 20-city book store, Gibson spoke about 9/11 attacks, optimism for the future and the power of Googling.
Glenn McDonald 