Spooky

We put up our Fall/Halloween decorations this weekend. Although our family is not in love with the background and occult meanings surround Halloween, we like the autumn celebration of things. Halloween trick or treating is sometimes the only time we speak to our lesser-known neighbors. The kids have chocolate. The adults get to chat and connect.

I just finished reading William Gibson's Spook Country. I was introduced to this author in college, when I was required to read Neuromancer. Some dozen books later, I remain a committed fan. His latest is set in the present, like Gibson's last novel Pattern Recognition. Gibson created his own language for his earlier sci-fi-cyberpunk works, actually introducing the definitions cyber space and cyber punk into the English language. I've been trying to describe the style of Spook Country, and the first word to come to mind is dense. Gibson has an amazing handle on the English language. His intellectual abilities tower over my own. After a few chapters, I was afraid that I'd get lost in the maze of plot/characters/intricate descriptions. I stuck with it, though, and was satisfied when I finished the book. Not the best he's written, but still entertaining. A different kind of spooky, during these cooling autumn days...