It occurred to me that I never got around to posting my thoughts on the final part of the Blue Ant trilogy so here it is despite me finishing the damn thing several months ago. I'd like to say this is the shocking conclusion that upends your expectations, pulls them inside out and launches them into the stratosphere of critical re-evaluation but that would be an awful, awful lie...
So yes it's the last stop on the Blue Ant express and I've come to the conclusion that I've read less a series of stories and more a collection of the author's musings on niche topics, hidden subcultures and the elusive technological frontier. Half developed musings at that, all connected via the basic skeleton of a narrative thats mainly turning up for the participation award and little else.
There is some faint semblance of something interesting beneath the surface here but it never breaks through into the tale proper. The stories themselves feeling incidental and secondary to the aforementioned obsessions. They have all the constituent parts to be sure, almost like they were clinically ticked off a check box list. None of it really engaged me beyond momentary, sporadic passages however and the overall effect ends up being very much ado about not very much at all.
I guess I was holding out hope that the long running strands of this trilogy might pay off with a satisfying finale. A moreish page-turner never arrives alas. Things happen but it all feels very incidental, like a more interesting tale is unfolding elsewhere. A chief criticism here and throughout the trilogy is that very same lack of immediacy, that the writer himself doesn't feel terribly involved in his writing and gets less involved the longer it proceeds.
That's not to say there isn't enjoyment to be found here. It might be at the expense of the story and characterisation but the musings and fixations of the writer are very much centre-stage, a real window into the mind if you will. Repeated references to high tech inflatable penguins and 'Piblokto Madness' themed beds in exclusive eccentric hotels keep coming at you throughout. I got the sense someone was tickled pink at it although it was rarely myself. Again some compelling threads appear in the subject matter but are rarely pulled upon.
Calling it a tale of industrial corporate espionage centred around art and design outlines the shape of the thing but doesn't really do justice to just how glacially it all comes together. Taken on subject matter alone I really wanted to like this, it's not without a certain quirky charm but few sustained passages if any reward the effort. Pacing, as already mentioned, was an issue, the issue for me. The events taking place are hardly stationary but unfold laboriously.
Final word, I'm not sure what I got out of this. Hoping that the trilogy would be a sum greater than it's parts I persisted to the very end and still found the whole experience wanting. Perhaps the author could give a fascinating talk on the ideas that make regular cameo appearances throughout these tales but I'm unconvinced of his ability to wrap a story around them in a satisfying way.
Much as with Hubertus Bigend, the ever present future-seeking founder of the Blue Ant agency, there's a veneer of intrigue throughout that never materialises in the actual writing into something genuinely compelling. Ultimately it made these 416 pages less a joy to read and more a task to be completed. Its content perhaps more befitting of a collection of tech culture essays than a riveting tale of exploration through niche subcultures.
Final, final word. Mild recommendation to avoid unless you're really into the subject matter, and even then there are probably better efforts to be found elsewhere. Best for all involved if I give 'modern' Gibson a wide berth for the foreseeable.
Until next time folks!
(Disclaimer: this is an expanded and revised edition of some initial and more immediate thoughts posted on Goodreads and Amazon a short time ago. A deliberate counterpoint, a benefit of hindsight edition that tests the method in the madness of immediate impressions. In short, the longer version.)
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