Just finished "Spook Country" by William Gibson

[GoneOffShore]

Really well written and subtly funny in parts.

"Odile shrugged, in that complexly French way that seemed to require a slightly different skeletal structure."

[OriginalGeek]

1. The cyberpunk guy?

Like Neuromancer and Mona Lisa Overdrive? Because that would be sweet...

brb, gone googlin'

[GoneOffShore]

2. Same guy -

Idoru, Pattern Recognition.

All good ones.

Plus he's just published a book of non-fiction essays.

[OriginalGeek]

3. Damn he's got a few books done since I last checked in with him

Excellent! I got some books to buy!

[GoneOffShore]

4. You're going to find as you go through them

- and I suggest you go in the order written -

that his style has gotten spare and bleaker. That isn't a criticism but an observation. I do like the direction he's moved in. The characters are more finely drawn and his word pictures even more disturbing.

[OriginalGeek]

6. I've been in a reading slump lately

nothing has really excited me for a while but now I'm excited. Thank you for posting up this thread - I might have gone another couple years before thinking about Gibson if you hadn't mentioned him.

[Melissa G]

7. I'm kinda bummed about the bleaker style

but I love Gibson and will go find the last two books I've missed.
Thanks for the heads up!

[flying rabbit]

5. Gibson is amazing.

His words paint pictures that few authors could dream of.

[Mopar151]

8. Head and shoulders above most writers

He'll ruin you for Dean Koontz and Steven King, and many other popular writers. He comments often that one of his carachters, Hubertus Bigend "has far too many teeth".
Bonus for obsessive gibsonites: The pilot in "Spook Country" is based (IMHO)on a figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. Real name, nickname, previous occupation, means of real-life demise - discuss. Answer posted here tomorrow.

[GoneOffShore]

9. Thanks for the puzzle -

I'll have to go and do research.

[Mopar151]

10. Answer here

Short answer: Adler"Barry"Seal - El Gordo (The fat man) - Pilot extrodinaire, CIA asset, smuggler, assasinated in '86

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKseal.htm