Title: A disappointing retread of old Gibson ideas
Product review: All Tomorrow's Parties reads like a poor amalgam of Virtual Light and Idoru. Several scenes of Parties mirror similar scenes from Gibson's previous work, and it's possible to imagine Gibson sitting down with discarded notes from Virtual Light and Idoru to crank out Parties. Worse yet, Gibson seems bored with the characters he reprises. It shows in his inability to have them do anything interesting other than act confused and make references back to the better books in which they first appeared. While the confusion of his characters worked in other novels, here it merely highlights the lack of cohesiveness in characterization, plot, theme, and even tone. Nothing is very smooth in Parties, and I must wonder if Gibson's finally out of magic.
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