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Bridge

It's here! Browse the 2024 Penguin Christmas gift guide

'Doesn't come any more stylish than this' Sunday Telegraph 
 
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THE FIRST BOOK IN THE BRIDGE SERIES - READ IDORU AND ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES FOR MORE 
 
San Francisco in the nearish future. 
 
Ex-cop Berry Rydell's lost one job he didn't much like and landed another he likes even less. Some sunglasses - actually high-end kit infused with super-sensitive data - were stolen from a courier, and a man named Warbaby's been charged with retrieving them. And Warnaby needs Rydell's help. 
 
But, with SFPD Homicide involved, an abandoned bridge populated by freaks and misfits, and some weirdness involving the Republic of Desire and a 'Death Star', it's turning out to be a very strange and dangerous scene indeed . . . 
 
Can Rydell navigate this unsteady reality in time to save the city . . . and himself? 
 
William Gibson, author of the classic Neuromancer and creator of cyberpunk, here turns his hyper-acute imagination on the near future - to supercharged, nerve-shredding effect. 
 
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'Audacious, witty and passionate. A wonderful read' Observer 
 
'A stunner . . . a terrifically stylish burst of kick-butt imagination' Entertainment Weekly 
 
'Studded with crackling insights into the relationship between technology, culture and morality' Time Out

An American Ballard, using the tropes of science fiction to satirical and productively alienating effect

One of the first authentic and vital novels of the 21st century

A major novelist who seems to be hitting his peak

William Gibson is credited with having coined the term "cyberspace" and having envisioned both the Internet and virtual reality before either existed. His first novel Neuromancer sold more than six million copies worldwide, and Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive completed the trilogy. He has written six further novels about the strange contemporary world we inhabit. His most recent novels include Spook Country, Zero History and The Peripheral. His non-fiction collection, Distrust That Particular Flavour, compiles assorted writings and journalism from across his career.

Virtual Light

Idoru - a gripping techno-thriller by William Gibson, bestselling author of Neuromancer 
 
'Fast, witty and cleverly politicized' Guardian 
 
Tokyo, post-event: 
 
After an attack of scruples, Colin Laney's skipped out on his former employer Slitscan - avoiding the rash of media lawyers sent his way - and taken a job for the outfit managing Japanese rock duo, Lo/Rez. Rez has announced he's going to marry an 'idoru' by the name of Rei Toi - she exists only in virtual reality - and this creates complications that Laney, a net runner, is supposed to sort out. But when Chai, part of Lo/Rez's fan club, turns up unaware that she's carrying illegal nanoware for the Russian Kombinat, Laney's scruples nudge him towards trouble all over again. And this time lawyers'll be the least of his worries . . . 
 
William Gibson is a prophet and a satirist, a black comedian and an outstanding architect of cool. Readers of Neal Stephenson, Ray Bradbury and Iain M. Banks will love this book. Idoru is the second novel in the Bridge trilogy - read Virtual Light and All Tomorrow's Parties for more. 
 
 
'Sharp, fast, bright . . . a must' Arena 
 
'A classic technothriller . . . lean, evocative, tense' Wired 
 
'Luxuriate in prose simultaneously as hard and laconic as Elmore Leonard's and as glacially poetic as JG. Ballard's . . . an exhilarating ride' New Statesman 
 
William Gibson's first novel Neuromancer has sold more than six million copies worldwide. In an earlier story he had invented the term 'cyberspace'; a concept he developed in the novel, creating an iconography for the Information Age long before the invention of the Internet. The book won three major literary prizes. He has since written nine further novels including Count Zero; Mona Lisa Overdrive; The Difference Engine; Virtual Light; Idoru; All Tomorrow's Parties; Pattern Recognition; Spook Country and most recently Zero History. He is also the author of Distrust That Particular Flavor, a collection of non-fiction writing.

William Gibson was brought up in the southern United States but has lived in Vancouver for many years. His novels include the hugely successful Neuromancer trilogy and most recently Zero History.

Set in futuristic Tokyo, rebuilt after an earthquake, this is the story of a rock star who decides to marry a non-existent,virtual reality girl; the bemused American security consultant who has been sent to take care of him; and a teenage fan. A witty futuristic thriller.

Idoru

A GRIPPING TECHNO-THRILLER BY THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NEUROMANCER, THE THIRD NOVEL IN THE BRIDGE TRILOGY 
 
'With more insight, wit and sheer style than any of his contemporaries Gibson continues to patrol the nebulous zones that separate science fiction, contemporary thrillers and genuine literature' Independent 
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 The Bridge, San Francisco, after the quake: 
 
 Ex-cop Berry Rydell has been hired by Colin Laney - who is hooked deep into the network of things - to go to San Francisco and act in such a way that he comes to the attention of a certain unspecified individual. This, Laney promises Rydell, could prove life-threatening. And now Rydell's been sent a package. Something that belonged to Laney, something that others with guns, blades and very bad attitudes want. And suddenly Rydell's running, trying get to the old Bridge, the shantytown where a man can get lost, be forgotten and wait for the end of the world - which is the other thing that Laney promised . . . 
 
 William Gibson is a prophet and a satirist, a black comedian and an outstanding architect of cool. Readers of Neal Stephenson, Ray Bradbury and Iain M. Banks will love this book. This is the third novel in the Bridge trilogy - read Virtual Light and Idoru for more. 
 
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 'Scintillating . . . probably the most important novelist of the past two decades' Guardian 
 
 'Writing at flame intensity, Gibson conjures a world that seems just a breath away from the here and now' Salon

A gripping, techno-thriller from the bestselling author of Neuromancer

Rydell is on his way back to near-future San Francisco. A stint as a security man in an all-night Los Angeles convenience store has convinced him his career is going nowhere, but his friend Laney, phoning from Tokyo, says there's more interesting work for him in Northern California. And there is, although it will eventually involve his former girlfriend, a Taoist assassin, the secrets Laney has been hacking out of the depths of DatAmerica, the CEO of the PR firm that secretly runs the world and the apocalyptic technological transformation of, well, everything. William Gibson's new novel, set in the soon-to-be-fact world of VIRTUAL LIGHT and IDORU, completes a stunning, brilliantly imagined trilogy about the post-Net world.

Bridge

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