Books like Virtual Light

William Gibson begins his Bridge trilogy with this 1993 publication that was nominated for both the Hugo and the Locus awards.In the air of great protagonist names won hands down by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 cyberpunkapalooza Snow Crash with Hiro Protagonist, Gibson introduces us to Chevette Washington, a messenger living on the Bay Bridge between San Francisco and Oakland who gets caught up in corporate espionage surrounding some stolen glasses.But these are not just any glasses, they produce virtual light, enabling the viewer to see more than reality, and this is not just the Bay Bridge, this is Gibson’s world building after devastating earthquakes and after tumultuous socioeconomic and political upheavals.Taking off from his archetypal Sprawl series, Gibson gives us another foray into a near future cyberpunk landscape that mesmerizes as it entertains. While this lacks the fringe element edgy cool of Neuromancer, this is told more straightforward and has some early indications of the kind of writing Gibson would do with his Blue Ant series. SF readers who could not buy into the Sprawl books may find this one more approachable.Lots of fun and highly recommended.