Book 63: "Mona Lisa Overdrive" by William Gibson
Monday, July 10th, 2006 19:16![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeAngie called pause again, rose from the bed, went to the window. She felt an elation, an unexpected sense of strength and inner unity. She'd felt this way seven years earlier, in New Jersey, learning that others knew the ones who came to her in dreams, called them the loa, Divine Horsemen, named them and summoned them and bargained with them for favor.
. . .
Bobby had told her about a general consensus among the old cowboys that there had been a day when things had changed, although there was disagreement as to how and when. When It Changed, they called it.
The third book in the Sprawl trilogy takes place 15 years after the events of "Neuromancer" and 7 years after those of "Count Zero" and contains four strands that come together towards the end; the story of 14-year-old Kumiko, a Yakusa chief's daughter who has been sent to London to stay with an English associate of her father; the story of a 16-year-old hooker from Cleveland called Mona Lisa, who bears a striking resemblance to stim star Angie Mitchell; the story of Angela Mitchell herself, who has split up from Count Zero and is no longer taking the drugs that stopped her hearing the loa talking to her; and the story of Slick and Gentry who live in an abandoned factory in the wasteland bordering the Sprawl, and who become involved when Slick is asked to do a favour for an old friend.
I decided not to leave such a long gap between reading "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive" as I did between the first two books, and that definitely helped reduce my confusion! Although there are still unanswered questions remaining at the end, the links between Lady 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool, Angela Mitchell and her father, the Tessier-Ashpool AIs, the loa and what happened 'When It Changed' become much clearer both to the characters in the book and the reader.
. . .
Bobby had told her about a general consensus among the old cowboys that there had been a day when things had changed, although there was disagreement as to how and when. When It Changed, they called it.
The third book in the Sprawl trilogy takes place 15 years after the events of "Neuromancer" and 7 years after those of "Count Zero" and contains four strands that come together towards the end; the story of 14-year-old Kumiko, a Yakusa chief's daughter who has been sent to London to stay with an English associate of her father; the story of a 16-year-old hooker from Cleveland called Mona Lisa, who bears a striking resemblance to stim star Angie Mitchell; the story of Angela Mitchell herself, who has split up from Count Zero and is no longer taking the drugs that stopped her hearing the loa talking to her; and the story of Slick and Gentry who live in an abandoned factory in the wasteland bordering the Sprawl, and who become involved when Slick is asked to do a favour for an old friend.
I decided not to leave such a long gap between reading "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Overdrive" as I did between the first two books, and that definitely helped reduce my confusion! Although there are still unanswered questions remaining at the end, the links between Lady 3Jane Tessier-Ashpool, Angela Mitchell and her father, the Tessier-Ashpool AIs, the loa and what happened 'When It Changed' become much clearer both to the characters in the book and the reader.
