I've become a big fan of William Gibson in recent years, although I've not read his early work. There's no one quite like him in contemporary fiction, as he transcends genre; he's a combination of literary science fiction, crime thriller, social commentary, and a few other things..this is a novel set in two near futures, one in which the world seems similar to ours, and then another which seems utterly different. The novel moves between these worlds, such that initially the reader doesn't know what's going on, or when anything is happening, but Gibson's prose is so compelling that the 485 pages just fly by, and eventually, without realising it the reader comes to understand, or almost, just what's going on, and what's happened. Cool as ice.