Is this book part of a series?

This novel is the first entry in what is commonly referred to as the Blue Ant trilogy, followed by Spook Country and Zero History. While these books share the recurring character Hubertus Bigend and the same industrial espionage agency, they function as independent stories that can be read separately.

How did the events of 9/11 influence the writing of this book?

The author was approximately 100 pages into the manuscript when the September 11 attacks occurred, which forced him to significantly rewrite the world and character backstories to reflect the shift into a new, post-9/11 reality. This transition serves as a central motif throughout the narrative.

Pattern Recognition

Cyberpunk Mystery

Pages: 384
Published: 2003
Language: English

Cayce Pollard's job is to hate logos, but a mysterious film fragment uploaded online pulls her into a global hunt for its creator. She's drawn into a world of eccentric hackers, vengeful executives, and a cultish group in Tokyo. This search for the elusive 'garage Kubrick' becomes a journey through the mysteries of London and the digital age.

Prose complexity: 7/10

Dark Tense Mysterious Thought-Provoking Atmospheric

Quest Reluctant Hero

William Gibson

William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the "noir prophet" of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace" in his short story "Burning Chrome" and later popularized the concept in his debut novel, Neuromancer (1984). In envisaging cyberspace, Gibson created an iconography for the information age before the ubiquity of the Internet in the 1990s. He is also credited with predicting the rise of reality television and with establishi...

Cayce PollardProtagonist

Dorotea BenedettiAntagonist

A rival agency's operative with a background in industrial espionage who targets Cayce after she rejects Bigend's logo redesign.

Hubertus BigendSupporting

Belgian-Canadian founder of the ad agency Blue Ant who bankrolls Cayce's search for the footage's creator.

Boone ChuSupporting

A computer-security specialist Bigend brings on to help Cayce trace the footage's source.

All characters in Pattern Recognition

Frequently asked questions

Is this book part of a series?
This novel is the first entry in what is commonly referred to as the Blue Ant trilogy, followed by Spook Country and Zero History. While these books share the recurring character Hubertus Bigend and the same industrial espionage agency, they function as independent stories that can be read separately.
How did the events of 9/11 influence the writing of this book?
The author was approximately 100 pages into the manuscript when the September 11 attacks occurred, which forced him to significantly rewrite the world and character backstories to reflect the shift into a new, post-9/11 reality. This transition serves as a central motif throughout the narrative.