Cayce Pollard is a young marketing consultant with exceptional talent when it comes to deciding which new trade marks or logos will work in the market place. The downside to this talent is her allergy to excessive branding such as Bibendum (Michelin Man) and Tommy Hilfiger.
In her private life, Cayce is a ‘Footage Head”, posting regularly on the F:F:F site dedicated to discussing the random movie images that have appeared on the net. Mystery surrounds these intriguing images and thanks to Cayce’s latest consulting contract she has the means to fund her quest, which takes her from London to Tokyo to Moscow, to find ‘The Maker’.
Cayce is subject to soul delay (jet lag) throughout this story and is followed by a backstabbing Dorotea who knows the effect the image of Bibendum will have on her, and is also followed by fellow employee Boone Chu as their mutual employer would like to find the Maker too for the marketing possibilities. Cayce finds that she can only really trust Parkaboy a fellow footage head whom she only knows via e-mail and doesn’t even know his real name, and Voytek a young polish man who introduces Cayce to the Curta Calculator.
As with other Gibson novels there is a sub story, this one being that of Win Pollard, Cayce’s father who is so ‘quietly missing that it might be impossible to prove him dead’, which actually puts you on the wrong track.
The Curta Calculator is not, as I have found out, a science fiction creation but a real product. A perfect mechanical calculating device which looks similar to a pepper mill. Designed by an Austrian whilst in a concentration camp. Fascinating.
It takes a few chapters to grasp a William Gibson novel but by then he has really sucked you in. Read it slowly so you don’t miss a thing!
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