Mona Lisa Overdrive

With Mona Lisa Overdrive, I have finished William Gibson's "Sprawl" trilogy. It is very much more of the same: crime noir elements overlaid with sci-fi ideas and sensibilities. But more of the same is OK, because Gibson is a very good, very entertaining writer. Big questions are explored: what it the true nature of reality, is it an external thing that is overlaid on human consciousness or does the human mind create reality; what is the nature of their interdependence; when does a machine come alive; why are female assassins wearing mirrorshades so compelling? Bringing in characters from the previous two books in the trilogy, Neuromancer and Count Zero, Mona Lisa wraps things up, but not neatly, because the ending is open to further questions and, in a way, feels unsatisfying. But Mona Lisa Overdrive is a good book, the "Sprawl" is a very good trilogy, even if the ending feels a little less fresh than the beginning. Mona Lisa Overdrive and the books that preceded it paint a compelling picture of the sci-fi future in which we all might be living someday, in which we already are living to some degree. Good stuff.