Virtual Light   by William Gibson

Virtual light is simply a process whereby retinal nerve endings are directly stimulated to give the same effect as if light had fallen on them, thereby allowing computer-generated images to be sent directly to the brain via a pair of special glasses which cover the eyes. Like much of the technology described in this book, the vision feels remarkably close to where we are going in reality, but things are sufficiently general that it is not difficult to have made these Oracular kinds of predictions (drones with guns in the form of remotely-controlled model helicopters with chemical squirters are also imagined). In fact the whole thing seems like a very contemporary (1993), and quickly dating, piece of science fiction writing.

The first two-thirds of the book give a good introduction to a future Southern California, centring on the Golden Gate bridge which has become a cyberpunk favella, the hero living out of a box which has been placed right on top of one of the cable-supporting towers of the bridge. The hero is a common girl, a courier who finds herself walking in on an expensive party and steals a pair of sunglasses from a cretinous man who makes himself a nuisance on her. The glasses are in fact just a memory storage device, but they hold important security information and the organization behind the man need to hunt the girl down to get them back.

And so it becomes a macho cat-and-mouse chase, the girl finding help from a friendly rogue copper and the pair of them embark on a run-for-your-life. The action takes in and explores beautifully the futuristic environs of San Francisco and, later, though less effectively, Los Angeles.

But the ending is awful. It comes out of nowhere, introduces an extra two dozen characters, and is a quick shoot-ʼem-up. The book simply has not been finished; perhaps the publisher rushed the author to print?