Zero History by William Gibson was one of the emergency books I picked up on my trip to Amsterdam and what a lifesaver! It kept me from going crazy on the flight over, although it almost kept me from getting any sleep! It’s a wild ride through secret territory that kept my attention every second.

Zero History is about fashion…sort of. It’s about underground fashion — so secret that there are no stores, no catalogs, no websites. There is only a mailing list and if you’re lucky enough to be on it, maybe there’s a cryptic message. The meet might be in Tokyo. Or London. Or Perth. Bring cash.

It’s also about technology. In Gibson’s worlds, there is technology under the surface of things, behind the scenes, hidden from most people. Those flashes of light in the sky aren’t UFOs — someone knows exactly what they are, but they aren’t going to tell you. There may very well be a sinister purpose behind those traffic cameras on every corner, a purpose so secret that even the people who designed them don’t fully understand how they can be used.

And then there are the people. There are some amazing characters in this book. There’s Hubertus Bigend, a man as big as his name. He’s got the sort of power that you don’t see, that moves behind the scenes and makes anything possible. There’s Milgrim — a former drug addict with a subtle but powerful gift. He sees things in ways that normal people do not. Bigend’s money and influence got him cleaned up and now Bigend uses his special talents. And then there’s Hollis, who worked for Bigend once and swore she’d never do it again. Now she’s in financial trouble and her former boss is taking advantage.

I loved this book. It’s fast-paced, it’s well written, the vocabulary is terrific and the story does not go any of the places you expect it to go. The characters are unusual, like Fiona the bike messenger who is so much more than a bike messenger and Garreth, extreme-sport enthusiast, who may have connections that go even higher than Bigend’s. I am fascinated by the hotel Hollis is living in, Cabinet, full of curiosities and strange artwork. (When I read this piece on the Los Angeles hotel, Petit Ermitage, I immediately thought of Cabinet.) I want to rent an apartment there and sleep under the big bird cage.

William Gibson looks like such a normal guy, but he writes these crazy, amazing books! Sadly, it doesn’t look like his tour schedule is coming anywhere near my town, or the towns I travel to, but I keep hoping. There’s more about him at his website.

My copy of Zero History came from one of the bookstores at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

Let’s talk about sci-fi and fantasy novels: Last month, NPR asked their listeners to nominate their favorite science fiction and fantasy titles. They got thousands of responses! Now, they’re asking you to vote for your favorites. The problem for me was narrowing it down to just 10. I could have picked 10 modern ones (starting with The Gone-Away World), 10 fantasy titles (Lord of the Rings, anyone?) and 10 classics (The Martian Chronicles? Earth Abides?). But I managed. I also managed to print off the list, for future reference.

So take a look and tell me, what did you vote for?

I loved this book so much that I posted a pre-review review, urging you all to go out and buy the book. It has been a long time since a book made me want to shout out loud and dance around my hotel room, but this book did.

It is the story of the survivors of the Go-Away War, a war fought with bombs that didn’t make things explode, but instead made them go away. The reasoning goes something like this: matter needs information to tell it what to be – whether it should be a table or a pumpkin or a schnauzer. Strip away that information and matter becomes just Stuff; shapeless, formless and harmless. In theory, these bombs just dissolve that bit of information and your enemies – and their cities, their houses, their furniture, their children – become so much dust in the wind. Problem is, things never work out in theory quite the way you expect. As nature abhors a vaccuum, Stuff hates to be formless. It yearns for that bit of information.

Our nameless narrator and his best friend, Gonzo Lubitsch, are on the front lines of this war and its aftermath. They are principals in the Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company, men and women who aren’t afraid to step into the breach. When they end up working for Jorgmund, the corporate behemoth that controls much of the post-war world, there is bound to be trouble.

The book is part kung-fu epic, part sci-fi romance, part philosophic screed on what it means to be human, plus post-apocalyptic adventure and frenetic, laugh-out-loud hilarity. The twists and turns in the plot leave you questioning everything that has come before. I don’t know how else to categorize it – a well-read friend described it as “Pynchon with dashes of P.G. Wodehouse and Alexandre Dumas.” The fact that it’s a first novel just floors me. I will be devouring the next book Nick Harkaway publishes as soon as it hits the shelves – sooner, if I can manage it.

This is one of those reviews that needs to percolate for a little while, but I wanted to give you just a taste of how I felt about this book: I was in bed, in my hotel, enjoying a quiet evening of reading. In the big climactic scene of this book, when a certain character (who must remain nameless in this review) steps out and delivers his big line, it was all I could do to keep from shouting out loud in my hotel room. And I simply can’t say any more about that.

See, I am not a spoiler virgin. I like spoilers! I do not mind one bit knowing what’s coming up in a movie or a tv show – after all, it’s not just the big finale, it’s the whole long journey that gets you there. Sometimes it is even more fun to know what’s going to happen, because you can be on the lookout for the clues and enjoy the little flourishes.

In this case, the spoilers are just too big. Knowing them, even for someone like me who embraces the foreknowledge, would have taken so much away from my enjoyment of this. So there is much – so much – that I won’t tell you. What I will tell you is this: Buy. This. Book. Do it now – this is the sort of thing that one-click ordering on Amazon was made for. You won’t regret it.

Give me a few days to think on this (and to calm down a little!) and I promise you a proper review.