Reddit mentions of Pattern Recognition (Blue Ant)

Gibson has gone through a bit of a metamorphoses. He came out in the early 80s and became one of the founding writers of "cyberpunk." He has one trilogy written in the eighties, and one written in the 90s with a slightly different feel, and both are squarely in the cyperpunk genre. Then the 2000s happened and Gibson felt that the real world had already gotten so weird that writing speculative fiction was a bit unnecessary, so he started writing books that are closer to modern day reality, and less "cyberpunk."

I recommend you start with his latter stuff, away from the earlier cyberpunk material. The earlier stuff is really good but it seems a little dated in 2016. Start with Pattern Recognition, which is the first book of a trilogy that includes Spook Country and Zero History. These three books are so strange and so interesting, I cannot recommend them enough.

William Gibson's newer stuff, namely Zero History, Pattern Recognition, and Spook Country. I think Gibson tends to stumble on little-known and very under-appreciated trivia when he's writing, and he'll pack his stories absolutely full of little references and clues that almost compel you to go learn things.

I can't see Bibendum's name in writing without thinking of Cayce Pollard's phobia regarding him

Adblock got rid of that one for me... sorry about that.

Read Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. It is about something similar to your scary future and a good book to boot.

I wish I could take credit; the quote is an excerpt from a review which was included in my copy of Pattern Recognition

I have a friend that looks a lot like her. I'm not sure how creepy it is that my friend is what my favorite fictional character, Cayce Pollard, looks like in my head.

I'm pretty sure this is the one you want, but it's always a good idea to shop around all formats and editions.

http://www.amazon.com/Pattern-Recognition-William-Gibson/dp/0425198685/

Anyway, good book!