By many standards, Gibson is a slow writer – his book publishing career is 27 years old, and consists of nine and a half novels, a book of short stories and this collection of essays – but he is a very, very fine one. His work has been seminal to many key moments at the end of the last century and the start of this one, and it is a rare pleasure to read his direct reflections on society and his work, rather than inferring them from his fiction. This is a fine and even essential complement to the Gibson canon, and a delight to read.