零历史 (2010)

Zero History is a 2010 novel by William Gibson. Published by G. P. Putnam's Sons in the United States and Viking in the United Kingdom, it concludes the Blue Ant sequence begun with Pattern Recognition (2003) and continued in Spook Country (2007). Although the books share characters and concerns, Gibson did not plan them in advance as a trilogy.

The novel follows former singer Hollis Henry and recovering drug addict Milgrim, both of whom work for advertising executive Hubertus Bigend. Hollis searches for the designer behind Gabriel Hounds, a secretive clothing label that has gained a following without conventional marketing. Milgrim investigates military garment design as Bigend attempts to enter the military contracting business. Their assignments become entangled with corporate surveillance, a rival contractor, and the kidnapping of a researcher whose work could give Bigend an advantage in financial markets.

Like the preceding Blue Ant novels, Zero History is set in the recognizable contemporary world rather than an imagined future. Critics have described its close treatment of existing technology as a form of science-fictional estrangement in which digital networks, surveillance, and virtuality have become embedded in ordinary life. The novel also examines the relationship among military design, streetwear, branding, and cultural exclusivity, while Milgrim's recovery develops its concerns with personal agency, memory, and the reconstruction of identity.

Contemporary reviews were broadly favorable. Critics frequently praised Gibson's prose, cultural observation, and depiction of technology and material objects, while disagreeing over the novel's plotting, characterization, accessibility, and conclusion. Milgrim received particular praise for his movement from dependency toward greater independence. Zero History was a finalist for the 2011 John W. Campbell Memorial Award and placed fifth in the science-fiction novel category of the 2011 Locus Awards reader poll.

Background and publication

Published in 2010 by G. P. Putnam's Sons in the United States and Viking in the United Kingdom, Zero History completed the Blue Ant sequence begun with Pattern Recognition and continued in Spook Country. The sequence, however, was not planned in advance. Gibson said that he approached each novel as a potentially independent work and did not know, after completing Spook Country, whether a third book would follow. As he began composing a new novel, characters and material from the preceding books reasserted themselves. Milgrim reemerged as a changed viewpoint character encountering a world from which he had been largely absent for a decade. Gibson found him useful because his unfamiliarity with contemporary life made his reactions less predictable and created opportunities for other characters to explain developments to him. Other returning characters likewise emerged during composition rather than through a predetermined plan for a concluding volume.

Gibson described the composition of Zero History as a sequential process in which he continuously revised earlier material as the manuscript developed. He did not send the opening chapters to his initial readers until the first three seemed to form a coherent beginning. Gibson credited writers Jack Womack and Paul J. McAuley with reading pages frequently. McAuley also checked the novel's London material, while Louis Lapprend assisted with details concerning Paris. Scott Thill reported that Gibson delivered the manuscript at the end of March 2010, and Gibson confirmed by April 7 that the novel was complete. Gibson said that the internet primarily changed activities associated with composition, including research, communication, and the circulation of material, rather than increasing the speed at which he wrote.

Joshua Rothman placed Zero History within Gibson's turn from imagined futures toward fiction closely engaged with the contemporary world, describing the three Blue Ant novels as set roughly in the year before each was published. Gibson explained that he adopted this approach because the actual twenty-first century had come to seem stranger and more complex to him than most imagined science-fictional futures. He deliberately situated the novels in specific contemporary years, with the sequence extending broadly from 2001 to 2010. Gibson fixed Zero History in the period before the introduction of the iPad and considered adding the device after its release anachronistic. Twitter, by contrast, entered Milgrim's experience soon after Gibson began using the service himself. Gibson characterized the three novels as attempts to dissolve the boundary between science fiction and other forms of fiction by describing the present with the estranging effect of an imagined future.

Gibson treated research as part of ordinary experience, drawing on conversations, reading, and internet searches. In the novel's acknowledgments, he credited Michaela Sachenbacher and Errolson Hugh with introducing him to the organization and culture of a secretive clothing brand. He also credited Bruce Sterling with suggesting an "ugly T-shirt" concept after Gibson asked him about surveillance cameras. For the modeling career of Meredith Overton, Gibson drew on Jenna Sauers's anonymous memoir for Jezebel, which recounted frequent international travel, agency-controlled expenses, delayed payments, and the limited earnings of models outside the industry's highest tier. The novel's London motorcycle courier material drew on Mark Gardiner's 2009 Motorcyclist feature examining the couriers' work, equipment, finances, occupational risks, and support infrastructure.

Books on Tape released an unabridged audiobook narrated by Robertson Dean on September 7, 2010. A United States paperback edition followed from Berkley on August 2, 2011. That year, Penguin reissued the Blue Ant novels alongside Gibson's Bridge trilogy as part of a uniform edition.