'Virtual Light' plot summary
Chevette Washington lives among thousands of homeless on the Bay Bridge and
is a bicycle messenger in San Francisco. She stumbles into a party of the super-rich
after her last delivery and impulsively steals a case with sunglasses from a guy
who annoys her. The glasses are a new kind of virtual reality unit called 'Virtual
Light' which directly feed the optic nerve with EMP to create images. The program
in the glasses is top secret, which leads to the courier who owned the glasses
being murdered and Chevette being hunted by the ruthless killer Loveless. She
manages to get away from him, but as she tries to get help from her ex-boyfriend
Lowell, she is arrested by SF policemen. ¶
Berry Rydell is an ex-policeman in Los Angeles who lost his job after killing
a man who held his family hostage. He was opted for by the famous TV show 'Cops
in Trouble' but was dropped when a more sensational case turned up. He then worked
as a driver for IntenSecure but was suspended after some hackers of the 'Republic
of Desire' sent him on a fake operation. His boss at IntenSecure got him a job
as a driver with the San Francisco policemen which investigate the theft of the
VL glasses and the subsequent murder of the courier. He meets Chevette as she
is being arrested on the bridge. ¶
As Chevette sees Loveless with the policemen and tells Rydell that he killed
on of her friends, Rydell decides to flee with Chevette. They get rid of the car
and think of what to do when Rydell meets the woman who sat next to him on the
plane. They decide to drive with her to Los Angeles, but after they both fall
asleep they find Loveless in the passenger cabin. He tells them that the woman
is working for the same company as he, and he also tells them that the program
in the glasses is a plan to rebuild San Francisco with huge, self-sufficent towers.
They manage to escape Loveless by putting an amphetamine drug in his drink. ¶
Rydell decides to go to Sublett's place, his colleague at IntenSecure. He
lives in a trailer camp in the desert which belongs to a sect that thinks television
is the ultimate manifestation of God. From there, Rydell establishes contact with
Lowell and manages to get access to the 'Republic of Desire'. As he tells the
hackers of the rebuilding scheme, they decide to help him. Rydell then agrees
on a meeting with the policemen to give them the glasses back. While Chevette
and Sublett go to the producer of 'Cops in Trouble' and tell her the whole story,
Rydell manages to overpower Loveless attacking Chevette, and the policemen are
arrested by anti-terrorist units called by the hackers. In the end, Rydell, Sublett,
and Chevette are signed up for a new episode of 'Cops in Trouble'. ¶
'Idoru' plot summary
Colin Laney has the special ability to make out patterns and 'nodal points'
in huge quantitives of data and thus predict certain aspects of the future. This
was made possible by dosing him with the experimental substance SB-5 during his
youth in an orphanage. After working for Slitscan, a tabloid celebrity show, he
changed to Out of Control, a counter-investigative show, but they dropped him
after they found out that most SB-5 test subjects turned into homicidal celebrity
stalkers. Rydell, the night security man at his hotel, tells him about a job as
a net runner in Tokyo. He decides to go to the interview, which is held by Yamazaki
and Blackwell, the bodyguard of Rez, of the very popular rock band Lo/Rez. ¶
Chia McKenzie is member of the San Francisco chapter of the worldwide Lo/Rez
fan club. Chia is sent to Tokyo by her chapter to find out about latest rumors
which indicate that Rez intends to marry the idoru Rei Toei, a completely artificial
media star. On her flight she meets Maryalice who uses Chia to smuggle something
through customs. Chia can't find out anything via the Japanese Lo/Rez fan club,
but shortly after she learns that she is followed by the Russians. ¶
Laney is contracted by ParagonAsia Dataflow, the Lo/Rez shell corporation,
to find out more about Rez's intentions and the marriage. But since Laney can't
process Rez's data, he insists on a personal meeting. At dinner at the Western
World, Laney meets Rez and the idoru, but shortly after the party is attacked
by Russian mercenaries. According to Blackwell, the Russians thought that Rez
possesses something belonging to them. ¶
Chia and Masahiko, the brother of a chapter member, go to the love hotel Di
to port anonymously. They are supported by Masahiko's friends in the Walled City,
a kind of multi-user domain. Soon afterwards, Maryalice, her boyfriend, and a
Russian mercenary show up. The thing Chia smuggled turns out to be a heavily proscribed
nanotech assembler which the Russians are not allowed to import legally. ¶
Laney accesses the data again with both the global fan database activity and
the idoru data added. Now he can see the nodal points of Rez and Rei who are on
the verge of merging, and also realizes that the bio-module localized at the Hotel
Di will be some kind of medium for the marriage. ¶
As they show up at the hotel, it is surrounded by several thousand mourning
Japanese fans, since a rumor was spread that Rez died. This rumor was initiated
by Zona, Chia's friend in Mexico, who realized that Chia was in trouble. Meanwhile,
Rez and Blackwell were sent to the hotel by the idoru to cut a deal with the Russian.
They exchange the nanotech assembler with a small island in the Tokyo Bay belonging
to the Lo/Rez management. Chia, after meeting Rez in persona, becomes less and
less involved in her fan club and rather spends her time in the Walled City. ¶
'All Tomorrow's Parties' plot summary
Colin Laney, who during his childhood was regularly dosed with a substance
which made him sensitive to patterns and 'nodal points' in vast amount of data,
now lives in a cardboard box in Shinjuku subway station, Tokyo, and is seriously
ill because of the substance. After the events of 'Idoru', he was employed by
the management of the band Lo/Rez to assist Rez and the idoru Rei Toei with their
planned marriage. Now he is obsessed by the media figure Cody Harwood, a multi-billionaire
PR genius. He believes the a major change of the world is on the verge of happening,
and he feels it has something to do with the idoru and Harwood. ¶
This is the reason why he sends Berry Rydell to San Francisco. Rydell is currently
working as a security guard in Los Angeles for a global conveniance store chain
from Singapore, the 'Lucky Dragon'. After arriving in San Francisco, he recieves
a package which he finds out contains the idoru's holoprojector. His task is to
take care of the projector, which Harwood's men are looking for on the bridge.
¶
Harwood dosed himself with the same substance Laney was exposed to and thus
feels the change is coming as well. His only aim is to remain as powerful as before
after the change. His latest project is installing Nanofax units in all 'Lucky
Dragon' branches over the world, a technology to create an exact facsimile of
an object at any distance. ¶
As Harwood's men fail to get the holoprojector from Rydell, who was able to
escape with the help of his ex-girlfriend Chevette, they try to burn down the
bridge. Meanwhile, Laney and the idoru, who are supported by the Walled City denizens,
chase Harwood through information space and manage to get hold of him with the
help of the deaf boy Silencio. Harwood is then killed by one of his own men. Rydell
and Chevette find together again, Laney's haunted mind finds peace, and the 'big
change' is a perfectly human idoru stepping out of every Nanofax unit in the world. ¶
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William Gibson aleph 
San Francisco summaries
