This is the first book of The Bridge, a newer trilogy by Gibson which reintroduces many of his earlier ideas within the context of the new technologies that had come out since the Sprawl Trilogy.

In this first book, he ties together the ideas of existential and interstitial sociology and introduces a concept he calls “nodal points.”

It was interesting to see how he updated his idea of “the matrix” or “cyberspace” (both terms which he invented for The Sprawl Trilogy).

Rather than plugging your brain into the network, you use VR. This reflects the way technology actually evolved after he wrote the Sprawl Trilogy. But the title of this book refers to a new technology predicted by Gibson; Virtual Light is basically the same as VR, only the images you see are generated in the brain electromagnetically rather than being viewed on screens in the goggles.