Gibson's early Matrix novels, Neuromancer (1984), Count Zero (1986), and Mona Lisa Overdrive, created a punk-inspired future world centered on the renegade underground of computer cowboys, drugs, and crime. In Virtual Light, Gibson chooses to enter the novel from the other side of the moral spectrum — from the perspective of characters trying to establish lives that are useful, but who are thwarted by bad luck, innocence, or the vices of others. Berry Rydell, one of the central characters of the novel, wants to be a straight arrow policeman, and Chevette Washington, the other central figure, tries to make a life for herself as a bike messenger. Both are caught up in a plot that forces them to confront their own weaknesses and to come to terms with the consequences of their actions.

Virtual Light continues to pursue the Gibson preoccupation with the impact of technology on individuals'...