My problem with Pattern Recognition is that it has _the same plot_ as Count Zero (the sequel to Neuromancer). Not precisely, but in both cases an art expert is hired by a mysterious billionaire to track down the mysterious creator of a series of mysteriously beautiful artworks and eventually discovers that they are created by *spoiler* (which is admittedly slightly different in each onem but in both cases is basically a maguffin).
Do you have a problem with the plot in principle (i.e. do you have a problem with Count Zero as well), or do you just dislike the repetition? I'm not wild about such things myself, but then I haven't read CZ so I can't really compare the two, I like PR plenty for what it does around that plot, and given that 'Cayce' is already a reference to the original trilogy, it's not inconceivable that the plot is also intended as a reference. Is there anything in PR that's a reprise of the third book? :)
I wasn't that mad about what PR did around the plot - there was a bit of exploration of the way that branding and advertising works in the modern world, but as I already knew all of that anyway I wasn't that enthused by it. If it had had a plot I didn't already know (or characters I cared about) then I might have been grabbed.
It's been so long since I read Count Zero that I can't remember the plot, so that didn't bother me. For me, the Neuromancer trilogy gets its classic status merely from being created at a particular point in time, rather than because it's a great set of enduring novels with a fascinating story to tell. Neuromancer is all about prose style and world-building, not plotting
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Reading Neuromancer when it had just been published in 1984 (Ace SF Special edition) was quite an experience. I've not reread it, but your comments speak to the immense influence it has had. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, immitation to the extent that your work becomes banal must be quite an achievement.
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