The Peripheral

paperback, 512 pages

English language

Published July 9, 2015 by Berkley Publishing Group, Berkley.

ISBN:
978-0-425-27623-5
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4 stars (27 reviews)

The Peripheral is a 2014 science fiction mystery-thriller novel by William Gibson. The story involves multiple futures. Amazon is currently working on a television series adaptation of the book.

2 editions

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

A triumphant return to SF, in fact far more extreme SF than Gibson has ever written before. Time travel, strange loops, and vaguely ominous corporations all make for an intense, slightly dreamy read that reminds me more of New Wave SF in the late 60s, early 70s than the cyberpunk that Gibson will forever be associated with. No one writes prose like Gibson; captivating, hypnotic, and hard-edged at the same time.

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Throughout much of the book, I was reading it with the possibility in mind that the two futures were not in alternate continua, but that one might be a post-singularity simulation running inside the second. This seems to not be the case, although I wasn't sure until an offhand reference in the author's end note.

I wonder why Gibson didn't embrace that ambiguity. Maybe because it would weaken the characters -- at least I often find books that go that direction to have characters who are too cold and inhuman underneath, while here the main two characters are very warmly human in their different ways. Maybe he just generally wanted to avoid the Singularity rabbit-hole (can't blame him).

The mysterious Chinese server -- that neither side seemed to investigate or attack the other side's connection with in any way, seems like the biggest plot oversight in retrospect.

Anyway, very poetical …

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