The Dystopian Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller from the Author of the Peripheral
416 pages
English language
Published May 27, 2021 by Penguin Books, Limited.
THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NEUROMANCER 'Dazzling, astoundingly inventive' The Times 'Wild, richly satisfying' Guardian 'Terrific' Spectator __ San Francisco, 2017. Clinton's in the White House, Brexit never happened - and Verity Jane's got herself a new job. They call Verity 'the app-whisperer,' and she's just been hired by a shadowy start-up to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice. Only Eunice has other ideas. Pretty soon, Verity knows that Eunice is smarter than anyone she's ever met, conceals some serious capabilities and is profoundly paranoid - which is just as well since suddenly some bad people are after Verity. Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked by all-seeing policewoman Ainsley Lowbeer with interfering in the alternative past in which Verity and Eunice exist. It appears something nasty is about to happen there - and fixing it will …
THE THRILLING NEW NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF NEUROMANCER 'Dazzling, astoundingly inventive' The Times 'Wild, richly satisfying' Guardian 'Terrific' Spectator __ San Francisco, 2017. Clinton's in the White House, Brexit never happened - and Verity Jane's got herself a new job. They call Verity 'the app-whisperer,' and she's just been hired by a shadowy start-up to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice. Only Eunice has other ideas. Pretty soon, Verity knows that Eunice is smarter than anyone she's ever met, conceals some serious capabilities and is profoundly paranoid - which is just as well since suddenly some bad people are after Verity. Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked by all-seeing policewoman Ainsley Lowbeer with interfering in the alternative past in which Verity and Eunice exist. It appears something nasty is about to happen there - and fixing it will require not only Eunice's unique human-AI skillset but also a little help from the future. A future which Verity soon fears may never be . . . __ 'One of the most influential writers around...with Gibson's trademark panache, the story rattles along with great pace and suspense' Sunday Times 'One of our greatest science-fiction writers' New York Times 'A sensual, remarkably visual ride, vigorous with displays of conceptual imagination and humour' The Guardian 'Among our most fascinating novelists' Daily Telegraph 'Gibson is a prophet and a satirist, a black comedian and an astounding architect of cool' Spectator 'One of the most visionary, original, and quietly influential writers currently working' Boston Globe 'His eye for the eerie in the everyday still lends events an otherworldly sheen' New Yorker 'Engaging, thought-provoking and delightful... [Gibson] can always be counted on to show us our contemporary milieu rendered magical by his unique insights, and a future rendered inhabitable by his wild yet disciplined imagination' The Washington Post 'Gibson blurs the line between real and speculative technology in a fast-paced thriller that will affirm to readers that it was well worth the wait' Booklist 'Typically visionary, yet plausible and thrilling too' I Paper 'If you're one of those who sees Gibson as a visionary, it's time to be scared - the scenarios he's playing with here don't make for comfort reading' SFX magazine
A good book for those who enjoy long descriptions of people getting on and off motorbikes and in an out of vans. Ironically, the protagonist has remarkably little agency.
Honestly, this would have been 3 stars, except the beginning REALLY did a good job of hooking me. I loved the concept and the execution, I loved the way the plot went from 0-100 in the first part of the book, and I loved the characters.
After the first half, I feel like it got a little aimless, though. It's very much a cyberpunk counter-espionage thriller, but includes all the really boring parts of what that entails. There's a lot of moving around, shaking tails, and a lot of waiting. Honestly, it could have been shorter, except I think Gibson sort of wanted to fill out the world of "the big stub". Unfortunately, the slow-moving (and often off-screen) London beauracracy of the future isn't exactly thrilling.
But then you get through that, and there's a pretty good ending that really made me want a third book. I like …
Honestly, this would have been 3 stars, except the beginning REALLY did a good job of hooking me. I loved the concept and the execution, I loved the way the plot went from 0-100 in the first part of the book, and I loved the characters.
After the first half, I feel like it got a little aimless, though. It's very much a cyberpunk counter-espionage thriller, but includes all the really boring parts of what that entails. There's a lot of moving around, shaking tails, and a lot of waiting. Honestly, it could have been shorter, except I think Gibson sort of wanted to fill out the world of "the big stub". Unfortunately, the slow-moving (and often off-screen) London beauracracy of the future isn't exactly thrilling.
But then you get through that, and there's a pretty good ending that really made me want a third book. I like what Gibson built on to the setting he established in The Peripheral, and I like that he didn't feel the need to revisit that exact setting. You get a better idea of what the stakes are outside of one timeline.
I feel like this is a bridge to the third book, but it could have been better. That said, I'm hoping the last book wraps everything up in a satisfactory way, but there were definitely moments where I felt like I was just getting through the story to see what happened.
It's a William Gibson book, so obviously I think it's brilliant.
It's a William Gibson book, so obviously I think it's brilliant.
Dare I say it? This book is a little boring. I suppose Gibson’s earned the right to just explore techno-future ideas without worrying too much about character and plot after giving us a lifetime of great stuff. As always, the tech is interesting and the language is fun. But overall not nearly as good as The Peripheral.
I listened to this book with a sinus infection so maybe I missed some of the charm, but there are not one but two exposition characters constantly asking what's going on, and they're abosulty necessary to keep the story straight. And are often apologized to because nobody has any idea what is gong on or why people are going places and doing things. There are narrative reasons for all of this, but it's a big glamor show with no real impact. In fact the last 30% of the book could have not included the protaganist and it would have gone exactly the same way. While we got flashy fights and over the top stunts with the main character keeping a stiff upper lip and going along for the ride, I still can't tell you why.
It's a narrative full of "and then" and no "there for" or "but".
…
I listened to this book with a sinus infection so maybe I missed some of the charm, but there are not one but two exposition characters constantly asking what's going on, and they're abosulty necessary to keep the story straight. And are often apologized to because nobody has any idea what is gong on or why people are going places and doing things. There are narrative reasons for all of this, but it's a big glamor show with no real impact. In fact the last 30% of the book could have not included the protaganist and it would have gone exactly the same way. While we got flashy fights and over the top stunts with the main character keeping a stiff upper lip and going along for the ride, I still can't tell you why.
It's a narrative full of "and then" and no "there for" or "but".
Awesome characters, great scifi ideas, I still love the series and will read book 3 when it comes out, but it could have skipped the Gibson "heist admit chaos" crescendo since the heist had no payoff what soever.
High momentum pulpy / intellectual read that feels, like all the best Gibson, like a view into the cutting edge of now.
Its interesting to see gibson circle back on his hit - this is very similar to neuromancer, but more grounded, and somehow set last year, or a few years ago even.
There is a minor grandpa vibes developing too. I don't think gibsons politics are bad, they just feel more visibly centrist than they were in the past.
Its interesting to see gibson circle back on his hit - this is very similar to neuromancer, but more grounded, and somehow set last year, or a few years ago even.
There is a minor grandpa vibes developing too. I don't think gibsons politics are bad, they just feel more visibly centrist than they were in the past.
The AI character, Eunice, was the best part. I was fascinated with the idea of the number and depth of tasks she was capable of simultaneously, coordinating an astounding series of cause/effect to reach a goal. The rest of the book was a maze of confusing subplots and characters I didnt feel anything for, which led to not keeping track of much and not enjoying the book as much as I hoped to.
other dislikes: Topics from 2020 are name-dropped then forgotten. A main character is a remote-control robot where every single mention includes the location or circumstance of the charger it comes with. OMG the charger got tedious. The character names feel like advanced scrabble moves.
Charmingly confusing and very Gibsonian.
Also, this is the first book I’ve read where people use bathrooms often enough to make me notice.
This is a sequel to The Peripheral, and continues the characters of Wilf Netherton and his wife Rainey, as well as introducing the new characters of Verity Jane and AI entity Eunice (UNISS).
For those who've lost track (easy to do), Wilf and Rainey live in a future similar to what ours may be, where Trump won the election, a combination of ecological and political disasters created a massive global population drop ("The Jackpot") which mostly only the super rich oligarchy survived (aka "the Klept"), and they've discovered some kind of technology that allows them to make contact with alternate universes in the past ("stubs").
In this book we meet Verity Jane, who lives in an alternate stub in which Hilary Clinton won (she's never referred to by name but is clearly Clinton) and in which she's hired to test a brand new AI of mysterious origin called Eunice. Somehow …
This is a sequel to The Peripheral, and continues the characters of Wilf Netherton and his wife Rainey, as well as introducing the new characters of Verity Jane and AI entity Eunice (UNISS).
For those who've lost track (easy to do), Wilf and Rainey live in a future similar to what ours may be, where Trump won the election, a combination of ecological and political disasters created a massive global population drop ("The Jackpot") which mostly only the super rich oligarchy survived (aka "the Klept"), and they've discovered some kind of technology that allows them to make contact with alternate universes in the past ("stubs").
In this book we meet Verity Jane, who lives in an alternate stub in which Hilary Clinton won (she's never referred to by name but is clearly Clinton) and in which she's hired to test a brand new AI of mysterious origin called Eunice. Somehow Wilf and Rainey know that nuclear disaster lurks in the future of Verity's timeline and that Eunice is the key to preventing it, and the whole book is rather confusingly about Verity getting to know Eunice and Wilf and Rainey helping her escape from people trying to catch her and/or Eunice for reasons that are still unclear to me (what do Wilf and Rainey get out of all this altruism in other pasts that don't even exist for them?)
Much as I admire Gibson's ability to predict elements of the future (and examples of his foresightedness are many), I'm afraid his actual novels are getting less and less interesting to read as there is less and less interesting plot and more just narrative while explaining theoretical points of technology or futurism. There are some cool things in this book but the plot is frankly just watching Verity running around while trusting Eunice and Wilf etc (for no good reason), and watching Eunice be ridiculously powerful and influential while being totally benevolent and friendly (also for no good reason) and so many questions are raised that are never even addressed. I'll still read any book Gibson writes, but this one was quite a struggle to get through.
Excellent sequel to The Peripheral, which I strongly suggest reading first as it will relieve a lot of potential confusion sooner. Everything (?) is explained eventually but getting a head-start by reading the earlier book will make life easier.
Loved it! My only complaint would be that Verity felt too much like a passenger on her own adventure through most of the book. Otherwise a great Gibson tale.
An enjoyable enoough read, but at the end it was considerably less than the sum of its parts and a letdown from The Peripheral.
Will perhaps be mostly remembered for this quote: “a not-very-enthusiastic cyberpunk cosplay” -- William Gibson 2020
I'm honestly not sure what I think of this one. Gibson's prose is as beautiful as ever, and I thought there were some really clever moments that build on the world he built in The Peripheral. Plus, just some cool, fun action and speculative things about this "stub."
However, the Trump/Clinton stuff, while never said by name, is still so close to the surface that it feels jarring.
And my biggest issue with the story is that the protagonist doesn't DO anything. She's just along for the ride from jump. Eunice shows up, tells her to do some stuff, and then she just goes along with everything. I can't think of any choices she made other than to trust Eunice. Which is ironic for a book about agency. The more I think about it, this criticism (protagonist along for the ride) may apply to Gibson's other books, or at least …
I'm honestly not sure what I think of this one. Gibson's prose is as beautiful as ever, and I thought there were some really clever moments that build on the world he built in The Peripheral. Plus, just some cool, fun action and speculative things about this "stub."
However, the Trump/Clinton stuff, while never said by name, is still so close to the surface that it feels jarring.
And my biggest issue with the story is that the protagonist doesn't DO anything. She's just along for the ride from jump. Eunice shows up, tells her to do some stuff, and then she just goes along with everything. I can't think of any choices she made other than to trust Eunice. Which is ironic for a book about agency. The more I think about it, this criticism (protagonist along for the ride) may apply to Gibson's other books, or at least his more recent ones, but it was very obvious to me this time around.
I'm giving this 4 stars regardless, because it's still Gibson.
I had a few false starts in trying to get into this novel, but then I decided awhile ago that I'd read it on my upcoming vacation... I just finished it, reading it at a pretty fast (for me) clip.
I loved this book, one of the best from Gibson post-Sprawl, and potentially displacing the Bigend books in my nonexistent ranking of books from an author I love. Of course, the range of that ranking system is pretty narrow.
I look forward to future books in this world, for sure, in fact, I wish I had more right now.
I had a few false starts in trying to get into this novel, but then I decided awhile ago that I'd read it on my upcoming vacation... I just finished it, reading it at a pretty fast (for me) clip.
I loved this book, one of the best from Gibson post-Sprawl, and potentially displacing the Bigend books in my nonexistent ranking of books from an author I love. Of course, the range of that ranking system is pretty narrow.
I look forward to future books in this world, for sure, in fact, I wish I had more right now.
