416 pages
English language
Published May 15, 2020 by Penguin Books, Limited.
Edit out all the deeply awful neoliberalism, which feels straight out of CNN and MSNBC's worst reporting, and this would be a fantastic book. Hope for such a version in the future, or just ask an AI to do it for you.
I want it on record that I'd give this book zero stars but that doesn't count as a rating. So, 1-star without that possibility. I hated this book so much I fully intend to go next to the Gibson subreddit and trash it there, too. It's not that it was bad, it was so bad, it angered me at the halfway point. With only 50 pages left, I wondered if I should even bother finishing it. DO NOT read this book. It's just drek. I don't care about how he had to change it or fix to accommodate modern goings-on. It's trash. Should be thrown out and excluded from the Gibson ouvre. Ugh.
Content warning spoilers
I thoroughly enjoyed the second part of the Peripheral trilogy. It's a tightly paced romp through a blend of San Francisco from today and 10 years from now.
I wish the current-day antagonist was a bit more developed, though. I never felt like Verity and friends were seriously at risk.
Usually longer than necessary stories have me screaming “get an editor”, but what Gibson does so well here, despite the blinding pace and flip flopping perspectives, is populate the pages with a whole series of characters that you’re more than happy to spend time with. Which might be the point, if you consider the personality of most of the “AI”s we deal with in this stub.
не певен, чи все зрозумів... треба буде колись переслухати/перечитати.
