The peripheral

703 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2015

ISBN:
978-1-4104-7679-1
Copied ISBN!
OCLC Number:
893099470

View on OpenLibrary

(62 reviews)

Where Flynne and her brother, Burton, live, jobs outside the drug business are rare. Fortunately, Burton has his veteran's benefits, for neural damage he suffered from implants during his time in the USMC's elite Haptic Recon force. Then one night Burton asks Flynne to take over a job he's supposed to do. Beta-testing part of a new game, he tells her. Work a perimeter around the image of a tower building; little buglike things turn up, he's supposed to get in their way, edge them back. What she sees, though, isn't what Burton told her to expect. It might be a game, but it might also be murder....

13 editions

A drepressing future

First of all I enjoyed the TV series more than the book. Both are a bit slow at the beginning, and to certain degrees follow different story lines, which is kinda expected. The world is kinda interesting, but the setting never gripped me as much as I hoped it would, and it is a depressing setting. All in all well worth a read. If you enjoyed the show you might be a bit disapointed by the book all depending on which part of the show you enjoyed the most.

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

Took me a while to finish this, and I don’t know why exactly... It’s well written, exciting, has compelling characters, and it sets up its sequels pretty darn good. And yet it didn’t quite grab me as the Neuromancer-series, or even Burning Chrome. Does that make it a bad book? Absolutely not. But it did kind of convey a sense of wearing out one’s clothes, a tad trope–y, if you like. Maybe it’s just habituation.

A halting creaky ride through a fascinating world

A pile of very interesting ideas, strung together with badly paced and incoherent plotting. The sci Fi concepts are fun and the writing is spare and engaging, but neither the plot nor the characters quite come together enough.

Compared to the TV show, this book has better sci fi coherence but its representation of the near-future Appalachia is a lot worse and less fun.

Interesting ideas, but disappointing execution

Content warning Spoilers for the plot of The Peripheral (novel)

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

Reading out of order sometime has benefits. Finding out more about Flynne and Wilf from the original sources was quite satisfying actually. As with The Agency, this book also ended with far too much an unsatisfactory rush after an intricate build up. There’s a feeling almost that together they form the foundation for what the story is going to end up being; what’s going on with Lowbeer and who are the Aunties?

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

I tried to like this book, I wanted to like this book, I really did. As someone who likes technology, and is interested in ideas related to the future of technology, I liked Neuromancer. But this one... I just couldn't get into the story. The concepts he was trying to get across got in the way for me. I couldn't really relate to the characters, I didn't get to really feel like I cared about them because there was too much other stuff in the way. The world didn't really come alive for me.

I do appreciate that he wrote a strong woman protagonist really well, so I added a star for that.

Review of 'The Peripheral' on 'Goodreads'

The first time I read this book I only gave it 3 stars. Maybe I found it confusing and thus unsatisfying? This time round I saw what he was doing, and I admired his craft much more. This is maybe a 4.5 star book, since there is some confusing stuff in there that I think narratively could be drawn out, furthermore the pacing is unbalanced and I wanted to know more about what happens after the story (a good sign I suppose — leave them wanting more — and potentially a good setup for a sequel). Speaking of sequels, I am moving on to [b:Agency|34943643|Agency|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1493829667l/34943643.SY75.jpg|56213188] next.

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Subjects

  • Drug traffic
  • Suspense fiction
  • Brothers and sisters
  • Large type books
  • Video games
  • Veterans
  • Fiction