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shelbymarie516's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't love the first one so obviously I had to read the sequel. Well, to the surprise of no one I did not love this one either. I just feel like Recursion and Ready Player One had better universe build up, even though the build up can drag at least down the road I can understand and imagine the things happening.
leflambeur's review against another edition
4.0
The plot is a little lacking, but the writing is true Gibson and its fun to go along for the ride.
corndoggie's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
jemology's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
alexaalyse's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
skycrane's review against another edition
2.0
It's odd that this book is called "Agency", since the main characters didn't have any. Verity and Netherton are constantly being told what to do, shuffled from one place to another, generally with no real idea of what they're doing, where they're going, or why. The protagonists of this story are Eunice, an experimental AI, and Lowbeer, returning from The Peripheral. They're the ones who face adversity and overcome it. But the book goes into very little detail about how that all happens. Most of the plot is the recounting of an elaborate scheme, set up by Eunice, to prevent Verity from being kidnapped. Numerous people are recruited to perform small roles in this task without any of them knowing the bigger picture. Well, not that many people, actually. The same half dozen just show up over and over again. Verity simply does what she's told without question, or with one question she endlessly repeats: "Where are we going?" Netherton is supposedly working for Lowbeer to facilitate her saving this world, but he's generally in the same position as Verity, just hanging out asking people where they're going.
In the background, there's a looming threat of nuclear war in Verity's world, Eunice's struggle to secretly acquire enough server space and processing power to survive being shut down by the military, and Lowbeer dealing with a threat to her position. But all of this is developed and resolved behind the scenes. The only characters we actually read about, all the people involved in helping Verity escape, are also just blindly following instructions from Eunice. The whole plot of this book is just a sideshow to the actual story, which is told without being told, and resolves itself through means not mentioned.
In the background, there's a looming threat of nuclear war in Verity's world, Eunice's struggle to secretly acquire enough server space and processing power to survive being shut down by the military, and Lowbeer dealing with a threat to her position. But all of this is developed and resolved behind the scenes. The only characters we actually read about, all the people involved in helping Verity escape, are also just blindly following instructions from Eunice. The whole plot of this book is just a sideshow to the actual story, which is told without being told, and resolves itself through means not mentioned.
julcoh's review against another edition
3.0
Look, Gibson is one of my favorite authors. Period. This one didn’t grab me like many of his previous novels.
I love the continued worldbuilding around the concept of stubs, the way inter-stub communication works, and the idea of Eunice as a hybrid AI building itself. The high-concept sci-fi bones of The Peripheral is still here, mixed with Gibsons’s speculative-fiction-of-the-present he’s honed since Pattern Recognition, but again this just didn’t grab me from a story perspective.
Without spoilers... I found some of the characters here absolutely overpowered, too much deus ex machina, and, ironically, a main character with very little agency of her own.
I love the continued worldbuilding around the concept of stubs, the way inter-stub communication works, and the idea of Eunice as a hybrid AI building itself. The high-concept sci-fi bones of The Peripheral is still here, mixed with Gibsons’s speculative-fiction-of-the-present he’s honed since Pattern Recognition, but again this just didn’t grab me from a story perspective.
Without spoilers... I found some of the characters here absolutely overpowered, too much deus ex machina, and, ironically, a main character with very little agency of her own.