mebius's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
jaccarmac's review
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
More of the Peripheral same, which is to say many great ideas, a few deeply unsatisfying ones, and a smidgen of change in form. I rocketed through, and more or less salivate for the trilogy's conclusion, but thought Agency was a minor failure on the author's part. He removes the MacGuffin for much of the plot, but we're expected to treat this absence as at least somewhat emotional and excitedly welcome it back, seemingly unchanged. There's a lot that happens on the page, but always the rabbit out of sight. That annoyance becomes grating when the single-sentence gloss is of 2017 geopolitical maneuvering. Still, all the heroes are alive and there are plenty of interesting ways for them to meet in futures-past.
tonydebat's review against another edition
2.0
Endless amounts of clever prose makes it fun to read. There are a large number of characters on multiple timelines, some of which appear only briefly making elements of the story difficult to follow. The central characters are rendered nicely and produce some emotional moments amidst all the high tech hardware. A decent subplot does it's job but wraps up too quickly.
bkish's review against another edition
5.0
I did not read the Peripheral #1. In the past I was not able to get through another book by this author William Gibson. He has one specialty and it is cyberworld science fiction.
There is a lot of writings that this is not so readers should know that before they begin and get pissed off by what is not there for them
This is a slow read for me and yet it moves fast things are always in motion here. The main person Verity Jane in SF whose life is turned upside down inside out after some rather odd relationship with a famous venture capitalist Stets and that is when this story begins. It begins with her getting hired by Gavin at I forget name of his company as App Whisperer. What that is never explained and it is really irrelevant. She gets special glasses and some other device to test a prototype of something I forget. That gets her to Eunice and it continues on from there
If you are looking for a deep socially significant story and strong messages for people and their lives this is not it. It's entertainment and the characters are beyond or below superficial. It moves well and maybe for these times during the Corona Virus pandemic its a good read.
there are two scenes throughout - San francisco in 2017 and London in 2136 and they meld together very nicely.
Gibson has a great imagination and is excellent writer
Judy
There is a lot of writings that this is not so readers should know that before they begin and get pissed off by what is not there for them
This is a slow read for me and yet it moves fast things are always in motion here. The main person Verity Jane in SF whose life is turned upside down inside out after some rather odd relationship with a famous venture capitalist Stets and that is when this story begins. It begins with her getting hired by Gavin at I forget name of his company as App Whisperer. What that is never explained and it is really irrelevant. She gets special glasses and some other device to test a prototype of something I forget. That gets her to Eunice and it continues on from there
If you are looking for a deep socially significant story and strong messages for people and their lives this is not it. It's entertainment and the characters are beyond or below superficial. It moves well and maybe for these times during the Corona Virus pandemic its a good read.
there are two scenes throughout - San francisco in 2017 and London in 2136 and they meld together very nicely.
Gibson has a great imagination and is excellent writer
Judy
joelevard's review
5.0
Not as complex as the first, but a hell of a lot more fun to read. The ending is a bright burst of optimism... until you realize it’s basically literally just wish fulfillment. Dark.
Always good to end on a crude joke though.
Always good to end on a crude joke though.
joshuabrunt's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
dotvicky's review against another edition
3.0
I read this after enjoying "The Peripheral" and then really enjoying the recent 'based on' TV series. This one didn't quite do it for me as well. A little less mind-expanding and structurally flatter.
carolynf's review against another edition
3.0
I had a hard time getting into this book, at least in part because I didn't like the audiobook's narrator. She read earnestly but without a lot of excitement, and was apparently unaware that the book had a lot of humorous lines in it. There are two prominent African American characters in the book, and the accents she gave them felt flat and inconsistent with the sentence structure. When i got home from my work trip i tried to switch to a print copy, but ended up not finishing.
The plot itself deals with communicating between multiverses using remotely controlled robots or drones. There are shades of the TVA from the Loki tv series. Agents in the "main" timeline in 2130 or so are trying to stave off nuclear annihilation in another branch in 2017. It was interesting, but the characters did a lot of following instructions without knowing where they were going or why, which makes it hard to build suspense.
The plot itself deals with communicating between multiverses using remotely controlled robots or drones. There are shades of the TVA from the Loki tv series. Agents in the "main" timeline in 2130 or so are trying to stave off nuclear annihilation in another branch in 2017. It was interesting, but the characters did a lot of following instructions without knowing where they were going or why, which makes it hard to build suspense.
kimu's review
5.0
I read the first book in this series, Peripheral, right at the start of the pandemic, which was just… extremely poor timing. While it was an excellent book and I was sure the second book would be great, I just couldn’t bring myself to read it. Thanks to a long road trip and my spouse having read this already and really wanting to re-read it, we listened to it together this week. I’m really glad that we decided to listen to the stellar audiobook version of this - really exemplary recording. The storyline felt slightly more hopeful than Peripheral and Gibson made some really smart plot choices to help give this more of an alternate future vibe. Very intriguing developments that stand alone, but also make me excited to see where this trio of books is going to go next.