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rocketiza's review
1.0
Let me save you the trouble. Girl meets AI. 397 pointless pages of the girl shuttling around to hide or pointless future alternate bullshit with a million characters that don't matter. AI says Hello World, and then its inferred the world is saved. That's not a spoiler, the real spoiler is reading this book because it will spoil your day and your opinion of Gibson.
walden2ite's review against another edition
4.0
Less confusing but also less complex than it's prequel; still very enjoyable.
dochappenin's review against another edition
3.0
Eh. Time made Gibson soft.
Still shouldn't have cancelled the show, Amazon!
Still shouldn't have cancelled the show, Amazon!
adamchalmers's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent book. It's got an incredibly dry sense of humor and a really clever plot structure. "Agency. The capacity to act." Gibson tells an incredible story about the ways we fight for -- or abandon -- our agency in a confusing world. In today's world, the conversion of traditional governance or power structures into algorithms has robbed humans of agency. Gig economy workers have no manager to petition, CEOs can't explain their own corporate strategy because algorithms control prices, historians can't explain why one candidate's election ads reached a wider audience than the other's. Gibson takes this frustration with our inability to act in a digital world and extends it to vast, cosmic levels.
Some characters desperately try to get agency, others just shrug, abandon it and find a good liege to serve. On a macro level, some people invent conspiracy theories so they can paint a world with good guys and bad guys... and sometimes they're not crazy, but usually they are.
The writing is Gibson's usual meticulous prose -- not a word more than necessary, which makes his loquacious characters really stand out. I loved his detailed descriptions of ordinary life in the weirder parts of the present, his eye for object design, his ever-so-slightly exaggerated San Francisco baristas, gig economy companies, startups and cafes and fashion trends. It's such a treat to read a sci-fi author who can talk about the big picture while still fleshing out ordinary life in the present day.
Recommended pairing: first read New Dark Age (James Bridle, non-fiction) and then read this.
Some characters desperately try to get agency, others just shrug, abandon it and find a good liege to serve. On a macro level, some people invent conspiracy theories so they can paint a world with good guys and bad guys... and sometimes they're not crazy, but usually they are.
The writing is Gibson's usual meticulous prose -- not a word more than necessary, which makes his loquacious characters really stand out. I loved his detailed descriptions of ordinary life in the weirder parts of the present, his eye for object design, his ever-so-slightly exaggerated San Francisco baristas, gig economy companies, startups and cafes and fashion trends. It's such a treat to read a sci-fi author who can talk about the big picture while still fleshing out ordinary life in the present day.
Recommended pairing: first read New Dark Age (James Bridle, non-fiction) and then read this.
method3000's review against another edition
3.0
Accidentally read this before The Peripheral. This would have made a lot more sense but it was still fun.
tsharris's review against another edition
4.0
Perhaps not quite as good as "The Peripheral," but still a satisfying Gibson novel that gives some more depth to the post-Jackpot world. Hope he continues writing in this multiverse.
philibin's review against another edition
3.0
(2.5 Stars)
I had a harder time visualizing this book than I have had with any other Gibson book. Maybe it was the seemingly constant "product placement" name dropping taking me out of his world and back into mine?
The story was good, but the characters didn't seem to have as much depth as they did in The Peripheral. Maybe since I read this after watching the series I had a hard time remembering back to how events played out in the book vs the series? I just don't know.
I did like the book, and am eager to see the third in the series written and released!
I had a harder time visualizing this book than I have had with any other Gibson book. Maybe it was the seemingly constant "product placement" name dropping taking me out of his world and back into mine?
The story was good, but the characters didn't seem to have as much depth as they did in The Peripheral. Maybe since I read this after watching the series I had a hard time remembering back to how events played out in the book vs the series? I just don't know.
I did like the book, and am eager to see the third in the series written and released!
ghostrachel's review against another edition
3.0
I love Gibson, especially the imaginative stuff that seems like complete sci-fi. This book is more grounded in current reality with some what-ifs about technology and environmental and political policy. Maybe seems more preachy in a “don’t screw up the world” kind of way. The split timeline is a neat concept. The rest…. I wish was more from Gibson’s head than from current events.
adamskiboy528491's review against another edition
3.0
Agency by William Gibson is the sequel (to The Peripheral) I wanted that tracks pre- & post-Jackpot scenarios in the alternate present & future of US and Britain. As we established in the first novel, the technology in this world allows for electronic signals to be sent and received from the past of very close alternate universes. Especially the timeline where Clinton wins the 2016 election, Brexit never happened, and the Middle East has concerns with terrorist attacks in Syria which could lead to a nuclear catastrophe. There is still a mystery about The Jackpot, but that's what I like about Gibson and his work. His writing has the barest exposition that lets our imagination take over.
Not only do we have an alternate reality in the present, but also a post-apocalyptic future. Wilf's London, although the way he describes it, it wasn't so much a massive apocalypse as a slow worsening of everything, until people looked around and realised civilisation had collapsed while they weren't paying attention. The same with The Peripheral, Gibson does an excellent job of bringing out the "action girl" character. Those who aren't just damsels in distress & who are far more than the designated girl fight. She faces dangerous foes and deadly obstacles, and she wins. We even have overlapping characters, including Flynne and Lowbeer. But everything holds together with another female protagonist, Verity, who is handling the fact that the digital assistant and her AI, Eunice, is more potent than both she and the developers could ever have known. We criss-cross centuries through chapter-to-chapter in a universe that could be minutes away from our own - which makes it more terrifying.
It was treat reading this universe from a different angle with new and exciting ideas. But its predecessor was a bit faster paced, and less intentionally confusing. I'm going to have to continue the Neuromancer trilogy & start his other past novels, like the Blue Ant trilogy.
merlandre's review against another edition
5.0
I have enjoyed William Gibson's writing for many years and discovering this newest book didn't disappoint. A wild ride with various levels of AI, telepresence, drones and a wide variety of characters in different time lines. What can I say except that I loved it. I'd love to see Eunice in a future novel.