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desertmichelle's review against another edition
challenging
2.0
Quick Review: Not a fan. I was confused... maybe it's just not my kind of sci-fi. I had hoped the book would shed more light on the tv show, but it was an entirely different story.
dualmon's review against another edition
5.0
Surprisingly great. Gibson is still the master of VR sci-fi
julcoh's review against another edition
3.0
Gibson is one of my favorite authors. I enjoy the run-on, constant world building and the way he weaves his stories together.
This one starts out slow, and confusing. Like being dropped into a fever dream. The plot and true nature of the characters becomes clear about a third of the way through, and the story really picks up from there. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the time bending aspects of inter-multiverse information transfer.
While the concepts are interesting and the settings and throwaway details are superb, the story is a bit lackluster. Also a trope in many of Gibson's novels, but I felt the denouement and book ending were much weaker than the middle and climax of the story.
All that being said, I couldn't put it down.
This one starts out slow, and confusing. Like being dropped into a fever dream. The plot and true nature of the characters becomes clear about a third of the way through, and the story really picks up from there. I thoroughly enjoyed some of the time bending aspects of inter-multiverse information transfer.
While the concepts are interesting and the settings and throwaway details are superb, the story is a bit lackluster. Also a trope in many of Gibson's novels, but I felt the denouement and book ending were much weaker than the middle and climax of the story.
All that being said, I couldn't put it down.
rainbowpizzastars's review against another edition
Too confusing to even get into the book because of: 1) timeline switching with very little context if any and 2) lack of explanation or reference for tech words and parlance being used in the future world. I felt like my brain was bouncing between six computer screens and understanding nothing. Not enjoyable. And I came into this with some context from the TV show.
lsparrow's review against another edition
1.0
It took at least the first 50 chapters where I had any idea of what was going on. Despite the wordiness of the author he feels that it is beneath him to provide an explaination and uses jargon and culturally based speech to set the scene for the book rather than description. I think I was interested in some of the ideas presented in the story but was too irritated by the lack of clarity and the pretentiousness of the writing to enjoy this book.
slovenlymuse's review against another edition
3.5
It's weird - normally when I see adaptations of books on screen, my feeling is that the original format (book, graphic novel, whatever) was the ideal format for telling that story (hence the author using it), and the adaptation suffers from trying to tell the same story through a medium less-suited to it. Reading this book, I was initially impressed by the wild premise (involving using technology to communicate with alternate past timelines) and Gibson's gorgeous, murky prose. But I found it hard to keep momentum going through the middle section, and couldn't help but feel like this story might actually be better served as a movie or TV show. I know the recent TV adaptation didn't garner wild praise, but I'm definitely interested to see what they did with this source material! Apart from some small frustrations, I enjoyed this book, and I'm glad I gave it a shot!
ninaudio's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-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
ericathrone's review against another edition
5.0
I always get a kick out of reading Gibson's new novels. Unfortunately, I didn't realize this came first and read Agency beforehand (which you can do, by the way, without losing much), and now I'm so glad I bought The Peripheral to read as well. Its characters, its near-future prescience, its incredible level of technique; Gibson is a great writer, of science fiction and everything else. If I had to hit on anything, the staccato rhythm threw me off at times, and I sometimes lost track of who said what in the dialogue exchanges. Those might be because of my woefully short attention span (too much internet). I hope there's a third entry, because these books are awesome.
P.S. I'm tickled pink by the titles; the double-meanings are just the best!
P.S. I'm tickled pink by the titles; the double-meanings are just the best!
cebesancon3's review against another edition
2.0
Fifty pages in and I’m just not feeling this one. Thought the show was fine, but this isn’t holding my interest.