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lillanaa's review against another edition
5.0
Agency was probably one of the better science fiction books I read this year, because it was grounded in reality. That may sound odd, but actually good science fiction that is about modern day should follow modern day. This was my only main issue with his first novel in the series, but I can mostly handwave it due to it being written about 5 years ago. A time when Facebook didn't consume us (as much, at least), and there were a lot different ideas about what the future may be. Agency, however, throws all of those notions away. The County seems like something that's a fever dream compared to the reality shown here, and I love it.
Verity is a well grounded protagonist, but she isn't really the protagonist of this one, once again. With this book focusing more on Wilf and things over in weird-future-England, I'm more than intrigued as to where this series is going to go; if there'll be another. Flynne and her crew are sort of back? We get moderate resolution on what happened to them from the epilogue of the previous book, and I'm fine with the way things happened there. Conner was one of my favourites, so I'm glad to see him have a larger role.
I'm now feeling oddly comfortable with Gibson's writing style, which isn't a bad thing by any stretch. As I said in his last review, the stakes don't seem as high because of his tendency towards happy endings, but I'm not disappointed by that. With the world we live in right now, we need something that ends on a high note. That said, though, that fact didn't weigh the book down at all. There were still moments of highs and lows, as there were in [b:The Peripheral|24611819|The Peripheral|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574084339l/24611819._SY75_.jpg|40167043], and this one I'd say was even better.
Verity is a well grounded protagonist, but she isn't really the protagonist of this one, once again. With this book focusing more on Wilf and things over in weird-future-England, I'm more than intrigued as to where this series is going to go; if there'll be another. Flynne and her crew are sort of back? We get moderate resolution on what happened to them from the epilogue of the previous book, and I'm fine with the way things happened there. Conner was one of my favourites, so I'm glad to see him have a larger role.
I'm now feeling oddly comfortable with Gibson's writing style, which isn't a bad thing by any stretch. As I said in his last review, the stakes don't seem as high because of his tendency towards happy endings, but I'm not disappointed by that. With the world we live in right now, we need something that ends on a high note. That said, though, that fact didn't weigh the book down at all. There were still moments of highs and lows, as there were in [b:The Peripheral|24611819|The Peripheral|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574084339l/24611819._SY75_.jpg|40167043], and this one I'd say was even better.
drood's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
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
4.0
muddy_gardener's review against another edition
5.0
Classic Gibson. Trying not to gobble it too fast.
andrewlb's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely loved it. My favorite is still the blue ant trilogy, but Agency really helped fill in some of the gaps I felt in the Peripherals.
elctrc's review against another edition
2.0
This one was a bummer. I loved the Peripheral and re-read it before Agency but the sequel was not great. It had the most of the characters from the first book but none of the interesting story or background. It was like seeing their everyday lives and all the boredom that exists there. Without giving anything away part of the central conceit just gets lost for half of the book and doesn't return until the very end and as has become typical for Gibson he tries to wrap everything in a bow and it just doesn't work well. for me part of the problem is probably the ending of the Peripheral itself which also ends with a bow tied super tight and just didn't leave anywhere for this book to go I think.
jacki_f's review against another edition
4.0
Agency, William Gibson’s latest book inhabits the same universe as [b:The Peripheral|24611819|The Peripheral|William Gibson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1574084339l/24611819._SY75_.jpg|40167043], his last novel which came out in 2014. It’s a long time between drinks, but you don’t have to have read that book to make sense of this one (I had indeed pretty much forgotten everything - a talent of mine that enables me to re-read books often with no spoilers).
The first half of Agency introduces a number of characters across a world set in the present time (albeit an alternate history) and a future world (which may or may not be based on our timeline). Initially it's somewhat tricky keeping track of them all, but by the time the second half comes around, it's rolling along in a very enjoyable William Gibson style.
The present world storyline centers around Verity, an "App Whisperer”, Eunice an Artificial Intelligence entity (which will bring back memories of WinterMute), and Stets, some sort of generic Silicon Valley Billionaire only not a jerk. There’s a whole back story about Verity and Stets that isn’t expanded on which had me frantically googling to find out what previous Gibson book they had appeared in (none as far as I can tell - but see also the paragraph above where I describe my special superpower).
The other world is set in a very interesting and believable future London, with Russian mobsters, secret service operatives and nanobots making things furiously. Before I deleted Twitter off my phone I was following the author and it was great fun to see him asking his English fans questions about language usage and parts of London. I’ll have to re-read and do some more googling to see what made it into the book.
While this isn't Gibson's best book, it's still an enjoyable read and I’m hoping for a third in this series.
I received an advance copy for review from NetGalley.
The first half of Agency introduces a number of characters across a world set in the present time (albeit an alternate history) and a future world (which may or may not be based on our timeline). Initially it's somewhat tricky keeping track of them all, but by the time the second half comes around, it's rolling along in a very enjoyable William Gibson style.
The present world storyline centers around Verity, an "App Whisperer”, Eunice an Artificial Intelligence entity (which will bring back memories of WinterMute), and Stets, some sort of generic Silicon Valley Billionaire only not a jerk. There’s a whole back story about Verity and Stets that isn’t expanded on which had me frantically googling to find out what previous Gibson book they had appeared in (none as far as I can tell - but see also the paragraph above where I describe my special superpower).
The other world is set in a very interesting and believable future London, with Russian mobsters, secret service operatives and nanobots making things furiously. Before I deleted Twitter off my phone I was following the author and it was great fun to see him asking his English fans questions about language usage and parts of London. I’ll have to re-read and do some more googling to see what made it into the book.
While this isn't Gibson's best book, it's still an enjoyable read and I’m hoping for a third in this series.
I received an advance copy for review from NetGalley.
aiight's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
2.0
What promised to be an cool addition to the world created in The Peripheral did not deliver. The story here has very little tension and the stakes feel significantly lower (even though they are presented as higher than the first book). The characters generate little empathy in the reader. The majority of the middle of the book drags on with repetitive chase/relocation scenes that add nothing. Additionally, the main character (and only interesting new one) is missing from that section. Just felt tedious.
thedrtaylor's review against another edition
3.0
even stronger than The Peripheral, this novel reads like a Western but with robots
kpcraig's review against another edition
3.0
Mid-3, rounding down for Goodread’s integer scale. I think there were two ways this book could have been really interesting, either by having an interesting plot or by exploring the primary stub-universe of the book, a world that is basically present day, with a divergence point only a few years in the past. I think there are a lot of ways to make such a world interestingly different, even though the amount of large change is necessarily limited.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the book excels at either, although I think it is on reasonably solid ground on both counts, thus, 3+.
Unfortunately, I don’t think the book excels at either, although I think it is on reasonably solid ground on both counts, thus, 3+.