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A review by labbyreads
The Peripheral by William Gibson
adventurous
mysterious
slow-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
1.0
Full transparency: I love a dystopian novel, especially the kind with a strong female lead. I love science fiction. I love a tale of time travel or multiverses. I thoroughly enjoyed Lisa Joy and John Nolan's adaptation of Westworld so after seeing something like 800 previews from Amazon Prime I determined it better to read the source material before watching their new show The Peripheral. It was a decision I lived to regret.
Channeling his inner Ernest Hemingway, Gibson's sentences and chapters are short with little to no "fluff" included. He leaves off attribution on sentences or at best will go through entire multi-character conversations with only pronouns. As a result, it was incredibly difficult in writing to understand who was talking in conversations.
Each of the short chapters switches between different characters in different times and universes. I spent the majority of the beginning of the book just trying to figure out where I was and who was talking.
As a result, I didn't care about any of the characters. I didn't understand why I should. Even when she or any of the other characters were facing life-threatening situations, I found myself apathetic towards their plight.
The pacing was incredibly slow. I found myself growing increasingly bored as the story dragged on. By the time anything of substance happened, I was already so disinterested that I didn't care what was going on.
Overall, this was a huge disappointment for me. I wish that I had just watched the TV show.
Channeling his inner Ernest Hemingway, Gibson's sentences and chapters are short with little to no "fluff" included. He leaves off attribution on sentences or at best will go through entire multi-character conversations with only pronouns. As a result, it was incredibly difficult in writing to understand who was talking in conversations.
Each of the short chapters switches between different characters in different times and universes. I spent the majority of the beginning of the book just trying to figure out where I was and who was talking.
As a result, I didn't care about any of the characters. I didn't understand why I should. Even when she or any of the other characters were facing life-threatening situations, I found myself apathetic towards their plight.
The pacing was incredibly slow. I found myself growing increasingly bored as the story dragged on. By the time anything of substance happened, I was already so disinterested that I didn't care what was going on.
Overall, this was a huge disappointment for me. I wish that I had just watched the TV show.