A review by adamskiboy528491
Agency by William Gibson

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.