A review by mark_b
Agency by William Gibson

4.75

Agency follows The Peripheral in Gibson’s Jackpot trilogy. Part 3 hasn’t been released as of early 2024. Agency stands more or less on its own, but it makes sense to read The Peripheral first. I read Agency when it came out in 2020, and decided to re-read it in anticipation of part 3. It’s hard to think about Agency without at the same time considering The Peripheral. In some ways Agency is not as striking as The Peripheral. Many of the same characters populate both books. Much of the action in Agency takes place in San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area. The Peripheral is set in the ambiguous “county”, a rural area somewhere in the southeastern US. London looms large in both books. Gibson writes in a genre sometimes called “economic fiction”. The dystopian elements of Agency (and The Peripheral) are not entirely economic. I very much enjoyed Agency. Is it Gibson’s best work? Maybe not, but Agency definitely hits the right notes. Anyone who likes Gibson will enjoy Agency; anyone who consumes dystopian SF should appreciate it.