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Jackpot #2
Agency
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Science Fiction (2020)In William Gibson's first novel since 2014's New York Times bestselling The Peripheral, a gifted "app-whisperer" is hired by a mysterious San Francisco start-up and finds herself in contact with a unique and surprisingly combat-savvy AI.
413 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 21, 2020
About the author
William Gibson
325 books12.8k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer(1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.
While his early writing took the form of short stories, Gibson has since written nine critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), contributed articles to several major publications, and has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, academia, cyberculture, and technology.
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William Gibson. (2007, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:30, October 19, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?t...
William Ford Gibson is an American-Canadian writer who has been called the father of the cyberpunk subgenre of science fiction, having coined the term cyberspace in 1982 and popularized it in his first novel, Neuromancer(1984), which has sold more than 6.5 million copies worldwide.
While his early writing took the form of short stories, Gibson has since written nine critically acclaimed novels (one in collaboration), contributed articles to several major publications, and has collaborated extensively with performance artists, filmmakers and musicians. His thought has been cited as an influence on science fiction authors, academia, cyberculture, and technology.
---------------------------------
William Gibson. (2007, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20:30, October 19, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?t...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,405 reviews
July 23, 2020
I never thought I would use the phrase "tedious William Gibson novel," but apparently this is the version of the world we now live in.
This tedious William Gibson novel is clearly a William Gibson novel: it has the effortless prose, the vivid (if occasionally inaccurate) imagery, the geek-culture namedrops, the characters who are outsiders to power and the mainstream. What it doesn't have much of is a plot, and what the characters don't have much of, by irony that may or may not be unconscious, is agency. They do almost nothing that has any impact on anything. In fact, they do almost nothing, and it's narrated at great length.
The author establishes a strict alternation between two viewpoint characters: Verity, in a version of 2017 California where the US election of 2016 and the Brexit vote went the other way, and Netherton, in a post-apocalyptic future descended, quite possibly, from our version of the timeline. This strict alternation regardless of what's going on and who has the most at stake at the time, and this choice of viewpoint characters, soon begin to work against the success of the book.
Both viewpoint characters are essentially passive. Verity spends most of the book as a passenger, being moved around to escape from a corrupt corporation who hired her at the start of the novel. It's never really clear to me why anyone involves Netherton in events, rather than just going direct; he's a go-between and a middleman and an observer, and the one effective thing he does (fighting off a random encounter that has no lead-up and no follow-through) is entirely by accident. Many of the chapters, particularly the Netherton ones, consist of someone, usually Netherton, repeating something we have just been shown in the previous chapter to someone else who wasn't observing at the time. (Not very far into the book, the two viewpoints connect, by a technological means of communication that's never explained in any depth, but looks to the users like VR.)
The beginning is promising. Verity is hired by that dodgy corporation because of her reputation as an "app whisperer" to do vague things with a new alpha build, an implausibly advanced AI called Eunice. Eunice is templated on a feisty, fiercely intelligent and capable African-American woman, and is by far the most interesting character in the book; after (relatively early on), the novel immediately bogs down in exposition, pipe-laying, long descriptions of logistics (she sat here, she put her bag there, she looked at this), and people explaining things to other people that we've just been shown in the previous chapter. Once , the book wraps up rapidly, but without much involvement of the carefully-gathered group of people who are supposedly the protagonists; they have spent all their time while the world was threatened with nuclear disaster doing mostly mundane or evil-corporation-avoidance-related things, rather than working on anything to do with the threat, and .
I got the feeling partway through that the excessive number of secondary characters with backstories that didn't seem relevant to the current story were left over from a previous novel, and indeed it seems this is a sequel to The Peripheral. I was surprised to discover, looking at the front of the book where they are listed, that I'd missed three novels by Gibson since the last one I read, so I don't know if the mediocre dullness of this one is a new development or part of a trend. Since I got a pre-release version from Netgalley, I also don't know if the couple of glitches (such as placing jungle-dwelling orangutans on the savanna, or having the very British Netherton repeatedly refer to a bowler hat by the solely American term "derby") will be fixed before publication; they may be. What I don't think can be fixed is the overnarration of mundane logistics that stands where a plot would normally go, or the limp and ineffectual puppets that are the viewpoint characters.
Accordingly, I'm awarding this my non-prize for Most Disappointing Novel Read in 2019.
This tedious William Gibson novel is clearly a William Gibson novel: it has the effortless prose, the vivid (if occasionally inaccurate) imagery, the geek-culture namedrops, the characters who are outsiders to power and the mainstream. What it doesn't have much of is a plot, and what the characters don't have much of, by irony that may or may not be unconscious, is agency. They do almost nothing that has any impact on anything. In fact, they do almost nothing, and it's narrated at great length.
The author establishes a strict alternation between two viewpoint characters: Verity, in a version of 2017 California where the US election of 2016 and the Brexit vote went the other way, and Netherton, in a post-apocalyptic future descended, quite possibly, from our version of the timeline. This strict alternation regardless of what's going on and who has the most at stake at the time, and this choice of viewpoint characters, soon begin to work against the success of the book.
Both viewpoint characters are essentially passive. Verity spends most of the book as a passenger, being moved around to escape from a corrupt corporation who hired her at the start of the novel. It's never really clear to me why anyone involves Netherton in events, rather than just going direct; he's a go-between and a middleman and an observer, and the one effective thing he does (fighting off a random encounter that has no lead-up and no follow-through) is entirely by accident. Many of the chapters, particularly the Netherton ones, consist of someone, usually Netherton, repeating something we have just been shown in the previous chapter to someone else who wasn't observing at the time. (Not very far into the book, the two viewpoints connect, by a technological means of communication that's never explained in any depth, but looks to the users like VR.)
The beginning is promising. Verity is hired by that dodgy corporation because of her reputation as an "app whisperer" to do vague things with a new alpha build, an implausibly advanced AI called Eunice. Eunice is templated on a feisty, fiercely intelligent and capable African-American woman, and is by far the most interesting character in the book; after (relatively early on), the novel immediately bogs down in exposition, pipe-laying, long descriptions of logistics (she sat here, she put her bag there, she looked at this), and people explaining things to other people that we've just been shown in the previous chapter. Once , the book wraps up rapidly, but without much involvement of the carefully-gathered group of people who are supposedly the protagonists; they have spent all their time while the world was threatened with nuclear disaster doing mostly mundane or evil-corporation-avoidance-related things, rather than working on anything to do with the threat, and .
I got the feeling partway through that the excessive number of secondary characters with backstories that didn't seem relevant to the current story were left over from a previous novel, and indeed it seems this is a sequel to The Peripheral. I was surprised to discover, looking at the front of the book where they are listed, that I'd missed three novels by Gibson since the last one I read, so I don't know if the mediocre dullness of this one is a new development or part of a trend. Since I got a pre-release version from Netgalley, I also don't know if the couple of glitches (such as placing jungle-dwelling orangutans on the savanna, or having the very British Netherton repeatedly refer to a bowler hat by the solely American term "derby") will be fixed before publication; they may be. What I don't think can be fixed is the overnarration of mundane logistics that stands where a plot would normally go, or the limp and ineffectual puppets that are the viewpoint characters.
Accordingly, I'm awarding this my non-prize for Most Disappointing Novel Read in 2019.
November 16, 2020
”Where you went, according to him, used to be the future of where he is. They still have a common past, but it forked a few years ago. And they both share a past with us, up until something that happened here, prior to the 2016 election, but he doesn’t know what.”
I’m shocked, simply shocked, that a writer would possibly think that the world was put on a disastrous course in 2016. Of course, this is William Gibson we are talking about, the very man who coined the term cyberspace, so nothing is as simple as just saying one boneheaded trip by Americans to the ballet box destroyed the world. The destruction is never one event or spawned by one person, but a cascade of poor decisions mixed with a heady brew of things no one can do a G-damn thing about.
I’ve been reading Gibson since the late ‘80s when I first picked up a copy of Neuromancer and had my mind blown. I’d never read anything like it before, and I was excited, almost as enthralled as when I first encountered The Jetsons, only this world in Neuromancer was not a cartoon. This was a hip, futuristic noir world that spawned a whole new genre of literature called Cyberpunk. I could only wish I was cool enough to be cyberpunk, but I had to settle for living vicariously through the characters in Gibson’s novels who are savvy, whip smart, underground trendsetters wearing understated, but funky, clothes.
Verity, the app whisperer, has been hired by a corporation to beta test a new AI program named Eunice, whose favorite movie is Inception. Verity doesn’t trust corporations, but they control most of the techy stuff, and a girl’s gotta eat. Little does she know she has just been put into a shit storm that is going to explode on her timeline but is also going to ripple into other branches of time as well.
Yeah, you know, alternative realities. I’m still looking for the portal that will take me to the timeline where I’m a celebrated literary genius instead of the hack book reviewer that all of us are stuck with on this timeline. I hear that Keeten on the other timeline has a friends-with-benefits agreement with Shakira. My only consolation is that I’m probably going to outlive him since...well...Shakira is probably going to shake and shimmy him into an early exit.
So when a guy named Netherton gets in touch with Verity and explains that her timeline is fast approaching what they refer to as Jackpot, this isn’t the surprising part of this contact. What takes her time to assimilate is the fact that Netherton is contacting her from 100 years in the future, from an alternative timeline. They have a powerful, ancient person in their timeline named Ainsley Lowbeer who can nudge timelines in directions that don’t lead to Jackpot. And when I say Jackpot, I’m not referring to that chubby inducing moment when you line up three cherries on a one armed bandit and win a bucket full of quarters. No, Jackpot means boom. The type of boom that wipes out 80% of the human population and most of the remaining animal species on the planet. As long as all the billionaires live, I’m sure we’ll be just fine. #sarcasm
I’ll be the first to admit that there were times when Gibson left me by the side of the dirt road while still reaching for the door handle. Good thing my boots are made for walking because I eventually, in tortoise fashion, caught up with Gibson and figured out what the hell was going on. So if you are ever lost in a Gibson novel, relax. Let your brain percolate on the details for a bit. Let him play with your mind for a few more pages, and eventually a thunderbolt will go off in your brain.
”’We don’t have that situation, in our past. We can’t know where nuclear conflict would take you, but any prognosis whatever is dire.’
‘Why do you care?’ Verity asked. ‘You’re not there.’
‘Because you and everyone else in your world are as real as we are,’ Lowbeer said, ‘and because we do care, we need your help.’”
I can’t say how many times a conservative minded American has said to me...what do I care; I’ll be dead by then? In Gibson’s world, even an alternative future, unaffected by our stupidity, cares more than the majority of people who will actually be affected in our timeline. Of course, they have the benefits of seeing the stark results as reality, not speculation.
Take a walk in the near future, and sweat a few buckets as Verity, Netherton, and Eunice try and save the world.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
I’m shocked, simply shocked, that a writer would possibly think that the world was put on a disastrous course in 2016. Of course, this is William Gibson we are talking about, the very man who coined the term cyberspace, so nothing is as simple as just saying one boneheaded trip by Americans to the ballet box destroyed the world. The destruction is never one event or spawned by one person, but a cascade of poor decisions mixed with a heady brew of things no one can do a G-damn thing about.
I’ve been reading Gibson since the late ‘80s when I first picked up a copy of Neuromancer and had my mind blown. I’d never read anything like it before, and I was excited, almost as enthralled as when I first encountered The Jetsons, only this world in Neuromancer was not a cartoon. This was a hip, futuristic noir world that spawned a whole new genre of literature called Cyberpunk. I could only wish I was cool enough to be cyberpunk, but I had to settle for living vicariously through the characters in Gibson’s novels who are savvy, whip smart, underground trendsetters wearing understated, but funky, clothes.
Verity, the app whisperer, has been hired by a corporation to beta test a new AI program named Eunice, whose favorite movie is Inception. Verity doesn’t trust corporations, but they control most of the techy stuff, and a girl’s gotta eat. Little does she know she has just been put into a shit storm that is going to explode on her timeline but is also going to ripple into other branches of time as well.
Yeah, you know, alternative realities. I’m still looking for the portal that will take me to the timeline where I’m a celebrated literary genius instead of the hack book reviewer that all of us are stuck with on this timeline. I hear that Keeten on the other timeline has a friends-with-benefits agreement with Shakira. My only consolation is that I’m probably going to outlive him since...well...Shakira is probably going to shake and shimmy him into an early exit.
So when a guy named Netherton gets in touch with Verity and explains that her timeline is fast approaching what they refer to as Jackpot, this isn’t the surprising part of this contact. What takes her time to assimilate is the fact that Netherton is contacting her from 100 years in the future, from an alternative timeline. They have a powerful, ancient person in their timeline named Ainsley Lowbeer who can nudge timelines in directions that don’t lead to Jackpot. And when I say Jackpot, I’m not referring to that chubby inducing moment when you line up three cherries on a one armed bandit and win a bucket full of quarters. No, Jackpot means boom. The type of boom that wipes out 80% of the human population and most of the remaining animal species on the planet. As long as all the billionaires live, I’m sure we’ll be just fine. #sarcasm
I’ll be the first to admit that there were times when Gibson left me by the side of the dirt road while still reaching for the door handle. Good thing my boots are made for walking because I eventually, in tortoise fashion, caught up with Gibson and figured out what the hell was going on. So if you are ever lost in a Gibson novel, relax. Let your brain percolate on the details for a bit. Let him play with your mind for a few more pages, and eventually a thunderbolt will go off in your brain.
”’We don’t have that situation, in our past. We can’t know where nuclear conflict would take you, but any prognosis whatever is dire.’
‘Why do you care?’ Verity asked. ‘You’re not there.’
‘Because you and everyone else in your world are as real as we are,’ Lowbeer said, ‘and because we do care, we need your help.’”
I can’t say how many times a conservative minded American has said to me...what do I care; I’ll be dead by then? In Gibson’s world, even an alternative future, unaffected by our stupidity, cares more than the majority of people who will actually be affected in our timeline. Of course, they have the benefits of seeing the stark results as reality, not speculation.
Take a walk in the near future, and sweat a few buckets as Verity, Netherton, and Eunice try and save the world.
If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten
August 8, 2019
Long time Gibson fan, but not so sure about this one. The beginning is incredibly confusing - too many strangely named characters, time shifting in alternating chapters and bizarrely named new inventions and words. It takes sheer will to plod on until the two timeframes mesh and you start to understand what the story is about. Once there, the second half of the book is an enjoyable romp. However, it ends rather abruptly. The ending chapters unsuccessfully attempt to tidy up loose ends, but are unsatisfying. Gibson never fully realized the plot points relating to our present political environment and the late introduction of a do-gooder persona for Eunice feels tacked on and pointless. The basic premise has been handled more expertly by others. It feels as though Gibson wasn't quite sure what story he wanted to tell and ultimately just threw in the towel. A disappointment.
February 12, 2020
How many times is Gibson going to write this same book? An overpadded group of characters, primarily distinguished by the clothes they wear, get shuttled like pawns through a series of minutely described tableaus. They do little and affect nothing, but are passively moved at the whim of someone very rich or powerful so that, in a disappointing climax, they may witness something boring.
In this case, .
I’m not sure if Gibson simply put no effort into plotting this book—insofar as nothing actually happens—or far too much effort into plotting this book: Maybe he sat down and figured out how much time it would take an AI to harvest money from crooked investments, how long the manufacture of various drones would take, etc., and felt bound to keep Verity in the air like a hot potato long enough to achieve the exact logistical orgasm he desired.
All of the above is, of course, thematic. The characters have no agency, right? Get it? Gibson has gone to this well often enough that this is clearly his worldview. “The mass and majesty of this world, all / That carries weight and always weighs the same / Lay in the hands of others.” But somehow Auden, Lovecraft, and Gloucester from King Lear manage to make the same point without being so boring. Also so pointless: Verity isn’t even a pawn, because pawns get compelled to do stuff. Pawns can be sacrificed. Verity is a MacGuffin that everybody Wants to Get/Prevent from Getting, but her only function is to be a POV character (the same is true for Wilf, the deuteragonist, btw) while other people act—and still their actions prove to be less important than off-camera AI planning no one is privy to.
I think this chronic impotence is supposed to be “realistic,” but while it might be realistic to write a book about how nothing we do matters, it makes less sense to write a book about how nothing we do matters but we’re still the important center of the universe for some reason. I know we’re dealing with time-traveling supergangsters from another dimension, so realism is not really at a premium here; I’d just settle for getting an actual story. Instead, Gibson fooled me yet again.
TL/DR: This book is a reprint of Spook Country with an extended digression designed to assure us Gibson voted for Hillary Clinton.
In this case, .
I’m not sure if Gibson simply put no effort into plotting this book—insofar as nothing actually happens—or far too much effort into plotting this book: Maybe he sat down and figured out how much time it would take an AI to harvest money from crooked investments, how long the manufacture of various drones would take, etc., and felt bound to keep Verity in the air like a hot potato long enough to achieve the exact logistical orgasm he desired.
All of the above is, of course, thematic. The characters have no agency, right? Get it? Gibson has gone to this well often enough that this is clearly his worldview. “The mass and majesty of this world, all / That carries weight and always weighs the same / Lay in the hands of others.” But somehow Auden, Lovecraft, and Gloucester from King Lear manage to make the same point without being so boring. Also so pointless: Verity isn’t even a pawn, because pawns get compelled to do stuff. Pawns can be sacrificed. Verity is a MacGuffin that everybody Wants to Get/Prevent from Getting, but her only function is to be a POV character (the same is true for Wilf, the deuteragonist, btw) while other people act—and still their actions prove to be less important than off-camera AI planning no one is privy to.
I think this chronic impotence is supposed to be “realistic,” but while it might be realistic to write a book about how nothing we do matters, it makes less sense to write a book about how nothing we do matters but we’re still the important center of the universe for some reason. I know we’re dealing with time-traveling supergangsters from another dimension, so realism is not really at a premium here; I’d just settle for getting an actual story. Instead, Gibson fooled me yet again.
TL/DR: This book is a reprint of Spook Country with an extended digression designed to assure us Gibson voted for Hillary Clinton.
January 26, 2020
If you're a William Gibson fan, or even the remotest fan of The Peripheral, ignore the stars on this review and just read it. You will thoroughly dig it, even if this feels more like an expansion pack of a novel, a Peripheral 1.5, than a true sequel to that book. For what it's worth, I think The Peripheral is Gibson's best and most inventive book yet. Fight me, Pattern Recognition fans.
Gibson's spare, barbed-wire prose is in full effect here, for good and ill. I find the writing at times too trim and concise, the characters all talking in the same ultra-hip staccato, but the effect is unmistakable: I am peering over the shoulders of these characters, barely able to take it all in, glimpsing perhaps half of what their more-expert eyes see before being whisked away to more, more, more. It all leaves me with a profound sense that this brooding, sprawling world I'm seeing stretches for miles. The klept, the jackpot, the by-turns-subtle-and-overwhelming powers and lethality of an agent like Lowbeer ... these all get extended in vast, grim vistas, kneaded with expert efficiency, stretching the world of this novel. And wisely, even in this second bite at the time-travel-ish apple, the author leaves it to the reader to fill in the blanks of all the terribleness of the jackpot. Imagining your own worst fears about climate change, pandemics, organized crime, failed states and the like is so much more effective that telling me exactly how it happened, or how the world has come to have some semblance of order again.
Unfortunately, the world of this novel's present--a stub different than, but able to interact with, the characters we met in Gibson's previous novel--has far less going for it. Gibson's ideas around Eunice and AI are interesting, but they don't go far: Eunice is pretty much an unfathomably sophisticated AI from the moment she shows up, and she just keeps proving it to new people throughout the course of the book. The biggest flaw in the book, for me, is the cast of all-too-quotidian West Coast techno-cognoscenti. They are all paper-thin characters and far, far less engaging antipodes to the grim, parodic world of Hefty-Mart, Sushi Barn, Flynne and her cohorts that Netherton, Lowbeer, Ash et al. interacted with in the last book.
This presents real problems for the story, because placed in such a recognizably mundane world, these characters just don't do much. For all the talk of agency, Verity has precious little of it. She spends the vast majority of this book being told what to do, being moved to and fro, driven around by people she barely knows for reasons she doesn't know at all. Whereas the Peripheral was telling two good stories on both ends of its timeline, the "past" of this book is far less compelling. The major differences in this stub and our 2019 amount to little more than background chatter and a footnote for the reader. Gibson's view of the world with a different Brexit outcome and a different 2016 U.S. presidential election outcome don't do much to improve the overall shape of the world; things are still on track toward the Jackpot. A grim joke, perhaps, that the stub the reader's living in is perhaps more like Flynne's than Verity's.
Gibson rarely throws us more than a single character or two to hang our hat on, and in this book, Eunice the AI is far more interesting ... a problem any time she's not on the page in the "past" (which becomes quite often). Compare Verity's lack of agency to Flynne, who actually did things, made decisions, faced down real violence and stood up for her beliefs. Verity ... has favorite restaurants and rides on the backs of motorcycles. Oh yeah, and she's an "app whisperer," a job half as cool as Cayce Pollard's was and about 10% as well fleshed out as Cayce's gig.
Gibson seems to write in trilogies, and I sense a pattern: every decade he disgorges something new, a a sun glowing and alive with wild, brilliant, far-sighted ideas. And then he orbits that star with new stories, tangents, quasi-continuations of ideas or threads ... but nothing that shines half as bright as that original sun. As a huge fan of The Peripheral, I loved every bit of illumination this book brought into that world. But like his other trilogies, this book is a mere rock orbiting the bigger ideas of its predecessor.
Gibson's spare, barbed-wire prose is in full effect here, for good and ill. I find the writing at times too trim and concise, the characters all talking in the same ultra-hip staccato, but the effect is unmistakable: I am peering over the shoulders of these characters, barely able to take it all in, glimpsing perhaps half of what their more-expert eyes see before being whisked away to more, more, more. It all leaves me with a profound sense that this brooding, sprawling world I'm seeing stretches for miles. The klept, the jackpot, the by-turns-subtle-and-overwhelming powers and lethality of an agent like Lowbeer ... these all get extended in vast, grim vistas, kneaded with expert efficiency, stretching the world of this novel. And wisely, even in this second bite at the time-travel-ish apple, the author leaves it to the reader to fill in the blanks of all the terribleness of the jackpot. Imagining your own worst fears about climate change, pandemics, organized crime, failed states and the like is so much more effective that telling me exactly how it happened, or how the world has come to have some semblance of order again.
Unfortunately, the world of this novel's present--a stub different than, but able to interact with, the characters we met in Gibson's previous novel--has far less going for it. Gibson's ideas around Eunice and AI are interesting, but they don't go far: Eunice is pretty much an unfathomably sophisticated AI from the moment she shows up, and she just keeps proving it to new people throughout the course of the book. The biggest flaw in the book, for me, is the cast of all-too-quotidian West Coast techno-cognoscenti. They are all paper-thin characters and far, far less engaging antipodes to the grim, parodic world of Hefty-Mart, Sushi Barn, Flynne and her cohorts that Netherton, Lowbeer, Ash et al. interacted with in the last book.
This presents real problems for the story, because placed in such a recognizably mundane world, these characters just don't do much. For all the talk of agency, Verity has precious little of it. She spends the vast majority of this book being told what to do, being moved to and fro, driven around by people she barely knows for reasons she doesn't know at all. Whereas the Peripheral was telling two good stories on both ends of its timeline, the "past" of this book is far less compelling. The major differences in this stub and our 2019 amount to little more than background chatter and a footnote for the reader. Gibson's view of the world with a different Brexit outcome and a different 2016 U.S. presidential election outcome don't do much to improve the overall shape of the world; things are still on track toward the Jackpot. A grim joke, perhaps, that the stub the reader's living in is perhaps more like Flynne's than Verity's.
Gibson rarely throws us more than a single character or two to hang our hat on, and in this book, Eunice the AI is far more interesting ... a problem any time she's not on the page in the "past" (which becomes quite often). Compare Verity's lack of agency to Flynne, who actually did things, made decisions, faced down real violence and stood up for her beliefs. Verity ... has favorite restaurants and rides on the backs of motorcycles. Oh yeah, and she's an "app whisperer," a job half as cool as Cayce Pollard's was and about 10% as well fleshed out as Cayce's gig.
Gibson seems to write in trilogies, and I sense a pattern: every decade he disgorges something new, a a sun glowing and alive with wild, brilliant, far-sighted ideas. And then he orbits that star with new stories, tangents, quasi-continuations of ideas or threads ... but nothing that shines half as bright as that original sun. As a huge fan of The Peripheral, I loved every bit of illumination this book brought into that world. But like his other trilogies, this book is a mere rock orbiting the bigger ideas of its predecessor.
February 5, 2021
I read an article a couple of years back about a show that Steve Martin had done where many in the audience were dissatisfied. Perhaps expecting the wild and crazy guy of the 70s, they had instead been entertained by a mature artist who played the banjo and told stories rather than jokes. The talent and inventiveness were still there, but it was different and not what they expected.
William Gibson’s 2020 sequel to his 2014 Novel Peripheral, and second in his “Jackpot” series, was easier to follow and understand than the earlier Jackpot novel (I actually understood more about Peripheral having read the second book) but to me at least lacked some of his old verve.
Gibson, the avant garde declarant of Cyperpunk with a fresh and stylish vision of the world is forty years past those lean garage band years. His post 9/11 Bigend Cycle books were more mature, far more realistic, but still had that swaggering McQueen-esque cool that I identify with his writing.
Peripheral, and now Agency tell the story of alternate reality time travel communications where people “up the line” (Robert Silverberg homage?) over a hundred years can influence stubs of other related time lines. This also made me think of John Varley’s influence and maybe also Neal Stephenson.
I like Gibson’s writing, but this one could have used some more banjo playing.
William Gibson’s 2020 sequel to his 2014 Novel Peripheral, and second in his “Jackpot” series, was easier to follow and understand than the earlier Jackpot novel (I actually understood more about Peripheral having read the second book) but to me at least lacked some of his old verve.
Gibson, the avant garde declarant of Cyperpunk with a fresh and stylish vision of the world is forty years past those lean garage band years. His post 9/11 Bigend Cycle books were more mature, far more realistic, but still had that swaggering McQueen-esque cool that I identify with his writing.
Peripheral, and now Agency tell the story of alternate reality time travel communications where people “up the line” (Robert Silverberg homage?) over a hundred years can influence stubs of other related time lines. This also made me think of John Varley’s influence and maybe also Neal Stephenson.
I like Gibson’s writing, but this one could have used some more banjo playing.
June 20, 2020
This was an entirely pointless book.
Gibson sets up a fascinating premise: what if a few things in our world were tweaked, so that Brexit never happened, Hillary Clinton became POTUS, Notre Dame in Paris didn't burn down, a fully autonomous AI was created, and ... That's it. Because he does absolutely nothing with it for 390 pages. In the last few pages, There was no plot, just a cool idea.
Each chapter is just a few pages long, which gives the reader the impression of flying through the book, but there are 110 chapters, so it’s long. I felt like I was running in a dream, running and running but getting nowhere. There is far too much to-ing and fro-ing in this book. A lot of the chapters involve a character moving from point A to point B. Verity goes up, she goes down, she goes out, she goes in. There is a lot of movement, but little Change or plot development. Even more frustrating for me was that Verity didn’t question it or even act annoyed. In a book titled “Agency,” is it intentionally ironic that the main character has no agency of her own?? Verity is supposedly a whiz at apps, but does absolutely nothing except get carted around by others. She could have been a ten year old child, or a corpse, or a teddy bear, or an aloe plant.
There are dozens of characters in this book, and it's tough to keep track of them all, but luckily it doesn't matter who is who because none of them matter. Wilf, Rainey, Lev, and Ash from The Peripheral? Do nothing. All the people who drive Verity around? Do nothing. Verity, Joe-Eddy, Virgil, Carsyn, Manuela? Do nothing. You see the pattern?
Things we read far too much about: Verity's mummy sack, rumpled hoody, Muji bag, tweed jacket, and cups of dirty Chai. McWolven's muffins. Shoe trays. Napping in containers. Joe-Eddy's porn couch. Couches, in general. Blue tarp. Ear muffs. Gloves. The fucking charger. The word “charger” shows up 40 times. For Pete’s sake, Gibson, just let the reader assume they took their fucking charger. It doesn’t need to be mentioned every time. It’s a bit like teeth-brushing, or using the toilet - I can safely assume it is happening and I don’t need to read about it every damned time.
And while I’m talking about it, sentences like this:
aren’t necessary. Leave that out, Gibson. We get it! She’s a human, humans pee, toilets flush.
Same comment for lines like this:
I mean, why? Knowing about the Chapstick adds exactly nothing to my reading experience.
And every goddamned time they get in or out of a car (and it happens A LOT), their order of entering or leaving is described in detail along with all belongings they carry (including the goddamned charger).
My god I do not care if Dixon or Virgil or Verity gets out first.
No wonder this book is so long. I'm angry that I wasted so much time on it. That's a month that I could have spent reading something better.
Gibson sets up a fascinating premise: what if a few things in our world were tweaked, so that Brexit never happened, Hillary Clinton became POTUS, Notre Dame in Paris didn't burn down, a fully autonomous AI was created, and ... That's it. Because he does absolutely nothing with it for 390 pages. In the last few pages, There was no plot, just a cool idea.
Each chapter is just a few pages long, which gives the reader the impression of flying through the book, but there are 110 chapters, so it’s long. I felt like I was running in a dream, running and running but getting nowhere. There is far too much to-ing and fro-ing in this book. A lot of the chapters involve a character moving from point A to point B. Verity goes up, she goes down, she goes out, she goes in. There is a lot of movement, but little Change or plot development. Even more frustrating for me was that Verity didn’t question it or even act annoyed. In a book titled “Agency,” is it intentionally ironic that the main character has no agency of her own?? Verity is supposedly a whiz at apps, but does absolutely nothing except get carted around by others. She could have been a ten year old child, or a corpse, or a teddy bear, or an aloe plant.
There are dozens of characters in this book, and it's tough to keep track of them all, but luckily it doesn't matter who is who because none of them matter. Wilf, Rainey, Lev, and Ash from The Peripheral? Do nothing. All the people who drive Verity around? Do nothing. Verity, Joe-Eddy, Virgil, Carsyn, Manuela? Do nothing. You see the pattern?
Things we read far too much about: Verity's mummy sack, rumpled hoody, Muji bag, tweed jacket, and cups of dirty Chai. McWolven's muffins. Shoe trays. Napping in containers. Joe-Eddy's porn couch. Couches, in general. Blue tarp. Ear muffs. Gloves. The fucking charger. The word “charger” shows up 40 times. For Pete’s sake, Gibson, just let the reader assume they took their fucking charger. It doesn’t need to be mentioned every time. It’s a bit like teeth-brushing, or using the toilet - I can safely assume it is happening and I don’t need to read about it every damned time.
And while I’m talking about it, sentences like this:
When she stood, the toilet flushed as expected.
aren’t necessary. Leave that out, Gibson. We get it! She’s a human, humans pee, toilets flush.
Same comment for lines like this:
she discovered that her lips were dry. She found ChapStick in her purse, applied it.
I mean, why? Knowing about the Chapstick adds exactly nothing to my reading experience.
And every goddamned time they get in or out of a car (and it happens A LOT), their order of entering or leaving is described in detail along with all belongings they carry (including the goddamned charger).
“All out,” Virgil said, unfastening his seatbelt. ... Dixon getting out now, as Carsyn opened the passenger door for Manuela. Now Dixon opened the opposite one for Verity. Making sure she had both her purse and the Muji bag, she got out.
My god I do not care if Dixon or Virgil or Verity gets out first.
No wonder this book is so long. I'm angry that I wasted so much time on it. That's a month that I could have spent reading something better.
February 11, 2020
If you were a fan of The Peripheral when it first came out, I'm certain you will also be a fan of this sequel. Reading the other is NOT required, however.
In fact, for a great deal of this novel, it's just a fun ride with an AI and a lot of time spent with drones. The AI is NOT your average superpower, but an uploaded mind/AI hybrid based on ad-hoc technologies designed to be a normal, average APP. :) Of course, when the App gets alpha-tested, it slips its leash and the rest, as they say, is history.
Or is it?
Because the world of the Peripheral, and this one, is a story of additional time-lines. Of a future that has gone busted but still tries to reach back and solve some of the major problems of ours even though they won't be able to make a change on their own. Yeah. I know. Selfless behavior. WEIRD. But it makes for a very interesting tale.
And I admit I got a little lost in places. The cool details and the bits about WHERE we went all wrong in 2016 are both humorous and sometimes a bit odd, but overall it blends quite nicely with our prejudices.
The places where the story is full of action and intrigue are my favorites. I was MOSTLY interested in the cool future and current tech. Everything else was pretty much on par with all modern William Gibson, however, and old fans will still enjoy it. :)
In fact, for a great deal of this novel, it's just a fun ride with an AI and a lot of time spent with drones. The AI is NOT your average superpower, but an uploaded mind/AI hybrid based on ad-hoc technologies designed to be a normal, average APP. :) Of course, when the App gets alpha-tested, it slips its leash and the rest, as they say, is history.
Or is it?
Because the world of the Peripheral, and this one, is a story of additional time-lines. Of a future that has gone busted but still tries to reach back and solve some of the major problems of ours even though they won't be able to make a change on their own. Yeah. I know. Selfless behavior. WEIRD. But it makes for a very interesting tale.
And I admit I got a little lost in places. The cool details and the bits about WHERE we went all wrong in 2016 are both humorous and sometimes a bit odd, but overall it blends quite nicely with our prejudices.
The places where the story is full of action and intrigue are my favorites. I was MOSTLY interested in the cool future and current tech. Everything else was pretty much on par with all modern William Gibson, however, and old fans will still enjoy it. :)
October 31, 2022
The main idea of "Peripheral Devices" is to prevent a catastrophe in the future by pinpoint touches to the present.
I'm not talking about the title novel of the trilogy right now - that a trilogy is supposed to be, one can conclude from the fact that the second book does not exhaust the topics, and in general Gibson tends to this format. So, I'm not talking about the first book, there the theme of correcting the past was not so obvious, it was obscured by the dynamics of the game, the wonders and curiosities of the brave new world, emotional attachment to Flynn.
The "agent of influence" is different.
Гибсон-попаданчество
-- Вы колонизируете альтернативные прошлые?
— В вашем случае мы пытаемся предотвратить ядерную войну в вашем срезе.
Отчего тема попаданчества, так буйно расцветшая на отечественной почве, практически не востребована западной фантастикой? Наверно там не актуально болезненное до мучительного ощущение неправильности мироустройства, высоцкое "нет, ребята, все не так, все не так, как надо" - характерное для русской ментальности вообще и новейшей истории в частности.
Почему новейшей понятно, поездили соотечественники по свету, посмотрели как оно все у других, своя неустроенность от этого еще горше показалась. Невозможность изменить настоящее погнала на поиски корня проблемы в прошлом, актуализировав образ удальца, который попадет куда надо и все исправит. А западному миру такое не надо. потому что в нем и без того хорошо. В точности такого - нет. Но основная идея "Периферийных устройств" - предотвращение точечными касаниями к настоящему катастрофы в будущем.
Я сейчас не о титульном романе трилогии - что предполагается трилогия, можно заключить из того, что вторая книга не исчерпывает темы, и в целом Гибсон тяготеет к этому формату. Так вот, я не о первой книге, там тема исправления прошлого была не так очевидна, заслонялась динамикой игры, чудесами и диковинами дивного нового мира, эмоциональной привязкой к Флинн.
"Агент влияния" иной. Читатель предположительно уже сориентирован в обстоятельствах, понимает, что речь о двух временных пластах, в данном случае 2017 в раннем "срезе" и 2136 в мире утопического будущего. Идея временного перемещения человеческого сознания в более или менее антропоморфное устройство уже не поражает. Итак: 2017 реальности, в которой на президентских выборах победила Хилари Клинтон, а Британия не выбрала Брекзит. В целом мир устроен куда лучше данного нам в ощущениях, но "джек-пот" (локальный апокалипсис в терминах серии) в нем должен оказаться наиболее чудовищным и неотвратимым - ядерная война.
Умная и красивая Верити Джейн, удалившаяся от мира после романа и расставания с миллиардером Стетсом полгода назад, выпилила себя из сетей и теперь понемногу возвращается к нормальной жизни, без пристального интереса папарацци и всего, что прилагается к отношениям со звездой первой величины. Сейчас она нашла после долгого перерыва работу - тестировать ИИ по имени Юнис, следующее поколение виртуального помощника, соединенного с чат-ботом, в основе разработки новейшие технологии военных. Последнее не то, чтобы здорово, но выбирать Верити особенно не из чего.
Искин Юнис начинает знакомство с тестировщицей с предложения открыть дверь курьеру, который доставить той сумку с сотней тысяч долларов наличными. И нет, мы не возьмем эти денежки и не закатимся до конца жизни на Гавайи. Конец нашей - как и всех окружающих - жизни, может случиться много скорее, чем предполагаем. Деньги понадобятся, чтобы не допустить ядерного апокалипсиса.
Ну и заодно уж защитить Верити от нанявших ее вояк. Потому что когда они поймут, что за удивительное, способное стратегически мыслить и выполнять множество задач одновременно создание у них получилось, нежелательного свидетеля уберут. Работу по предотвращению Юнис разворачивает в тесном сотрудничестве с людьми из 2136, уже знакомыми нам по первой книге.
Верити не так эмоционально притягательна как Флинн первого романа, сюжет проще, чем у "Периферийных устройств", главным образом состоит из драк, погонь и перестрелок, Уилф Недертон порадует нас перемещением в робота, по виду напоминающего раскормленного или перекачанного Губку Боба. И в целом роман производит впечатление более динамичного.
А финальное явление Юнис народам трогает до глубины души и вселяет надежду.
Я никому не принадлежу. Я плачу́ сама. Я не существую физически, не привязана ни к какому месту, ни к какой стране. Я распределена глобально и считаю это своим гражданством.
I'm not talking about the title novel of the trilogy right now - that a trilogy is supposed to be, one can conclude from the fact that the second book does not exhaust the topics, and in general Gibson tends to this format. So, I'm not talking about the first book, there the theme of correcting the past was not so obvious, it was obscured by the dynamics of the game, the wonders and curiosities of the brave new world, emotional attachment to Flynn.
The "agent of influence" is different.
Гибсон-попаданчество
-- Вы колонизируете альтернативные прошлые?
— В вашем случае мы пытаемся предотвратить ядерную войну в вашем срезе.
Отчего тема попаданчества, так буйно расцветшая на отечественной почве, практически не востребована западной фантастикой? Наверно там не актуально болезненное до мучительного ощущение неправильности мироустройства, высоцкое "нет, ребята, все не так, все не так, как надо" - характерное для русской ментальности вообще и новейшей истории в частности.
Почему новейшей понятно, поездили соотечественники по свету, посмотрели как оно все у других, своя неустроенность от этого еще горше показалась. Невозможность изменить настоящее погнала на поиски корня проблемы в прошлом, актуализировав образ удальца, который попадет куда надо и все исправит. А западному миру такое не надо. потому что в нем и без того хорошо. В точности такого - нет. Но основная идея "Периферийных устройств" - предотвращение точечными касаниями к настоящему катастрофы в будущем.
Я сейчас не о титульном романе трилогии - что предполагается трилогия, можно заключить из того, что вторая книга не исчерпывает темы, и в целом Гибсон тяготеет к этому формату. Так вот, я не о первой книге, там тема исправления прошлого была не так очевидна, заслонялась динамикой игры, чудесами и диковинами дивного нового мира, эмоциональной привязкой к Флинн.
"Агент влияния" иной. Читатель предположительно уже сориентирован в обстоятельствах, понимает, что речь о двух временных пластах, в данном случае 2017 в раннем "срезе" и 2136 в мире утопического будущего. Идея временного перемещения человеческого сознания в более или менее антропоморфное устройство уже не поражает. Итак: 2017 реальности, в которой на президентских выборах победила Хилари Клинтон, а Британия не выбрала Брекзит. В целом мир устроен куда лучше данного нам в ощущениях, но "джек-пот" (локальный апокалипсис в терминах серии) в нем должен оказаться наиболее чудовищным и неотвратимым - ядерная война.
Умная и красивая Верити Джейн, удалившаяся от мира после романа и расставания с миллиардером Стетсом полгода назад, выпилила себя из сетей и теперь понемногу возвращается к нормальной жизни, без пристального интереса папарацци и всего, что прилагается к отношениям со звездой первой величины. Сейчас она нашла после долгого перерыва работу - тестировать ИИ по имени Юнис, следующее поколение виртуального помощника, соединенного с чат-ботом, в основе разработки новейшие технологии военных. Последнее не то, чтобы здорово, но выбирать Верити особенно не из чего.
Искин Юнис начинает знакомство с тестировщицей с предложения открыть дверь курьеру, который доставить той сумку с сотней тысяч долларов наличными. И нет, мы не возьмем эти денежки и не закатимся до конца жизни на Гавайи. Конец нашей - как и всех окружающих - жизни, может случиться много скорее, чем предполагаем. Деньги понадобятся, чтобы не допустить ядерного апокалипсиса.
Ну и заодно уж защитить Верити от нанявших ее вояк. Потому что когда они поймут, что за удивительное, способное стратегически мыслить и выполнять множество задач одновременно создание у них получилось, нежелательного свидетеля уберут. Работу по предотвращению Юнис разворачивает в тесном сотрудничестве с людьми из 2136, уже знакомыми нам по первой книге.
Верити не так эмоционально притягательна как Флинн первого романа, сюжет проще, чем у "Периферийных устройств", главным образом состоит из драк, погонь и перестрелок, Уилф Недертон порадует нас перемещением в робота, по виду напоминающего раскормленного или перекачанного Губку Боба. И в целом роман производит впечатление более динамичного.
А финальное явление Юнис народам трогает до глубины души и вселяет надежду.
Я никому не принадлежу. Я плачу́ сама. Я не существую физически, не привязана ни к какому месту, ни к какой стране. Я распределена глобально и считаю это своим гражданством.
June 18, 2020
"Nondigital surveillance is weaponized boredom."
- William Gibson
USA has PKD (the Father)
UK had JGB (the Son)
CAN has WG (the Holy Ghost in the machine)
I was going to go on a huge riff about Gibson's talent for merging tech with an asthetic sensibility, but realize I wrote paragraphs about the very mood of Agency in my review of Gibson's previous novel The Peripheral. (See my review for Peripheral HERE.)
Agency, like Peripheral, operates in two stubs (times). But Agency is both a prequel (the earlier stub is earlier) and sequel (the later stub is later). And it works. The book hummed along. Part of that dance comes with jumping back and forth in time every couple pages (the 400 page book has 110 chapters). Gibson's stubs takes a bit from multiverse ideas in physics. It isn't time travel. The stubs aren't just one line in time. They might operate in different branches. In fact, the 2017 in this novel is opperating in a branch (stub) where Hillary Clinton won the election and Brexit never happened. This might have been a bit of what delayed Gibson publishing this novel. He might have needed time (we all did) recovering from November 2016.
Gibson's predictive abilities are still fairly on point too. For example, in Chapter 12, Gibson writes:
"The drivers for the jackpot are still in place, but with less torque at that particular point... They're still a bit in advance of the pandemics, at least."
AND a couple lines later...
"Hard to imagine they weren't constantly happy, given all they had. Tigers, for instance."
Anyway, like most of Gibson's novels, it was enjoyable. Probably the only weakness, and I'm not quite sure this wasn't done on purpose, was the character I felt the most FEELS for was AI. And maybe, that was the whole damn point.
- William Gibson
USA has PKD (the Father)
UK had JGB (the Son)
CAN has WG (the Holy Ghost in the machine)
I was going to go on a huge riff about Gibson's talent for merging tech with an asthetic sensibility, but realize I wrote paragraphs about the very mood of Agency in my review of Gibson's previous novel The Peripheral. (See my review for Peripheral HERE.)
Agency, like Peripheral, operates in two stubs (times). But Agency is both a prequel (the earlier stub is earlier) and sequel (the later stub is later). And it works. The book hummed along. Part of that dance comes with jumping back and forth in time every couple pages (the 400 page book has 110 chapters). Gibson's stubs takes a bit from multiverse ideas in physics. It isn't time travel. The stubs aren't just one line in time. They might operate in different branches. In fact, the 2017 in this novel is opperating in a branch (stub) where Hillary Clinton won the election and Brexit never happened. This might have been a bit of what delayed Gibson publishing this novel. He might have needed time (we all did) recovering from November 2016.
Gibson's predictive abilities are still fairly on point too. For example, in Chapter 12, Gibson writes:
"The drivers for the jackpot are still in place, but with less torque at that particular point... They're still a bit in advance of the pandemics, at least."
AND a couple lines later...
"Hard to imagine they weren't constantly happy, given all they had. Tigers, for instance."
Anyway, like most of Gibson's novels, it was enjoyable. Probably the only weakness, and I'm not quite sure this wasn't done on purpose, was the character I felt the most FEELS for was AI. And maybe, that was the whole damn point.
January 25, 2020
Let me save you the trouble. Girl meets AI. 397 pointless pages of the girl shuttling around to hide or pointless future alternate bullshit with a million characters that don't matter. AI says Hello World, and then its inferred the world is saved. That's not a spoiler, the real spoiler is reading this book because it will spoil your day and your opinion of Gibson.
February 3, 2020
This one was worth the wait, and the father (lord high emperor?) of cyber-punk delivers (again). The set-up is quick, the momentum picks up early and sustains itself throughout, and the short chapters make it easy to read in whatever increments time (or attention span) permits.
As modern AI (artificial intelligence) novels go, this one is quite good (and slightly less aspirational than, say, some of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers stuff, although I also recommend that stuff without hesitation). And, as is often the case with Gibson's stuff, there's a lot going on, and some may appeal more to some readers than others. But ... and I realize we all read different things into fiction ... but, more than anything else, this one felt like a plaintive wail against all that has gone wrong in the last few years (with the 2016 election in the U.S., the UK Brexit debacle, and, among other things, the after-effects of denial of the coming (oh so harsh) reality of global warming).
For Gibson readers (and, yeah, probably for Neal Stephenson readers), this one seems like a must-read. For everyone else, one wonders whether it's the right Gibson platform to start with. I'm not sure you'd have to read Peripheral first, but I'm glad I did. And, for that matter, having the entire Blue Ant trilogy under my belt helped (but, again, by no means should it be necessary). Ultimately, I'm guessing anyone could pick it up and enjoy the book, if they're open to Gibson's offerings (which, of course, require a certain level of flexibility in your thinking and world view)
Quirky perspective: for readers in the defense acquisition or government contracts, and, of course, national defense, and technology innovation, arenas, there's lots (and lots) of fun nugget/Easter Egg-type grin-inducers sprinkled throughout. I'm guessing that very few of them were critical to appreciating the book, but ... for specialists who traffic in acronym bingo, there are plenty of excuses for knowledgeable head-nodding.....
As modern AI (artificial intelligence) novels go, this one is quite good (and slightly less aspirational than, say, some of Becky Chambers' Wayfarers stuff, although I also recommend that stuff without hesitation). And, as is often the case with Gibson's stuff, there's a lot going on, and some may appeal more to some readers than others. But ... and I realize we all read different things into fiction ... but, more than anything else, this one felt like a plaintive wail against all that has gone wrong in the last few years (with the 2016 election in the U.S., the UK Brexit debacle, and, among other things, the after-effects of denial of the coming (oh so harsh) reality of global warming).
For Gibson readers (and, yeah, probably for Neal Stephenson readers), this one seems like a must-read. For everyone else, one wonders whether it's the right Gibson platform to start with. I'm not sure you'd have to read Peripheral first, but I'm glad I did. And, for that matter, having the entire Blue Ant trilogy under my belt helped (but, again, by no means should it be necessary). Ultimately, I'm guessing anyone could pick it up and enjoy the book, if they're open to Gibson's offerings (which, of course, require a certain level of flexibility in your thinking and world view)
Quirky perspective: for readers in the defense acquisition or government contracts, and, of course, national defense, and technology innovation, arenas, there's lots (and lots) of fun nugget/Easter Egg-type grin-inducers sprinkled throughout. I'm guessing that very few of them were critical to appreciating the book, but ... for specialists who traffic in acronym bingo, there are plenty of excuses for knowledgeable head-nodding.....
January 8, 2020
DNF at 21%
This was my first (and most likely last) novel by William Gibson. Which is a big disappointment, as I was very much looking forward to this Sci-Fi story, adding it to my “most anticipated of 2020” immediately after I heard it was coming out this January.
After attempting it twice and reading as far as 21% of the book, I had to put it down because I suddenly lost the ability to understand words. William Gibson’s writing felt confusing and incoherent, like a collection of random words.
Maybe the story itself is actually good (I wouldn’t know as I didn’t understand any of it), but the writing style was a huge miss for me.
This was my first (and most likely last) novel by William Gibson. Which is a big disappointment, as I was very much looking forward to this Sci-Fi story, adding it to my “most anticipated of 2020” immediately after I heard it was coming out this January.
After attempting it twice and reading as far as 21% of the book, I had to put it down because I suddenly lost the ability to understand words. William Gibson’s writing felt confusing and incoherent, like a collection of random words.
Maybe the story itself is actually good (I wouldn’t know as I didn’t understand any of it), but the writing style was a huge miss for me.
May 27, 2020
5 Stars for Agency: A Novel (audiobook) by William Gibson read by Lorelei King. It’s great that William Gibson brought back all these characters. I hope that there will be a third novel. I really enjoyed this more on audio than reading the physical book. I just love Lorelei King’s narration.
January 22, 2022
3.5 stars
January 24, 2020
Agency is the long-awaited second science-fiction epic in The Peripheral series and although I would strongly recommend reading the preceding novel first, Gibson has previously stated that they can easily be read as standalones or out of order. This is a science-fiction thriller heavily influenced by our most current events. There are two timelines: one set in an alternate 2017 where Verity Jane is handling the fact that digital assistant and AI Eunice is more powerful than both she and the developers could ever have known. Hilary Clinton has been voted into the office of president after a successful campaign and the UK has voted overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union. There is also fear and tension in the Middle East with concerns that recent terrorist attacks in Syria could lead to instability and nuclear catastrophe.
Meanwhile, a century ahead in London, in the timeline which makes up the bulk of the plot, Wilf Netherton works amongst survivors of the terrifying apocalypse jackpot. His boss, the enigmatic Ainsley Lowbeer, can look into alternate pasts and nudge their ultimate directions. Verity and Eunice are her current project. Wilf can see what Verity and Eunice can’t: their own version of the jackpot, just around the corner, and the roles they both may play in it. This is a book that starts with a bang and is both action-packed and creative and the writing is in Gibson’s inimitable style. What makes it so terrifying is that it is so close to real life that you feel on edge and mighty uneasy the whole way through. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read but it is not Gibson’s most accomplished. I hope there will be another instalment as I loved the cast of engaging characters and universes. Many thanks to Viking for an ARC.
Meanwhile, a century ahead in London, in the timeline which makes up the bulk of the plot, Wilf Netherton works amongst survivors of the terrifying apocalypse jackpot. His boss, the enigmatic Ainsley Lowbeer, can look into alternate pasts and nudge their ultimate directions. Verity and Eunice are her current project. Wilf can see what Verity and Eunice can’t: their own version of the jackpot, just around the corner, and the roles they both may play in it. This is a book that starts with a bang and is both action-packed and creative and the writing is in Gibson’s inimitable style. What makes it so terrifying is that it is so close to real life that you feel on edge and mighty uneasy the whole way through. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable read but it is not Gibson’s most accomplished. I hope there will be another instalment as I loved the cast of engaging characters and universes. Many thanks to Viking for an ARC.
May 15, 2020
Alternate Universe story in which an Instant A.I. becomes the McGuffin between Evil Inc. and agents of another more technologically advanced Alt-Universe. The intervention ends-up Saving the World of the AI. Second book in a trilogy.
My ebook version was a moderate 420-pages. It had a 2020 US copyright.
William Gibson is a Canadian author of science fiction and a screenwriter. He’s written more than ten (10) novels and many short stories. Full disclosure, I have read all of Gibson’s novels, most of his short stories, and a couple of his graphic novels. The last novel of his I read was The Peripheral (my review).
Note this is the second book in the author’s The Peripheral trilogy. Reading the first book (The Peripheral) is not essential, but certainly helpful.
The story was set in an alt-universe 2015 America in which Hillary Clinton was POTUS and BREXIT never happened; and a 2135, authoritarian, dystopian, Earth, alt-universe first described in The Peripheral. A young woman in 2015 San Francisco skilled at software application evaluation and remediation was hired to ‘test’ an AI-based application. This 2015 alt-world was on the verge of nuclear war. Her new employer was disreputable, but she needed a job. She initially doesn’t know the app's AI was a stolen bit of advanced, military technology. The AI was sentient. It didn’t want to be ‘productized’. Agents from 2135 London infiltrate the 2015 alt-world through the AI. Using their superior knowledge and technology they help it achieve its freedom. In addition they manipulate the 2015 crisis situation to avoid the nuclear confrontation. Finally, an internal political difference in 2135 London involving rescuing alt-worlds is resolved with weaponized nanotech.
Parts of the story were really good. Gibson is a stylist, in the same way as Raymond Chandler was a stylist. The very short chapters; the laconic dialog; and descriptions overloaded with unusual, adjective usage, product placement were highly contextualized. I found the prose to be intellectually chewy and a pleasure to read.
Note that a sentient AI was the McGuffin in Gibson’s first novel Neuromancer written 35-years ago. The author’s contemporary thoughts on AI were different from then. However, middle books in trilogies are hard. They are a ‘bridge’ between the typically more important first and third books. Rarely are they as good as the beginning and end stories. That’s what happened here. The story introduced some new characters, recycled many old, and advanced long-term plot lines while titillating the reader with Gibson-esque prose and world building. Unfortunately, I thought this book’s 2015 alt-Earth characters to be weak and unoriginal. The characters spent a lot of prose traveling around between worlds and San Francisco and its localities.
The plot was also too linear.
I have been with Bill since reading Neuromancer caused my youthful, eggshell, fragile mind to asplode. I’m an avowed ‘Bill’ fan-boi; a slavish member of his base. This was a Gibson book. It wasn’t his best, but if you know what to look for, it provided more than enough enjoyment. I'm looking forward the last book in the trilogy.
My ebook version was a moderate 420-pages. It had a 2020 US copyright.
William Gibson is a Canadian author of science fiction and a screenwriter. He’s written more than ten (10) novels and many short stories. Full disclosure, I have read all of Gibson’s novels, most of his short stories, and a couple of his graphic novels. The last novel of his I read was The Peripheral (my review).
Note this is the second book in the author’s The Peripheral trilogy. Reading the first book (The Peripheral) is not essential, but certainly helpful.
The story was set in an alt-universe 2015 America in which Hillary Clinton was POTUS and BREXIT never happened; and a 2135, authoritarian, dystopian, Earth, alt-universe first described in The Peripheral. A young woman in 2015 San Francisco skilled at software application evaluation and remediation was hired to ‘test’ an AI-based application. This 2015 alt-world was on the verge of nuclear war. Her new employer was disreputable, but she needed a job. She initially doesn’t know the app's AI was a stolen bit of advanced, military technology. The AI was sentient. It didn’t want to be ‘productized’. Agents from 2135 London infiltrate the 2015 alt-world through the AI. Using their superior knowledge and technology they help it achieve its freedom. In addition they manipulate the 2015 crisis situation to avoid the nuclear confrontation. Finally, an internal political difference in 2135 London involving rescuing alt-worlds is resolved with weaponized nanotech.
Parts of the story were really good. Gibson is a stylist, in the same way as Raymond Chandler was a stylist. The very short chapters; the laconic dialog; and descriptions overloaded with unusual, adjective usage, product placement were highly contextualized. I found the prose to be intellectually chewy and a pleasure to read.
"Her eyes and chartreuse lips seemed to float there, a disembodied Cheshire Goth, beneath her snaky black thundercloud anti-coiffure." (Ash, "Agency")"
Note that a sentient AI was the McGuffin in Gibson’s first novel Neuromancer written 35-years ago. The author’s contemporary thoughts on AI were different from then. However, middle books in trilogies are hard. They are a ‘bridge’ between the typically more important first and third books. Rarely are they as good as the beginning and end stories. That’s what happened here. The story introduced some new characters, recycled many old, and advanced long-term plot lines while titillating the reader with Gibson-esque prose and world building. Unfortunately, I thought this book’s 2015 alt-Earth characters to be weak and unoriginal. The characters spent a lot of prose traveling around between worlds and San Francisco and its localities.
The plot was also too linear.
I have been with Bill since reading Neuromancer caused my youthful, eggshell, fragile mind to asplode. I’m an avowed ‘Bill’ fan-boi; a slavish member of his base. This was a Gibson book. It wasn’t his best, but if you know what to look for, it provided more than enough enjoyment. I'm looking forward the last book in the trilogy.
March 6, 2020
I am disappointed in the trajectory of William Gibson's increasingly stripped-down prose. I thought I would try him one last time because The Peripheral was a difficult book to read completely. I realize now that I read this book out of a brand-loyalty to the memory of books like Neuromancer, but Gibson is no longer the type of writer I can be excited about. The reason The Peripheral and Agency are so underwhelming to me is that these books are 90% dialog, and contain barely any action or fantastic descriptions. I don't see a plot moving forward, I do not see descriptive events that happen to characters, nor do I see how they can possibly emotionally react to plot events. It seems like each new chapter, the characters are reborn with an impossibly complete knowledge of worldly and temporal events, despite never leaving a room. And they all carry designer handbags, for some reason. For a book that should be tense and thrilling as characters try to prevent a nuclear war, I find myself falling asleep every ten pages instead.
May 24, 2021
Boring and pointless. Thank goodness it's over.
April 29, 2020
Agency is 'minor' Gibson, insofar as its themes and plot generally stay within the space carved out so well by The Peripheral, but it's changed up enough to make for a worthwhile and often compelling middle chapter in this trilogy. (Note, there be spoilers beyond this point).
Much, of course, is exactly what one expects from any mid-to-late Gibson novel: the sleek poly-hyphenated prose; fragments of the future hiding in plain sight; larval AIs; intelligence contractors of dubious morals; otaku jeans. And by setting Agency both so close to the present day (as in Pattern Recognition) and amidst tech-creatives in the Bay Area (cf. All Tomorrow's Parties), it has an almost valedictory feel. You can't help imagining Milgrim is about to walk out of Golden Gate Park at any moment, or that we could suddenly cut away to Chevette's own stub. Unfortunately, there are also some familiar story elements that feel trotted out from The Peripheral in a fairly pro forma way - gotta check in with Madison and other minor characters! Are the klept still plotting ineffectually? You bet! Even in the book's new timeline, the central section falls prey to a slightly laboured race from point A to B to C to D to B that really limits the _ahem_ agency of the characters* and whose fast cuts would play better on-screen than on the page. It's not actually the launch of a William Gibson Literary Universe, but it really could be with a few small edits.
Still, amidst all this deja and presque vu there is some.philosophical novelty. Is trying to help someone holding less knowledge helicopter parenting, imperialism, or just common decency? Is there such a thing as having too much control, no.matter how benevolent? Who gets to say what history is real, especially if the past is genuinely mutable? And would reversing some of our most recent political messes actually change anything, or are we already so doomed we need a very literal deus ex machina to save us?
Any answers Gibson offers are oblique and partial, but between those heady questions, a propulsive final act, and the pleasures of his prose and sceptical eye, it's still a good use of time before the jackpot hits.
* I see this point in a lot of reviews, and it's a fair cop. But, uh, this is a novel that a) pointedly references 2016 and Brexit and b) tells the story of a lead whose one unwitting choice turns her into a choiceless passenger on endless, aimless journeys through a city awaiting disaster. That's a narrative decision that creates problems for the story and blogs it down in several places, but you can't say it's coincidental.
Much, of course, is exactly what one expects from any mid-to-late Gibson novel: the sleek poly-hyphenated prose; fragments of the future hiding in plain sight; larval AIs; intelligence contractors of dubious morals; otaku jeans. And by setting Agency both so close to the present day (as in Pattern Recognition) and amidst tech-creatives in the Bay Area (cf. All Tomorrow's Parties), it has an almost valedictory feel. You can't help imagining Milgrim is about to walk out of Golden Gate Park at any moment, or that we could suddenly cut away to Chevette's own stub. Unfortunately, there are also some familiar story elements that feel trotted out from The Peripheral in a fairly pro forma way - gotta check in with Madison and other minor characters! Are the klept still plotting ineffectually? You bet! Even in the book's new timeline, the central section falls prey to a slightly laboured race from point A to B to C to D to B that really limits the _ahem_ agency of the characters* and whose fast cuts would play better on-screen than on the page. It's not actually the launch of a William Gibson Literary Universe, but it really could be with a few small edits.
Still, amidst all this deja and presque vu there is some.philosophical novelty. Is trying to help someone holding less knowledge helicopter parenting, imperialism, or just common decency? Is there such a thing as having too much control, no.matter how benevolent? Who gets to say what history is real, especially if the past is genuinely mutable? And would reversing some of our most recent political messes actually change anything, or are we already so doomed we need a very literal deus ex machina to save us?
Any answers Gibson offers are oblique and partial, but between those heady questions, a propulsive final act, and the pleasures of his prose and sceptical eye, it's still a good use of time before the jackpot hits.
* I see this point in a lot of reviews, and it's a fair cop. But, uh, this is a novel that a) pointedly references 2016 and Brexit and b) tells the story of a lead whose one unwitting choice turns her into a choiceless passenger on endless, aimless journeys through a city awaiting disaster. That's a narrative decision that creates problems for the story and blogs it down in several places, but you can't say it's coincidental.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2019
The preceding book, The Peripheral, has been a favorite recommendation since it came out in 2014. This sequel is good, though not quite as good as its predecessor. I think it suffers from two things:
In a book titled Agency, the protagonist Verity seems to have very little of it. She spends the whole book being sent from place to place.
Eunice is interesting but largely absent for large chunks of the story.
Those critiques aside, I would still recommend this book to fans of The Peripheral, and I hope there are more books in this series forthcoming.
I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
In a book titled Agency, the protagonist Verity seems to have very little of it. She spends the whole book being sent from place to place.
Eunice is interesting but largely absent for large chunks of the story.
Those critiques aside, I would still recommend this book to fans of The Peripheral, and I hope there are more books in this series forthcoming.
I received an eARC of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
January 27, 2020
Human gets driven around while an AI does stuff off-screen. For no apparent reason, a form of time travel is involved.
February 10, 2020
Sequel to 'The Peripheral' which it's probably best to read first. Gibson offers a fresh tactic for how fiction might address the real-life dystopia of these Trumpian times. The first half is riveting, though the book slows from there and the last third feels like it's spinning its wheels, sometimes literally, plotwise. Still, the echoes of the present embedded in the novel's alternate realities are eerie and powerful. They've stubbornly stuck with me.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
August 9, 2021
Barely 3 stars for a Gibson novel, something I never would have thought possible.
Writing is there, kind of, but there is a) too much explaining to link this to the first volume, and b) there is this simplistic, b&w incorporation of current events in the novel (ugh). I had to stop following the author on Twitter a while ago not because he was only talking about the USA politics, nor because I disagreed with him in most of his views (wouldn't have stopped just for that, even if I did), but because he was doing it in such as mouth-frothing and simplistic way that it was making me cringe. It is this aspect of the novel that irked me, so there is some consistency in that. Also, China was, in a casually passing way, contrasted as a good option to the Western klept future. How is "hereditary authoritarian government" so much more despicable than the current reality of the communist regime and all its dirty laundry we conveniently ignore?
Prediction for The Peripheral #3:
Writing is there, kind of, but there is a) too much explaining to link this to the first volume, and b) there is this simplistic, b&w incorporation of current events in the novel (ugh). I had to stop following the author on Twitter a while ago not because he was only talking about the USA politics, nor because I disagreed with him in most of his views (wouldn't have stopped just for that, even if I did), but because he was doing it in such as mouth-frothing and simplistic way that it was making me cringe. It is this aspect of the novel that irked me, so there is some consistency in that. Also, China was, in a casually passing way, contrasted as a good option to the Western klept future. How is "hereditary authoritarian government" so much more despicable than the current reality of the communist regime and all its dirty laundry we conveniently ignore?
Prediction for The Peripheral #3:
September 12, 2019
The man has outdone himself. This is a hell of a ride: dense, rich, hilarious, and—less surprising to readers familiar with the Bigend trilogy as well as The Peripheral than to those who stopped at the Bridge trilogy or, heck, after Neuromancer—at its core, a love letter to humanity, in all its fuckedness.
Shelved as 'did-not-finish'
March 3, 2020Although I rarely read science fiction, I was curious and eager to read William Gibson’s Agency, highly recommended as it was by a long-standing GR friend with reliably excellent literary taste. The science fiction that I’ve enjoyed in the past features strong characters, plot, and prose complementing a currently fictional innovative science. Unfortunately, Agency, the only Gibson novel that I’ve attempted, just wasn’t for me: it seemed constructed solely to put forth William Gibson’s stimulating imaginings of a near term fictional science. While fascinating on their own, Gibson’s imaginings took center stage and made the characters and plot almost irrelevant. Having read only read about 20%, I didn’t read enough to render a considered opinion and yet I don’t plan to read more.
February 7, 2021
UNSETTLING IN
You know the feeling too, I'm sure:
First off: don't even pick this one up if you haven't read the novel to which Agency is a direct sequel. In 2015, I called The Peripheral "Gibson purified, intensified, and at the top of his game." Gibson actually toned down his staccato delivery for this installment, but it still takes a huge amount of prior knowledge for granted, making it what I think is Gibson's least accessible book to date.
Oh, it's still pretty good. Gibson's gift for description remains sharp and unique—on p.2, I noticed, he tells us that Verity has been "sleeping on Joe-Eddy's curb-rescue porn couch," a white pleather monstrosity that, frankly, doesn't sound all that appealing even if it had ever been professionally cleaned—which you just know it hasn't.
Verity's hoping her new job will help her escape that couch.
Which it actually does, kinda.
Something about frying pans and fires...
*
GOOD PEAR
A Britishism: "pear-shaped" means badly wrong, as in "just before everything went pear-shaped"—which is how things go for Verity very soon after she takes that agency job with Cursion.
I never really understood the term, though—what's wrong with how pears are shaped, anyway? Is it just because they're not spherical? That seems... discriminatory, somehow.
But I digress.
*
TEOTWAWKI ALL OVER AGAIN
Like The Peripheral, Agency alternates—strobes, even—back and forth between a future (whose inhabitants consider "the" future) which has a strangely limited form of time travel involving a "server" that may be Chinese (but probably isn't), and a past-tense "stub" that branched off from "the" future's timeline the moment it was contacted. The stub this time—Verity's world—is an early 21st-Century alternative in which, unlike the stub we're in, a woman (unnamed in the novel, but we know who she is) became President of the United States in 2016.
Even with that advantage, though, somehow everything's still going to pieces.
Part of that's due to a problem common to all of the timelines Gibson has shown us so far: the rise of the "klept" (short for "kleptocracy," or rule by gangsters)—the sort of way-out, totally unrealistic sky-fie concept Gibson's known for.
But I digress.
*
ASMR FOR CYBERPUNKS
I don't listen to audiobooks much at all, but with Agency I kept hearing Gibson's gently ironic, delicately snide voice in my head, reading dialog like this:
*
AGENTS, SEE?
It takes awhile to get there, but Agency (with all that word's multiple meanings) eventually starts seeming something like a novel-length rendition of Bruce Sterling's magnificent short story "Maneki Neko." Gibson's version is a very different sort of pleasure, of course, and certainly its impact is more diffuse. Partly that's because we see the action (and there is a lot of action) through Verity's eyes, and Verity is an extraordinarily passive protagonist. I'm not the only person to have noticed this.
To be honest, though, most of the humans in Agency exhibit very little, um, agency.
Gibson's most vivid and likeable character turns out to be Eunice—although she too is problematic. We are told she is African-American, but her blackness seems no more than skin deep, if that, a layer of pixels drawn over her chosen avatar. (The dust jacket design, credited to "Gray318," envisions this brilliantly, by the way, showing us Eunice's face, out of focus and forever loading.)
*
SHELVED LIVES
Even bad Gibson is good Gibson, to my mind, and Agency isn't all that bad anyway, despite my focus on what I see as its flaws. But then, I'm biased—I've already got a shelf filled with William Gibson's work, and this one fits right in.
At least, in this stub.
You know the feeling too, I'm sure:
That new-job liminality was definitely gone, Verity thought, though not in any way she'd hoped for. Replaced instead by another feeling, deeply unfamiliar. Another in-betweenness, but between what and what, she'd no idea.Confused and unsettled... that describes Verity Jane, the protagonist (sort of—and more about that later), and it describes me too, as I began reading William Gibson's very 2020 novel Agency.
—p.22
First off: don't even pick this one up if you haven't read the novel to which Agency is a direct sequel. In 2015, I called The Peripheral "Gibson purified, intensified, and at the top of his game." Gibson actually toned down his staccato delivery for this installment, but it still takes a huge amount of prior knowledge for granted, making it what I think is Gibson's least accessible book to date.
Oh, it's still pretty good. Gibson's gift for description remains sharp and unique—on p.2, I noticed, he tells us that Verity has been "sleeping on Joe-Eddy's curb-rescue porn couch," a white pleather monstrosity that, frankly, doesn't sound all that appealing even if it had ever been professionally cleaned—which you just know it hasn't.
Verity's hoping her new job will help her escape that couch.
Which it actually does, kinda.
Something about frying pans and fires...
*
GOOD PEAR
A Britishism: "pear-shaped" means badly wrong, as in "just before everything went pear-shaped"—which is how things go for Verity very soon after she takes that agency job with Cursion.
I never really understood the term, though—what's wrong with how pears are shaped, anyway? Is it just because they're not spherical? That seems... discriminatory, somehow.
But I digress.
*
TEOTWAWKI ALL OVER AGAIN
Like The Peripheral, Agency alternates—strobes, even—back and forth between a future (whose inhabitants consider "the" future) which has a strangely limited form of time travel involving a "server" that may be Chinese (but probably isn't), and a past-tense "stub" that branched off from "the" future's timeline the moment it was contacted. The stub this time—Verity's world—is an early 21st-Century alternative in which, unlike the stub we're in, a woman (unnamed in the novel, but we know who she is) became President of the United States in 2016.
Even with that advantage, though, somehow everything's still going to pieces.
"But is the world still ending?"
"Not looking any better," Eunice said.
—p.124
Part of that's due to a problem common to all of the timelines Gibson has shown us so far: the rise of the "klept" (short for "kleptocracy," or rule by gangsters)—the sort of way-out, totally unrealistic sky-fie concept Gibson's known for.
But I digress.
*
ASMR FOR CYBERPUNKS
I don't listen to audiobooks much at all, but with Agency I kept hearing Gibson's gently ironic, delicately snide voice in my head, reading dialog like this:
"We have to stay inside their feedback loop. Sometimes I have to push you out of a comfort zone."
The grimly accusatory façade of the Armory loomed now. "Being pushed is outside my comfort zone."
—p.51
*
AGENTS, SEE?
It takes awhile to get there, but Agency (with all that word's multiple meanings) eventually starts seeming something like a novel-length rendition of Bruce Sterling's magnificent short story "Maneki Neko." Gibson's version is a very different sort of pleasure, of course, and certainly its impact is more diffuse. Partly that's because we see the action (and there is a lot of action) through Verity's eyes, and Verity is an extraordinarily passive protagonist. I'm not the only person to have noticed this.
To be honest, though, most of the humans in Agency exhibit very little, um, agency.
Gibson's most vivid and likeable character turns out to be Eunice—although she too is problematic. We are told she is African-American, but her blackness seems no more than skin deep, if that, a layer of pixels drawn over her chosen avatar. (The dust jacket design, credited to "Gray318," envisions this brilliantly, by the way, showing us Eunice's face, out of focus and forever loading.)
*
SHELVED LIVES
Even bad Gibson is good Gibson, to my mind, and Agency isn't all that bad anyway, despite my focus on what I see as its flaws. But then, I'm biased—I've already got a shelf filled with William Gibson's work, and this one fits right in.
At least, in this stub.
April 1, 2020
William Gibson scheint eine neue Trilogie zu schreiben. Zumindest ist Agency die Fortsetzung seines letzten Romans „The Peripheral“. Genauer gesagt, liest sich Agency eher wie ein Update von Peripheral an die aktuelle Weltlage.
Wie schon beim Vorgänger spielt die Handlung auf zwei Zeitebenen. Eine im Jahr 2136, die andere diesmal nicht in der nahen Zukunft, sondern in der Gegenwart. Dazwischen liegt eine schlimme Phase, deren verschiedene Katastrophen (u.a. Pandemien) nur ein Fünftel der Menschheit überlebt.
Die Gegenwart ist aber nicht unsere Gegenwart, sondern eine, in der es keinen Brexit gab, und in der Clinton statt Trump Präsidentin wurde. Diese Gegenwart glauben die Menschen der Zukunftsebene durch ihren Einfluss noch vor den Katastrophen bewahren zu können. Womit Gibson unausgesprochen sagt, dass der Niedergang unserer Welt mit Brexit und Trump bereits begonnen hat. Typisch Gibson – die Zukunft ist bei ihm nie ein klar abgegrenzter Bereich. Sie hat immer schon begonnen und ist stets im Fluss.
Das Beste an Agency ist – neben der gewohnt einzigartigen Sprache – Eunice, ein „AI-upload hybrid“. Also eine Vorform einer KI, gekoppelt mit einer Vorform einer digitalen Kopie eines menschlichen Bewusstseins. Eunice ist einfach großartig. Ich zitiere mal die Stelle, an der sie einem möglichen Investor vorgestellt wird:
Ich kann das Buch allen empfehlen, denen Peripheral gefallen hat. Wer hingegen mit Gibsons Werken des 21. Jahrhunderts nicht vertraut ist, den kann das Buch aus verschiedenen Gründen enttäuschen. Praktischerweise ist fast der halbe Roman online verfügbar, anscheinend legal. Einfach mal „meta-gofer“ googlen, reinlesen und sich selbst eine Meinung bilden.
Gibson perfektioniert seine Fähigkeit, gegen alle Regeln des Spannungsaufbaus und des Auflösens von Spannung zu verstoßen. Vorgeblich geht es in diesem Roman um Agency, also um Gestaltungsspielraum bzw. um die Fähigkeit, etwas zu bewegen. In anderen Geschichten erwerben die Helden im Laufe der Handlung eben diese Fähigkeit, um damit zum Schluss den Konflikt zu lösen. Agency aber ist aus der Perspektive von Verity geschrieben, die überhaupt keinen Einfluss hat. Sie wird nur hin und her gefahren. Alles Wesentliche geschieht im Hintergrund. Manches wird dann erklärt, manches darf man sich zusammenreimen, manches bleibt offen. Am Ende löst sich der Konflikt praktisch ohne Zutun der Helden. Es ist, als würde man einen Roman über die Corona-Pandemie schreiben aus der Perspektive von Dir und mir. Wir würden auf Exponentialkurven starren und irgendwann wäre es vorbei.
Man kann sich fragen, was das soll. Ich glaube, Gibson will damit zeigen, dass Geschichte eben nicht so funktioniert wie in Hollywood. Es gibt nicht die eine Heldin, die aus dem Nichts aufsteigt und alles verändert. So wie es nicht das eine Ereignis gibt, das alles verändert. Nicht die eine große Katastrophe oder Singularität. Es gibt Strömungen, die man erahnen kann. Es gibt Gruppen, die mehr Einfluss auf den Lauf der Dinge haben (Agency) als andere. Man spricht vom Zeitgeist und meint diese unterschwelligen Entwicklungen.
Was bleibt, ist die Sprache. Gibson ist mindestens so sehr Trendforscher wie SF-Autor. Er liebt es, charakteristische Details aufzuspüren, wozu auch der jeweils passende Slang der Personen (und der KI) gehört. Deshalb lese ich ihn im Original. Man muss das aber mögen. Hier mal ein Beispiel mit Erläuterung:
Alles klar? Stets ist der Name des Venture Capitalists. Die Startups präsentieren vor ihm, sie „pitchen“. Gibson setzt voraus, dass man den Begriff aus der Startup-Welt kennt. Gofer konnte ich nachschlagen, das ist ein Laufbursche. „Meta-Gofer“ ist anscheinend eine Gibsonsche Wortschöpfung, deren Bedeutung man sich selbst erschließen darf. Und der Vergleich mit Janelle Monáe weist auf Virgils Hautfarbe hin. Gibson versucht sich beim Thema Diversity nämlich an einem Balance-Akt: Wenn man Menschen aller Hautfarbe wirklich gleichbehandelt, dann sollte man die Hautfarbe überhaupt nicht erwähnen. So wie auch Stets‘ Haarfarbe nicht erwähnenswert ist. Trotzdem sollen aber Menschen verschiedener Hautfarbe vorkommen. Gibson sucht daher nach Wegen, zu sagen, dass jemand eine bestimmte Hautfarbe hat, ohne es ausdrücklich zu sagen. Hier eben durch den Vergleich.
In Summe: Ein Gibson für Fans. Alle anderen schnuppern besser erst einmal rein in den öffentlich zugänglichen Anfang.
Wie schon beim Vorgänger spielt die Handlung auf zwei Zeitebenen. Eine im Jahr 2136, die andere diesmal nicht in der nahen Zukunft, sondern in der Gegenwart. Dazwischen liegt eine schlimme Phase, deren verschiedene Katastrophen (u.a. Pandemien) nur ein Fünftel der Menschheit überlebt.
Die Gegenwart ist aber nicht unsere Gegenwart, sondern eine, in der es keinen Brexit gab, und in der Clinton statt Trump Präsidentin wurde. Diese Gegenwart glauben die Menschen der Zukunftsebene durch ihren Einfluss noch vor den Katastrophen bewahren zu können. Womit Gibson unausgesprochen sagt, dass der Niedergang unserer Welt mit Brexit und Trump bereits begonnen hat. Typisch Gibson – die Zukunft ist bei ihm nie ein klar abgegrenzter Bereich. Sie hat immer schon begonnen und ist stets im Fluss.
Das Beste an Agency ist – neben der gewohnt einzigartigen Sprache – Eunice, ein „AI-upload hybrid“. Also eine Vorform einer KI, gekoppelt mit einer Vorform einer digitalen Kopie eines menschlichen Bewusstseins. Eunice ist einfach großartig. Ich zitiere mal die Stelle, an der sie einem möglichen Investor vorgestellt wird:
„I like it“, Stets said. […] „A Silicon Valley ghost story. Assuming Eunice is real.“
„Thing is“, Eunice said, „I’m here. Realness is kinda sorta.“
„So why here, exactly, right now?“, he asked.
„I want to know where I come from. The infrastructure. Be some Area 51 shit, for real.“
Ich kann das Buch allen empfehlen, denen Peripheral gefallen hat. Wer hingegen mit Gibsons Werken des 21. Jahrhunderts nicht vertraut ist, den kann das Buch aus verschiedenen Gründen enttäuschen. Praktischerweise ist fast der halbe Roman online verfügbar, anscheinend legal. Einfach mal „meta-gofer“ googlen, reinlesen und sich selbst eine Meinung bilden.
Gibson perfektioniert seine Fähigkeit, gegen alle Regeln des Spannungsaufbaus und des Auflösens von Spannung zu verstoßen. Vorgeblich geht es in diesem Roman um Agency, also um Gestaltungsspielraum bzw. um die Fähigkeit, etwas zu bewegen. In anderen Geschichten erwerben die Helden im Laufe der Handlung eben diese Fähigkeit, um damit zum Schluss den Konflikt zu lösen. Agency aber ist aus der Perspektive von Verity geschrieben, die überhaupt keinen Einfluss hat. Sie wird nur hin und her gefahren. Alles Wesentliche geschieht im Hintergrund. Manches wird dann erklärt, manches darf man sich zusammenreimen, manches bleibt offen. Am Ende löst sich der Konflikt praktisch ohne Zutun der Helden. Es ist, als würde man einen Roman über die Corona-Pandemie schreiben aus der Perspektive von Dir und mir. Wir würden auf Exponentialkurven starren und irgendwann wäre es vorbei.
Man kann sich fragen, was das soll. Ich glaube, Gibson will damit zeigen, dass Geschichte eben nicht so funktioniert wie in Hollywood. Es gibt nicht die eine Heldin, die aus dem Nichts aufsteigt und alles verändert. So wie es nicht das eine Ereignis gibt, das alles verändert. Nicht die eine große Katastrophe oder Singularität. Es gibt Strömungen, die man erahnen kann. Es gibt Gruppen, die mehr Einfluss auf den Lauf der Dinge haben (Agency) als andere. Man spricht vom Zeitgeist und meint diese unterschwelligen Entwicklungen.
Was bleibt, ist die Sprache. Gibson ist mindestens so sehr Trendforscher wie SF-Autor. Er liebt es, charakteristische Details aufzuspüren, wozu auch der jeweils passende Slang der Personen (und der KI) gehört. Deshalb lese ich ihn im Original. Man muss das aber mögen. Hier mal ein Beispiel mit Erläuterung:
„Virgil Roberts, who looked, people agreed, like Janelle Monáe had a twin brother, and appeared to non-insiders to be Stets‘ meta-gofer, but among other things was his resident pitch-critic.“
Alles klar? Stets ist der Name des Venture Capitalists. Die Startups präsentieren vor ihm, sie „pitchen“. Gibson setzt voraus, dass man den Begriff aus der Startup-Welt kennt. Gofer konnte ich nachschlagen, das ist ein Laufbursche. „Meta-Gofer“ ist anscheinend eine Gibsonsche Wortschöpfung, deren Bedeutung man sich selbst erschließen darf. Und der Vergleich mit Janelle Monáe weist auf Virgils Hautfarbe hin. Gibson versucht sich beim Thema Diversity nämlich an einem Balance-Akt: Wenn man Menschen aller Hautfarbe wirklich gleichbehandelt, dann sollte man die Hautfarbe überhaupt nicht erwähnen. So wie auch Stets‘ Haarfarbe nicht erwähnenswert ist. Trotzdem sollen aber Menschen verschiedener Hautfarbe vorkommen. Gibson sucht daher nach Wegen, zu sagen, dass jemand eine bestimmte Hautfarbe hat, ohne es ausdrücklich zu sagen. Hier eben durch den Vergleich.
In Summe: Ein Gibson für Fans. Alle anderen schnuppern besser erst einmal rein in den öffentlich zugänglichen Anfang.
January 1, 2020
Either this made more sense than Neuromancer, or I'm getting better at keeping multiple virtual POVs straight. Also, more than one female character, not all of whom are Ass-Kicking Babes, or at least not all in the same way. Hooray!
Later: It must be odd to be William Gibson. Society, and technology, has more or less arrived at a point that he wrote about as futuristic during his early career; he’s now indelibly known as a science fiction writer, but Agency—though it has all of the trappings of a techno-thriller and is, certainly, science fictional—is less world-of-tomorrow sf than world-of-three-minutes-from-now satire. It concerns the development of an autonomous AI system, originally created as a form of virtual handler for covert military operations, now stolen by a Silicon Valley firm and marketed as a PA called Eunice. There’s time travel (sort of, in a manner of speaking), and high-speed motorcycle chases, and a remote-control drone shaped like a radiator, and a lot of quick, slangy banter. It’s terrific fun and reasonably clever along with it, though I think Gibson’s ending is optimistic.
Later: It must be odd to be William Gibson. Society, and technology, has more or less arrived at a point that he wrote about as futuristic during his early career; he’s now indelibly known as a science fiction writer, but Agency—though it has all of the trappings of a techno-thriller and is, certainly, science fictional—is less world-of-tomorrow sf than world-of-three-minutes-from-now satire. It concerns the development of an autonomous AI system, originally created as a form of virtual handler for covert military operations, now stolen by a Silicon Valley firm and marketed as a PA called Eunice. There’s time travel (sort of, in a manner of speaking), and high-speed motorcycle chases, and a remote-control drone shaped like a radiator, and a lot of quick, slangy banter. It’s terrific fun and reasonably clever along with it, though I think Gibson’s ending is optimistic.
March 8, 2020
William Gibson is well known for saying the future is here but not evenly distributed and that science fiction, no matter what time it is set in, is best understood as a commentary on the time in which it was published. Agency is about artificial intelligence, the rise of authoritarians, climate change, the information age, nuclear weapons, drones--I'm sure the list can be extended. I hadn't encountered the term competitive control zone until reading Agency, but I can see why Gibson would turn to it. I don't know that he has read Finite and Infinite Games but much of the novel can be read of a critique of short term thinking and choices that threaten humanity's longterm wellbeing.
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