Agency
Ratings37
Average rating3.6
15
Ratings37
Average rating3.6
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN NOVEL FROM THE INTERNATIONALLY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OFNEUROMANCER 'Dazzling, astoundingly inventive' The Times 'Wild, richly satisfying' Guardian 'Terrific' Spectator _______________ San Francisco, 2017. Clinton's in the White House, Brexit never happened - and Verity Jane's got herself a new job. They call Verity 'the app-whisperer,' and she's just been hired by a shadowy start-up to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice. Only Eunice has other ideas. Pretty soon, Verity knows that Eunice is smarter than anyone she's ever met, conceals some serious capabilities and is profoundly paranoid - which is just as well since suddenly some bad people are after Verity. Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked by all-seeing policewoman Ainsley Lowbeer with interfering in the alternative past in which Verity and Eunice exist. It appears something nasty is about to happen there - and fixing it will require not only Eunice's unique human-AI skillset but also a little help from the future. A future which Verity soon fears may never be . . . _______________ 'One of the most influential writers around...with Gibson's trademark panache, the story rattles along with great pace and suspense' Sunday Times 'One of our greatest science-fiction writers' New York Times 'A sensual, remarkably visual ride, vigorous with displays of conceptual imagination and humour' The Guardian 'Among our most fascinating novelists' Daily Telegraph 'Gibson is a prophet and a satirist, a black comedian and an astounding architect of cool' Spectator 'One of the most visionary, original, and quietly influential writers currently working' Boston Globe 'His eye for the eerie in the everyday still lends events an otherworldly sheen' New Yorker 'Engaging, thought-provoking and delightful... [Gibson] can always be counted on to show us our contemporary milieu rendered magical by his unique insights, and a future rendered inhabitable by his wild yet disciplined imagination' The Washington Post 'Gibson blurs the line between real and speculative technology in a fast-paced thriller that will affirm to readers that it was well worth the wait' Booklist 'Typically visionary, yet plausible and thrilling too' I Paper 'If you're one of those who sees Gibson as a visionary, it's time to be scared - the scenarios he's playing with here don't make for comfort reading' SFX magazine
Series
2 primary booksJackpot is a 2-book series with 2 primary works first released in 2014 with contributions by William Gibson.
Reviews with the most likes.
It would have been a vastly superior book if Gibson had spent less time on Twitter and Google Maps as he was writing it.
Gibson's follow-up to The Peripheral is set in the same world(s) as that novel but this time he's expanded on it. In The Peripheral it was established that through some arcane technological wizardry it became possible to communicate with an alternate timeline, or Stub as they are called, one that at some point in the past branched off from our own. In Agency there are multiple Stubs, the creation of which are something of a hobby for the bored super-rich of our future (one where the so-called Jackpot has happened, a combination of pandemics and economic disasters and global warming that has killed off 80% of the world's population and left an authoritarian world government called The Klept).
Now, in a “present day” stub where Clinton won the election and Brexit never happened, the world edges closer to nuclear conflict in the Middle East and Verity (the “app whisperer”) is a young woman starting a new job with a tech company called Cursion to test a new form of AI software. Which sets her life off on a whole new course when the AI, called Eunice, is shown to be more advanced than anything previous and Cursion tries to shut her down. Meanwhile in the 22nd century future Ainsley Lowbeer, nominally a police inspector but really a Stub troubleshooter, contacts Verity through Will Netherton (a publicist) and a Eunice designed combat drone piloted by Conner from the original Stub featured in The Peripheral.....clear so far?
It's a lot to take in and the ultra short chapters that alternate between Verity and Lowbeer's timelines take some getting used to. It's like tuning in a radio. Once you get the right frequency the story kicks into gear and Agency carries you through Verity's desperate escape from the clutches of Cursion with the aid of various people Eunice has put in place before she was shut down. Meanwhile Lowbeer pulls strings to try and avoid the impending nuclear war in Verity's timeline while also fending off threat to her position from within The Klept.
It's a novel that moves at breakneck speed and the world-building is superb. The alternate reality is convincing as is the possible future that Lowbeer exists in. Gibson is a great writer, the prose unfussy and to the point, the story ever more engrossing and hopefully this won't be the last visit to the worlds he's created here.
Recommended.
