joelevard's review against another edition
5.0
Not as complex as the first, but a hell of a lot more fun to read. The ending is a bright burst of optimism... until you realize it’s basically literally just wish fulfillment. Dark.
Always good to end on a crude joke though.
Always good to end on a crude joke though.
joshuabrunt's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
dotvicky's review
3.0
I read this after enjoying "The Peripheral" and then really enjoying the recent 'based on' TV series. This one didn't quite do it for me as well. A little less mind-expanding and structurally flatter.
carolynf's review
3.0
I had a hard time getting into this book, at least in part because I didn't like the audiobook's narrator. She read earnestly but without a lot of excitement, and was apparently unaware that the book had a lot of humorous lines in it. There are two prominent African American characters in the book, and the accents she gave them felt flat and inconsistent with the sentence structure. When i got home from my work trip i tried to switch to a print copy, but ended up not finishing.
The plot itself deals with communicating between multiverses using remotely controlled robots or drones. There are shades of the TVA from the Loki tv series. Agents in the "main" timeline in 2130 or so are trying to stave off nuclear annihilation in another branch in 2017. It was interesting, but the characters did a lot of following instructions without knowing where they were going or why, which makes it hard to build suspense.
The plot itself deals with communicating between multiverses using remotely controlled robots or drones. There are shades of the TVA from the Loki tv series. Agents in the "main" timeline in 2130 or so are trying to stave off nuclear annihilation in another branch in 2017. It was interesting, but the characters did a lot of following instructions without knowing where they were going or why, which makes it hard to build suspense.
kimu's review against another edition
5.0
I read the first book in this series, Peripheral, right at the start of the pandemic, which was just… extremely poor timing. While it was an excellent book and I was sure the second book would be great, I just couldn’t bring myself to read it. Thanks to a long road trip and my spouse having read this already and really wanting to re-read it, we listened to it together this week. I’m really glad that we decided to listen to the stellar audiobook version of this - really exemplary recording. The storyline felt slightly more hopeful than Peripheral and Gibson made some really smart plot choices to help give this more of an alternate future vibe. Very intriguing developments that stand alone, but also make me excited to see where this trio of books is going to go next.
mschuett's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
annarella's review against another edition
3.0
I'm a fan of William Gibson and I did a joy dance when I was approved for this ARC.
Unfortunately Mr Gibson sometimes sleeps and this book is the result.
I found it confusing and flat. There are some interesting ideas but I couldn't be involved and the book fell flat.
Maybe it was mood or maybe it's not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
Unfortunately Mr Gibson sometimes sleeps and this book is the result.
I found it confusing and flat. There are some interesting ideas but I couldn't be involved and the book fell flat.
Maybe it was mood or maybe it's not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.
aphrael's review
3.0
It took a long time to get really into it and for a bunch of things to be really explained, but I only realized this is part 2 of a series after i was over halfway. It's definitely doable to read separately but I found myself wishing I had a bit more context sometimes. The whole idea of stubs and the people in them being able to communicate is very interesting. I liked the characters even though Verity didn't seem to have much of a personality, Wilf and Rainey are lovely and Ash and Connor and Virgil are cool and Eunice and Lowbeer are interesting through the thought of their existence is kind of uncomfortable.
I had a hard time with the writing style. The book doesn't really move super fast, but the sentences are somewhat fragmented. This worked well in neuromancer (the only other book I've read from this author) but not super well in this book, it just made it harder to read.
That said, i did like the book and will probably read more in the series at some point, but not right now.
I had a hard time with the writing style. The book doesn't really move super fast, but the sentences are somewhat fragmented. This worked well in neuromancer (the only other book I've read from this author) but not super well in this book, it just made it harder to read.
That said, i did like the book and will probably read more in the series at some point, but not right now.
shawnwhy's review against another edition
4.0
quite good, love the extension on the peripheral universe. Unice is great, and i would love to see how this story line develope