Scan barcode
smelley_cat's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
ananotherthing's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
harmonictempest's review against another edition
4.0
Page-turning fun from a sci-fi legend.
The writing here is really solid, and it’s really interesting to see the “boring part” of the future world. Gibson paints a completely believable version of something like backcountry West Virginia, in a county with no income, a few decades in the future where most things can be 3D-printed. Bizarrely and I think intentionally, his much more advanced second setting feels in many ways more familiar to me, which I think is an intentional commentary on class baked into the novel.
The premise of the book can’t be described without spoilers because the book itself walks you through the it without upfront explanation. That also keeps me from sharing a few things due to spoilers, but there are a few genuinely sticky ideas and haunting images in the book. Suffice to say that what appears to be a quick beta test of a game in her (wounded veteran) brother’s trailer turns out to be a lot more.
The world was clearly imagined and the action moved briskly and was highly entertaining. There’s not a lot of deeper message or reflection in the book, and the lead characters are often along for the ride rather than moving the action. Read this for the entertainment and the thorough imagination of the effects of nanotechnology and 3D printing on our current world.
The writing here is really solid, and it’s really interesting to see the “boring part” of the future world. Gibson paints a completely believable version of something like backcountry West Virginia, in a county with no income, a few decades in the future where most things can be 3D-printed. Bizarrely and I think intentionally, his much more advanced second setting feels in many ways more familiar to me, which I think is an intentional commentary on class baked into the novel.
The premise of the book can’t be described without spoilers because the book itself walks you through the it without upfront explanation. That also keeps me from sharing a few things due to spoilers, but there are a few genuinely sticky ideas and haunting images in the book. Suffice to say that what appears to be a quick beta test of a game in her (wounded veteran) brother’s trailer turns out to be a lot more.
The world was clearly imagined and the action moved briskly and was highly entertaining. There’s not a lot of deeper message or reflection in the book, and the lead characters are often along for the ride rather than moving the action. Read this for the entertainment and the thorough imagination of the effects of nanotechnology and 3D printing on our current world.
chrispac's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
ribbonreuben's review against another edition
4.0
I found this way easier to get into than the last time I tried to read Gibson (Neuromancer)! I can also understand why a lot of the characters got pared down for the TV adaptation.
drood's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
toc's review against another edition
4.0
I'm always in the mood for a Gibson book and this one surely delivers that Gibson touch. Nobody knows what's really going on up until the moment that they do. But I enjoy Gibson's work more for the writing, the imagery, and the vision than I do for the story. Sometimes they all come together anyway.
christopherc's review against another edition
3.0
After a series of novels set in the present day, because today's interconnected world had caught up with some of his earlier visions, William Gibson returns to depicting our world's possible future with The Peripheral. In fact, he gives us not one, but two futures. One is an America only a couple of decades from now, where the only remaining businesses are descendents of Wal-Mart and the meth trade, and as cool as the widespread availability of 3D printing is, it all seems like a dump. The other future is another seventy years beyond that, where nanotechnology has eliminated poverty and want, but why do there seems to be so few people around? These two points in time form the setting for a murder mystery.
For me The Peripheral was a quick read. While some readers have complained about the jargon, if you keep up with new trends in technology and enjoy the kind of speculation that Gibson engages in, then you'll find his references easy to get, and I think the book will appeal to a mass market. Plus, there's a somewhat surprising lack of any sex or horrific violence, as if Gibson wanted to expand his audience to a young adult readership as well. There is considerable black humour in the depiction of an America where the worst aspects of flyover country (Wal-Mart driving out the competition, a steady diet of fast food, young people joining the military to better their prospects) just keep getting worse.
That said, I ultimately don't find this a particularly great book. In choosing a murder mystery to form the backbone of the plot, we spend too much time on thriller tropes like gunplay and the protagonists kidnapped by a villain, when the reader would rather learn more about the future societies. And the more I think about the book, the more Gibson's far future seems half-baked; there are a lot of inconsistencies in his depiction of its economy, manufacturing, political structure, and more. Gibson appears to have written the book quickly, within around only two years, and I think it would have been more enjoyable (and easier to suspend disbelief) if he had more time to think about how his future societies would operate.
For me The Peripheral was a quick read. While some readers have complained about the jargon, if you keep up with new trends in technology and enjoy the kind of speculation that Gibson engages in, then you'll find his references easy to get, and I think the book will appeal to a mass market. Plus, there's a somewhat surprising lack of any sex or horrific violence, as if Gibson wanted to expand his audience to a young adult readership as well. There is considerable black humour in the depiction of an America where the worst aspects of flyover country (Wal-Mart driving out the competition, a steady diet of fast food, young people joining the military to better their prospects) just keep getting worse.
That said, I ultimately don't find this a particularly great book. In choosing a murder mystery to form the backbone of the plot, we spend too much time on thriller tropes like gunplay and the protagonists kidnapped by a villain, when the reader would rather learn more about the future societies. And the more I think about the book, the more Gibson's far future seems half-baked; there are a lot of inconsistencies in his depiction of its economy, manufacturing, political structure, and more. Gibson appears to have written the book quickly, within around only two years, and I think it would have been more enjoyable (and easier to suspend disbelief) if he had more time to think about how his future societies would operate.
hannawith1h's review
Personally, the writing was hard to visualize, and I had a hard time following the characters. The show on Prime helped with character sorting, but the plot is also completely different. Love the concept, just wasn’t for me.