Agency (The Jackpot Trilogy)

William Gibson's The Peripheral introduced a great concept for a series, one in which a world slowly rebuilding itself after a cascading series of disasters called "the Jackpot" finds a way to tap into alternate timelines, seeing what could have been - and maybe intervening along the way. But even Gibson was worried about how that series could just be there for its own sake, and that he didn't want to just tell a series of stories about alternate worlds. So it's no surprise that Agency, the second book in the series, feels like a wholly realized idea that happens to take place in the same story rather than a sequel that's just rehashing the same ideas as its predecessors. At its core, Agency is about a new evolution in artificial intelligence, one whose nature is a little unclear at first - indeed, that's part of the story here - but which unleashes the beginnings of a massive panic, as well as the chances among lots of people to take credit for it or cash in. But as the AI comes to the attention of our cast of manipulators from The Peripheral, the story gets more complex, unfolding through multiple "stubs" and timelines simultaneously, all while also unfolding a plot thread for most of our main characters. All of this could be too complicated and labyrinthine, but somehow, it's not; it's to Gibson's credit that this all mainly unfolds as a fantastic thriller/mystery, one in which everyone is playing their own game and a lot of motivations are a little hazy. But that's all to the good here, especially as the question of why our manipulators care about this world that's not their own becomes more and more critical to understanding what's going on, and why they should care about a nuclear disaster that could be looming for another world entirely. All of it also allows Gibson to play some meta games with our own world, mainly about the outcome of a couple of key elections, but while those bits of dramatic irony could easily become too much, he somehow lays it on just the proper amount to add text to the story - especially given that the nature of the series is so constantly about "what could have been." But for all of the big ideas and themes, as ever with Gibson, the story works because of great characters, strong plotting, a breakneck pace, and a refusal to let subtext run the show. I liked The Peripheral a lot, but I really loved Agency - with the complicated setup done in book 1, Gibson was free to tell a whole new tale here, and man, does it ever work.

AGENCY, the latest novel by William Gibson, is being billed, at least by Amazon, as "Book 2 of 2 in the Peripheral Series". I might call this "Book 2 of X in the Peripheral Universe", because how can you call anything a series in which the stories don't necessarily follow one from the other, whether as a prequel or a sequel? Also, given the concept of a stub - a past timeline doesn't exist until it's created - an essentially unlimited number of stories can be written because Gibson can come up with as many stubs as he wants to as long as he wants to keep writing in the universe he created in The Peripheral, which means it's a "universe (multi-verse?)" and not a "series".I'm not quite sure whether I'm correct, but near as I can remember AGENCY was delayed for quite a while, and I believe Gibson alludes to this in the Acknowledgements section of the book. While the reasons are never stated, it wouldn't surprise me that the delay was due to his reworking of the stub that is the one of the timelines of this book. AGENCY deals with a stub from the year 2017, a stub in which Donald Trump was not elected president, but that a woman was (not named HillaryClinton, by the way). The stub is on the brink of a nuclear war, and our protagonists (at least one of which was part of THE PERIPHERAL) are keeping an eye on it.In 2017, Verity Jane, an "app whisperer", is hired to beta test a new product which turns out to be an AI that can only be accessed through a pair of glasses. The AI is named Eunice - although its real name is an acronym that just *sounds* like Eunice - and she is smarter and more powerful than Verity's employers know. Meanwhile, in Verity's future - well, not her future exactly, but later up the timeline from her, Wilf Netherton and his boss Lowbeer (especially Lowbeer, and reallyonly Lowbeer - it's complicated) are nudging Verity's stub in a direction away from the nuclear devastation that is her stub's own Jackpot - the apocalyptic event that devastated Lowbeer's and Netherton's timeline. It is clear that Eunice has something to do with the whole thing, but she has disappeared. So just what is going on?So, what does the title of the book have to do with anything? A little Googling found this: "In social science, agency is defined as the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices."Ah hah. So, agency here *might* refer to Eunice's ability to make her own decisions and her own choices. It also *might* refer to the 2017 stub being able to work its way out of the mess its in, with - or without - Eunice's help. It also *might* refer to the 2017 stub being nudged about by Lowbeer, and thus *not* having agency. It's really quite complicated.As I mentioned in my review of The Peripheral, I've not read a lot of Gibson, and in fact I have yet to read NEUROMANCER. What I can tell you is that Gibson is consistent in his writings about wealth and power not necessarily being a good thing. As with THE PERIPHERAL, and his other novels that I have read, he is not afraid to delve into politics and the messages he can sendabout politics and power. AGENCY is no exception.Make no mistake, AGENCY is a pretty good book. I just don't think it's as good as THE PERIPHERAL. That novel introduced a bunch of new concepts that made the story fascinating and fresh. AGENCY introduces a powerful AI - as depicted on the cover of the book - but I don't think uses her to her full capacity. She disappears for a large part of the novel. Maybe that's because Gibson is trying to give agency to the rest of his characters to do their thing in the book without an all powerful AI exerting its influence. That's okay, but the reader gets the impression that the story is about the AI gaining and using its agency. And maybe it is, but instead of being a central character in the novel she turns into just another piece of the puzzle.And maybe AGENCY is the dreaded middle book of a trilogy. But, going back to an earlier point, is it a series, or is it a universe. If it's a series, it's difficult to see a beginning and end to an overall arc. If it's a universe, I'm not sure it should go on indefinitely. That's not Gibson's style. Nor should it be. Still, AGENCY is worth your time. It's still Gibson, and who knows how many more books we'll get from him?Now I really need to go and find NEUROMANCER and get on that.

This is a great read. The first book was really good. I started it because I loved the TV series and wanted a deeper dive into the story and characters.This book took the original premise and succeeded in creating another original. Really Amazing.

William Gibson, criador da expressão "cyberspace", espaço cibernético. Suas obras inspiraram filnes cono "Johny Mnemonic" e "Matrix". Um genio!

Insight and entertainment. May he write many more books.

Ja, habe ich so ein schwaches Buch von Gibson nicht erwartet, nach erstem Buch dieser Serie

Agency is pure classic William Gibson in one way and looks at a new Gibson in another. On the one hand, the futurism, the wry insights into the way we interact with and integrate technology into our lifestyles, is wonderfully intact. Gibson's language is as dense, precise, and striking as ever.On the other, this is a strict alternating viewpoint novel with small chapters--over 100!--that deliberately, unapologetically whiplashes from an alternate universe, present-day San Francisco, to a futuristic London post-"Jackpot" that was featured in the previous novel, The Peripheral. Agency is mostly a standalone novel about Verity Jane, a widely regarded "app whisperer" who is commissioned to beta test some new software that is a radical evolution of the digital assistants like Siri and Alexa we are slowly grappling with today.At the same time, 22nd-century characters from The Peripheral, such as Wilf Netherton and Lowbeer, are interacting with her timeline--and her--to head off a coming catastrophe that could devastate her timeline. This is despite the fact that Trump lost the election in this "stub" and the UK voted to remain in the EU.The book moves at a breathless pace, with a fascinating mix of cutting edge present-day technology interacting with some genuinely spooky examples of information warfare, and how vulnerable systems can be to an AI willing to accomplish goals by any means necessary. I was surprised at how fast the book moved but equally surprised at the accessibility. It may just be my familiarity, but I found this easier as a First Read than Neuromancer, or past novels, like the Blue Ant trilogy.It's fascinating to see how William Gibson had increasingly come to place more hope in the ability of people to do the right things with technology and find ways to subvert oppressive systems, than in his early 80s cyberpunk days, when dystopia seemed unavoidable.For people new to William Gibson, The Peripheral, and now Agency, may be a good place to start. For fans, this is a fast, surprisingly accessible read.

In this second installment in the Jackpot trilogy(?) Gibson manages to strip even more of the superficial "chrome" his older cyberpunk stories were covered in, leaving the underlying extrapolation and critique of the impact on technology on the modern world bare... because this time the story is actually set in the PAST: 2017 in a slightly different timeline. At least in part.Once the events are set in motion, it's hard to put down: very short chapters give the story a fast-paced feel, swiping you away like the story does to Verity, the protagonist.The return of Wilf and Lowbeer was very welcome, as is the glimpse into more of how the post-jackpot world works (or doesn't).Can't wait for the sequel.