Hardcover
Published Jan. 21, 2020 by Berkley.
They call Verity 'the app-whisperer,' and she's just been hired to evaluate a pair-of-glasses-cum-digital-assistant called Eunice...
Only Eunice has other ideas.
Pretty soon, Verity realises that Eunice is smarter than anyone she's ever met. Which is just as well since suddenly some very bad people are after Verity.
Meanwhile, in a post-apocalyptic London a century from now, PR fixer Wilf Netherton is tasked 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.
Its interesting to see gibson circle back on his hit - this is very similar to neuromancer, but more grounded, and somehow set last year, or a few years ago even.
There is a minor grandpa vibes developing too. I don't think gibsons politics are bad, they just feel more visibly centrist than they were in the past.
The new William Gibson. Exquisite. Gibson was always going to score highly with me even if I probably didn't 'get' The Peripheral. I felt it was one of his more oblique offerings and probably didn't give it the attention it deserved (it's getting a re-read soon based on how strong this was). This, on the other hand, is probably his most immediate work since Count Zero. His finger on the zeitgeist remains uncanny. This book is staccato, the plot delivered in machine gun bursts of eloquent prose where you may not always be entirely sure what every phrase is alluding to but the general sense of things comes through loud and clear. His view of current events and his way with a name for things is piercingly perceptive. We do live in a kleptocracy and we are approaching a possible dark event that the 'klept' might just view as an …
The new William Gibson. Exquisite. Gibson was always going to score highly with me even if I probably didn't 'get' The Peripheral. I felt it was one of his more oblique offerings and probably didn't give it the attention it deserved (it's getting a re-read soon based on how strong this was). This, on the other hand, is probably his most immediate work since Count Zero. His finger on the zeitgeist remains uncanny. This book is staccato, the plot delivered in machine gun bursts of eloquent prose where you may not always be entirely sure what every phrase is alluding to but the general sense of things comes through loud and clear. His view of current events and his way with a name for things is piercingly perceptive. We do live in a kleptocracy and we are approaching a possible dark event that the 'klept' might just view as an opportunity. He calls this 'The Jackpot', it is a term that haunts me. Obviously recommended. Just go buy it and read it ok?
