Agency by William Gibson7/4/2023 ![]() ![]() Gibson's conceit is that "our" timeline is the "real" one from which the others are "stubs", branches formed when somebody in "our" world communicates back to inhabitants in the distant past. ![]() Rather the conflict that motivates the book takes place under the radar and at a more personal level. Nothing immediately hangs on the difference in political outcomes and we don't see the longterm effects. But Gibsons insists that people are generally no happier, not knowing what they've been saved from - and the "jackpot", a horrible future featuring decades of catastrophe, is still coming. We don't see the outcome in the UK in this scenario. With its events taking place in San Franciso, the latter timeline gives some quiet signs of hope in the US: a mural celebrating "the President's" courage, for example ('Her opponent loomed behind her, as he once actually had'). The book takes place across three alternate timelines - our world, albeit in 2136, and two versions of 2016, including one where the results of the UK's Brexit referendum and of the US's presidential election were different. Still, we are brought up to speed pretty quickly. ![]() Sequel to Gibson's The Peripheral, Agency is a book that can be read as a standalone, although that leaves the reader with a a job of catching up to do. I'm grateful to the publisher for a free advance e-copy of Agency via NetGalley. ![]()
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