The Peripheral

The Peripheral (Jackpot 1) by William Gibson

This book mixes the usual tropes of cyberpunk - out of control capitalism, virtual reality, class division, crime, etc. - and mixes in new ideas - time travel. The book flashes between an impoverished rural setting set perhaps a decade where people are surprisingly sophisticated in their technology, and a setting in England about eighty years in the future after a historical event called the “Jackpot” which has removed 90% of the world's population. The two time zones are connected by a mysterious Chinese server in the future that enables the future to contact the past via the internet. (When this happens, the past diverges from the future, thereby obviating any paradoxes.)

The book opens with a chapter that is pure cyber punk. It is very complicated with terminology and ideas that are not explained and are basically incomprehensible. The story then flips to the “present” where we are introduced to a bunch of Hillbillys with internet connections and mad military skills. The setting here is obviously rural and steeped in poverty, although the Hillbillies seem to have virtual reality equipment and other gewgaws lying around. The chief Hillbilly character is Flynn. She is talked into a job by her brother. The job involves operating a drone to keep paparazzi from photographing an event.What she doesn't know is that the event is in the future and that a future group of friends/investors has been opening businesses in their past/Flynn's present for what were to me very obscure reasons.

In any event, Flynn becomes a witness to a crime in the future. The future is therefore interested in having Flynn identify someone who might have been involved in the crime. Flynn is accommodated in the future by a “peripheral” - an android controlled remotely like a drone. From this vantage point, we get to see more of the future world, which is dangerous in its high tech way.

Flynn's world becomes embroiled in the politics of the future crime. There is another faction with the same technology connected to the same past. In the “present” chapters, there are serial attempts to kill Flynn, which are frustrated by her military friends.

I liked the story, but it had its flaws. It started out incomprehensible and kept a large fog factor throughout. In addition, the character list is far too numerous. I had problems keeping track of who was who and it seemed that Gibson kept adding new characters when there was a plot turn. On the other hand, Gibson does provide a view of a different future than we are used to. The incomprehensibility of the cyber future is a necessary feature of a future we haven't experienced. While the story does unravel many of the main plot points, there are many plot points that weren't resolved. For example, who the heck is the other faction that seems set on killing Flynn? Of course, this is just the first book of a trilogy, so we can expect that these questions will be answered in later books of the trilogy.

I read this book because Amazon is giving this book the mini-series treatment. It may work better as a tightly written television series with fewer characters than it does as a book. I am not saying that this book is not worth reading, but it could have used some editing in my opinion.