★★★☆☆ | Science Fiction | Digital | Borrow | StoryGraph | Goodreads
I’m mixed about this book. The first few chapters were confusing in true Neuromancer style, but I soon caught on. It’s an interesting premise: In the future, technology is developed using some kind of quantum physics to communicate with the past. In this case, a seventy-year past — pre-Jackpot — whatever that means, that feels like maybe 15 years into the future for the reader. The act of communicating with the past changes its timeline, so they call these time-travel adventures “stubs” in the continua. They figured out a way to bring members of this past age into the present day through the archaic virtual reality technology that existed in the stub time period, and then later through a neural interface that allow the person to take over a “peripheral” — a living, breathing robot (?) to interact in this future world as if they were really there. So, we get to see the far distant future through the eyes of someone who’s not that far removed from us. Oh, and during one of these interactions, the time-traveler witnesses a murder and is thus being recruited to the future in this peripheral body to help solve it. It’s a little convoluted, but fun in a nerdy way.
The back and forth character switches every chapter between the Flynne Fisher (2030s Midwest) and Wilf Netherton (2100 London) worked for me, until it didn’t. Limiting the perspectives to these two meant we didn’t get much character development from others that really deserved it. Griff/Lowbeer for instance. And Conner. And definitely the cute redhead, Tacoma. And why Gibson fail to explore the idea of peripheral sex? I mean, come on. The ending was wrapped up way too conveniently. I think Gibson ran out of ideas on how to resolve the conflict and simply took the easy way out.
Highlights
Eras are conveniences, particularly for those who never experienced them. We carve history from totalities beyond our grasp. Bolt labels on the result. Handles. Then speak of the handles as though they were things in themselves.
Because people who couldn’t imagine themselves capable of evil were at a major disadvantage in dealing with people who didn’t need to imagine, because they already were.