54 LISTENER MARCH 7 2020
by STEVE NEWALLH
aving established a narrative
device allowing a future society
to tamper with events in previ-
ous eras in 2014’s The Peripheral,
science-fiction icon William
Gibson seemingly couldn’t resist the
temptation to do the same himself with
its sequel, Agency.
He spent a year rethinking the book in
the wake of the 2016 US presidential elec-
tion, then decided to set his novel in the
future as well as our very recent past – or,
at least, a version of it.
In the earlier of Agency’s intertwined
chronologies, Hillary Clinton is president
and the UK didn’t vote for Brexit. But it’s
hardly a utopia and the world is on the
brink of nuclear war.
The President exists mostly in the back-
ground, her blessedly defeated opponent
seldom mentioned by name, if occasion-
ally in familiar gross detail: “She was
looking at how the artist had rendered his
hands. Grabby.”
Instead, at the forefront of the novel is
Verity, a tech-head “app whisperer” who
takes on a job to test a new digital assis-
tant, a setup that evokes Gibson’s work
in the early 2000s when his fascinating
futurism was overtaken by contemporary
culture. “The future is already here – it’s
just not evenly distributed,” he said in
2003 at the time of Pattern Recognition, his
first novel with a contemporary setting.
Echoing this sentiment, Verity’s
assistant uses cutting-edge artificial intel-
ligence and introduces itself as “Eunice”.
Barely hours into sentience, it is globally
connected and learning at a phenomenalpace. Eunice’s capabilities – her agency
- are what optimists of the future need
to avoid World War III, and they need
Verity’s help.
If that’s not enough of a ticking clock,
the people who made Eunice want to put
her back in her box right away.
As ever, the author demonstrates his
trademark adeptness in conveying com-
plex ideas in detail-rich yet economical
fashion, even if Agency might not deliver
quite the thrill of discovery as its predeces-
sor did.A
s with The Peripheral, those inter-
vening in this era are 22nd-century
survivors of “the jackpot”, a near-
apocalypse survived by a fifth of the
world’s population, now rich in both
resources and technology. Uber-rich future
humans have developed the ability to
manipulate “stubs”, alternate universes
accessed through powerful quantum com-
puting of mysterious origins. Stubs can be
privately owned and collected as play-
things. Gibson exploits this storytellingHillary Clinton is
president and the UK
didn’t vote for Brexit.But it’s hardly a utopia.
potential with glee; it provides him with
the means to tell interlinking stories set
in two time periods, free from time-travel
paradoxes.
The gang that got together in The
Peripheral focuses here on the new Trump-
free stub and its looming crisis in which
the duo of Verity and Eunice might be the
only hope.
Eunice’s near-omnipotence is great
for Verity to have on her side in what
becomes something of a hectic odd-couple
race to the finish, even if this forces Verity- as with other characters in the book
in their own ways – to place her trust in
unseen actors with opaque motivations,
casting the title in a new light.
Agency will please Gibson fans – it func-
tions more than effectively as both a sci-fi
thriller and a warning that there may be
more to worry about than the latest politi-
cal developments – but it doesn’t prove
quite as head-scratchingly satisfying as
The Peripheral. Perhaps that’s because you
can’t experience the thrill of jumping into
this bold sci-fi universe
twice. That shouldn’t
dent enthusiasm for
a final instalment in
this trilogy, and with
any luck it won’t take
another Trump to
make it happen. l
AGENCY, by William
AL Gibson (Viking, $37)
AM
Y
Playthings of
the powerful
A present hacked by
malevolent forces
from the future is
threatened with
nuclear war.
BOOKS&CULTURE
William Gibson: conveying
complex ideas in detail-rich
yet economical fashion.