The Peripheral

The Peripheral -- William Gibson

This is my first William Gibson book (can't believe that since I own quite a few that have been sitting on the TBR pile for years). A lot of reviewers of Gibson's books seem to have a problem with the invented language and being thrown right into the middle of a strange culture. I had no such problem. I like to think when I read and I have no problem deriving meaning from context.

There are two time periods in this story which have become linked. Flynne and her brother Burton have been playing a "game" that is reality in the future time. Flynne witnesses a murder while immersed in the "game" and Wilf, a publicist in the entertainment industry of the future ends up being the middleman between the time periods to help solve the murder. Both time periods are a bit dystopian, although I don't think the characters think of their worlds in that way. In the time not too far from ours, the drug trade is all powerful. In the future time, corruption rules. (Hmm. Maybe not that different from our time.) There is a lot of cool tech in this book in both time periods. This isn't an action packed book, but it's got plenty to hold the reader's attention.