Review | William Gibson’s apocalyptic new novel Agency imagines a future as frightening as our own
- The book’s protagonists communicate across different realities, technologies and time periods to prevent a world-ending catastrophe
- Book is a companion to 2014’s The Peripheral, with many of the same characters
Agency
by William Gibson
Penguin Viking
4/5 stars
There is a chapter near the middle of Agency, William Gibson’s 12th novel and a companion to 2014’s The Peripheral, titled “Still Life with Lawyers”. It opens with a misunderstanding between Wilf Netherton – who runs a London-based PR firm specialising in crisis management – and our de facto heroine, Verity Jane, a semi-famous Silicon Valley habitué, often referred to as the “app-whisperer”. Long story short: Agency’s drama is driven by a crisis of world-ending proportions, which is enveloping Verity and which Wilf is trying to avert.
The specific point of confusion is triggered by Wilf speaking the words “I’ll try”. “Why did you say that?” Verity demands. Unbeknown to her, Wilf is speaking to his wife, Rainey, who has just advised that he “avoid being [his] more dickish self” when dealing with his new client. Here’s where things get “complicated”, to use Gibson’s word. Not only do Wilf and Verity live in separate countries (Britain and the United States, respectively), they exist at different times, or to be precise in alternate timelines.
Verity lives in 2017, which Gibson renders as recognisable except that Donald Trump is not president and Britain has not voted for Brexit. Despite these apparent existential “wins”, the world teeters on the brink of nuclear war, thanks to a sequence of events involving Turkey, Russia, Syria and America’s first female commander in chief (Hillary Clinton, presumably).
Wilf, for his part, lives in 2136, when Earth has been ravaged by “The Jackpot” – sardonic shorthand for an environmental apocalypse. With most animal life extinct, humans survive in limited form and, thanks to technological advances, coexist with beings who combine carbon-based nature with artificial intelligence.