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  • The Peripheral

  • Written by: William Gibson
  • Narrated by: Lorelei King
  • Length: 14 hrs and 5 mins
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (68 ratings)

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The Peripheral cover art

The Peripheral

Written by: William Gibson
Narrated by: Lorelei King
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Publisher's Summary

The New York Times bestselling author of Neuromancer and Agency presents a fast-paced sci-fi thriller that takes a terrifying look into the future.

DON'T MISS THE SERIES—NOW STREAMING EXCLUSIVELY ON PRIME VIDEO!

Flynne Fisher lives down a country road, in a rural America where jobs are scarce, unless you count illegal drug manufacture, which she’s trying to avoid. Her brother Burton lives on money from the Veterans Administration, for neurological damage suffered in the Marines’ elite Haptic Recon unit. Flynne earns what she can by assembling product at the local 3D printshop. She made more as a combat scout in an online game, playing for a rich man, but she’s had to let the shooter games go.

Wilf Netherton lives in London, seventy-some years later, on the far side of decades of slow-motion apocalypse. Things are pretty good now, for the haves, and there aren’t many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered publicist and celebrity-minder, fancies himself a romantic misfit, in a society where reaching into the past is just another hobby.

Burton’s been moonlighting online, secretly working security in some game prototype, a virtual world that looks vaguely like London, but a lot weirder. He’s got Flynne taking over shifts, promised her the game’s not a shooter. Still, the crime she witnesses there is plenty bad.

Flynne and Wilf are about to meet one another. Her world will be altered utterly, irrevocably, and Wilf’s, for all its decadence and power, will learn that some of these third-world types from the past can be badass.

©2014 William Gibson (P)2014 Penguin Audio

What the critics say

“Spectacular, a piece of trenchant, far-future speculation that features all the eyeball kicks of Neuromancer and all the maturity and sly wit of Spook Country. It’s brilliant.”—Cory Doctorow

“From page one, The Peripheral ticks and sings with the same controlled, dark energy and effortless grace of language....Like the best of Gibson’s early, groundbreaking work, it offers up the same kind of chewy, tactile future that you can taste and smell and feel on your skin; that you believe, immediately, like some impossible documentary, because the thing that Gibson has always been best at is offering up futures haunted by the past.”—NPR

“[Gibson is] revered not just as a unique and brilliantly talented SF novelist but a social and psychological visionary....[The Peripheral] creates a future that is astoundingly inventive and frighteningly plausible....A wonderful addition to a brilliant oeuvre.”—The Sunday Times (UK)

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What listeners say about The Peripheral

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

I can't finish this

I thought the tv show was alright and I was hoping for more depth in the book (complex plots, character development, background story, etc). I can't finish this. It's like listening to someone read the phone book. Maybe the printed version works better. This was unbearable.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good story

Watched the TV show 1st. I was hoping for more depth.

Narration was just ok.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not the TV series

Don’t get excited if you want more backstory or an ending to the TV series. Confusing at times with a narration that needs to be 1.5x or faster to be manageable. Could be so much more.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Really enjoyed!

Really enjoy William Gibson’s world building. This is my 4th book of his that I’ve read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent follow-up to seeing the TV series.

Came here from the TV mini-series. ( which was excellent! )
This did not disappoint, almost every single part of the story, I enjoyed more in the novel.

Not a top-tier production for the audio-recording. 🤷‍♀️ I’m not angry, but … a book this good, from an author this good … spend more on production? That might just mean hire some extra voice-actors for lines, and then extra techs editting it together. For something this good … please do! More of a “missed opportunity,” than a complaint.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great Story

Great story. Forget the TV show, that only share the title. The book is a very rich and engaging story. It can be convoluted and hard to follow at times, but that doesn't take away from the overall enjoyment of it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A great storyline very well read.

If you're watching the Amazon series, this book is a must as a great guide to what it's all about.

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  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Read by a Robot

Don't waste your time here. Sterile, like it's been read by an AI. Read it on paper.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Take it or leave it

Some interesting scifi concepts but the story and characters are forgettable.
Undeveloped protagonists, absent antagonist, and too many side characters; none of them compelling.
The big reveals fall flat, and since you don't care about the characters, there are no stakes and no tension.
The story is resolved hastily via deux ex machina, but only after the antagonist finally arrives to literally exposit their character's motivation.
Overall it's okay.
I don't regret purchasing it. But I won't read it again.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great

Lorelei King does some great voices! Both male and female. Enjoyed listening to the book.

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