The Peripheral by William Gibson

 

Spent a couple-few days reading this, because my brain was a little scattered. It's Gibson and it's good, and it was an interesting read because I read the book that comes after it (Agency) before I read this, because that's the order I saw them at the library. The futures in these books are grim, like really grim--the "Jackpot" involves various climactic, ecological, and epidemiological catastrophes that end up wiping out something like eighty percent of humanity--but there's still something like hope, humanity persists and lands on a new survivable (if not entirely pleasant, the word "klept" is used for government/culture for a reason) status quo. There is much of what people her and now would describe as "abuse of power" in the novel, especially in the farther future, but that's kinda how that culture works, and it's probably one of the things some of the people in that time like least about it. Gibson's prose crackles and snarls and snaps, the dialogue is frequently hilarious in a very gallows-humor way. The story takes a bit to get going, but it does and it's very good.