I first read this book in 1985, the year after it was
published. The hardcover version clocks in at 485 pages. In 2022 it
surfaced again on Amazon Prime as a mini-series, though the second
season was cancelled due to a writers' strike, a disappointment as I
thought the cast was great and there were parts that I found
unforgettable -- the haptic band of brothers and their use of drones,
and especially the eerie portrayal of a future London with tall
buildings that are part ruin, part classical sculpture. So I picked up the book again this year, but had forgotten how
reading Gibson can be like boarding a moving train. He speeds through
chapters without fully explaining what's going on and backfills gaps
later on. This streamlines the story but the scattered clues can be
difficult to pick up. Many of the details, while interesting, are not
germane to the plot. Add a few twists and stir in the mini-series, which does not hew closely to
the book, and you'll be forgiven for feeling a bit dazed.
PLOT SYMMETRIES
The 124 chapters alternate between
the future and the past, and between the POV of two main characters. The cast is large and there is much detail which, though entertaining, is unimportant to the plot. The overall effect is
like a linear jigsaw puzzle.
Far-reaching consequences set the
story
in motion in chapters 8 and 15. They involve murders in two locations
(London and the Great Pacific Garbage Patch). They appear unrelated
at first, but later we find out that two sisters are involved, Aelita
and Daedra. One is a victim, the other a perpetrator,
although
we do not find this out until later.
The murders are bizarre and could only happen in the future.
Featured in the other half of the
story, which takes place in the near-present, is another pair of
siblings, this time a brother and sister named Burton and Flynne. An
imaginative version of time travel brings the present and future
together, separated by something called the
Jackpot, a combination of war, disease, drought, and climate change
that decimated 80% of humanity.
Those who survived (mainly the wealthy) were able to rebuild thanks to a surge in technology, but it's mostly an empty
world. Androids and nanobots do the heavy lifting, everything from
menial tasks to killing.
In the near-present people drive cardboard cars made in China, and make money in two principal ways -- online gaming and the drug trade. Flynne and
Burton are good enough at the former to attract the attention of a
wealthy dilettante named Lev who dabbles in the past as a hobby. In
other words, he too is a kind of gamer.
Burton is offered big bucks to role-play what he thinks
is a game, but at a critical moment Flynne has to take his place, and
she witnesses a murder. This immediately attracts the attention of
unknown rivals who send a hit-squad to take out Burton and Flynne in
the present. Burton however is an ex-Marine who was part of Haptic
Recon unit. At first, he
and his ex-military buddies are more than a match for the people
pitted against them, but the
conflict between present and future quickly escalates.
VIRTUAL TIME
TRAVEL
No
time machine necessary.
Instead a mysterious server in China
("something to do with quantum
tunnelling") enables an
exchange of data between the present and the future. The
consciousness of a person from the present can be uploaded into an
android, aka "a peripheral." Such
a person is called a polt (not a poult -- though that might be more fun), and is
able to interact with others in the future.
Peripherals have no digestive tract, and
must be infused with a nutrient every 12 hours. People in the future use them
as casually as people use characters in online games,
both in their own timeline as well as in the past.
As soon as a connection with
the past is made, an
alternate timeline (or
"stub") is created. Thus Flynne's present does not lead
directly to Lev's
future. Yet that does not prevent two of the characters from existing
in both Flynne's present (which is only a few years beyond today) and Lev's
future (which is 70 years distant from hers). Flynne's is
the first stub created by Lev.
Others exist, but we are not told anything about them and their
presence is not widely known.
It
is soon discovered that someone else from the future has made a
connection with Flynne's stub,
and a deadly race ensues
between the two groups for control of the past with Flynne and her
family caught in the middle.
How people from the future operate in the present is not
explained in any detail, except to say they use their phones.
Wilf, when asked if he's from
the future, says, "I'm in the future that would result from my
not being here. But since I am, it isn't your future."
CHARACTERS & GLOSSARY
[Shaded entrees = Future]
Aelita West - Sister
of Daedra, and a
murky American figure whose murder is witnessed by Flynne.
Annie Courrèges
- A
Neoprimitive curator.
Assemblers
- Nanobots that build things.
Ash - One
of Lev's "technicals" who along with Ossian helps manage his hobbies. She has moving tattoos, doubled
(figure eight) pupils, and a hat that resembles a black leather toad.
Aunties
- Algorithms.
Badger
- A social media platform. (A sarcastic jab by the author?)
Boss Patcher
- A peripheral operated by Hamed. Has keratotic skin, no neck, features of a bullfrog, two penises. Lives on a plastic island
in the Pacific.
Bullpup
- "An Army rifle that looked like it had been telescoped back
into itself, squashed front to back."
Burton
Fisher
- An ex-Marine getting disability from VA due to problems caused by
his haptics. Uses the avatar "Easy Ice" when playing online
games,
and has won many drone competitions.
When warned that a contract has been put out on him, he
replies that he's not "a particularly easy target."
Coffee
Jones
- A coffee chain that also
serves
freshly printed cronuts. Flynne once worked there.
Conner
Penske
- The only other HaptRec vet. Missing an arm, leg, a foot, and
several digits. Drives a special trike that burns cooking oil. Kills a 4-man hit team sent from Memphis to take out
Burton and Flynne. In London his peripheral is a martial arts
instructor aka the dancing master.
Corbell
Pickett
- Richest man in the county, involved in the drug trade. Burton pays
him hush money after Conner kills a hit squad from Memphis. Corbell has
Flynne kidnapped after getting an offer to kill her. Flynne is
rescued by Burton and Corbell's home blown up. Corbell flees the
country.
Carter
- The youngest of Burton's posse,
helps monitor the drones around the Fisher home.
Danny
- Runs Jimmy's, a bar & grill.
Duval
- Part of Burton's posse, helps monitor the drones around the Fisher
home.
Carlos -
A volunteer EMT, part of Burton's posse.
Clovis Fearing -
A very old friend of Lowbeer who owns a shop in London dealing
exclusively in Americana. Resembles "some crumbling relict
saint," and is familiar with continua enthusiasts who will "buy
anything from the twenty thirties, twenty forties." They "try
to get as far back from the Jackpot proper as they can. About 2028,
latest." She is "also a former British spy, as was Lowbeer,
who ran her out of the embassy in DC."
Clovis
Raeburn
- An American in Flynne's time. In the future she is Clovis Fearing.
Daedra West-
A celebrity exhibitionist, herself "the product" in an art
form that is part reality television, politics, and performance art.
After each media event she has herself flensed and sells the skin to
art collectors. She breaks her agreement with the backers of her
latest project (visiting the Patchers) by appearing naked and
tattooed. It's a deliberate provocation of the Patchers, who had
eaten the last two envoys. According to Ash, Daedra "or
one of her associates is our competitor in the stub."
Dominika - Lev's wife.
Edward
- Part of Burton's posse, works at Forever Fab.
Ella Fisher
- Ailing mother of Flynne & Burton.
Fabbitt -
A 3D printing chain.
Flynne
Fisher
- Burton's sister. Would have signed up for the Armed Forces when he
joined the Marines, but stayed at home to look after their
mother. Makes money by online gaming, and is better at it than
Burton. Shoots
Hamed at the end of the book.
Fitz-David Wu
- Best Shakespearian actor of his day.
Forever Fab - A
3D print shop owned by Shaylene.
Gobiwagen - A
Mercedes land-yacht "commissioned for a tour of Mongolian
deserts" by Lev's grandfather.
Gonzales (Felicia) - President of the US. Her assassination "was pivotal, a tipping point into the deep Jackpot."
Great Pacific Garbage Patch - A floating island made of recovered plastic, inhabited by fewer than 100 Neoprimitives.
Griff
(Gryffyd Holdsworth) - Lowbeer
when she was much younger. Flynne mistakes her for a man when they meet in the present.
Hamed al-Habibi - "Minor Gulf klept...a fifth son. Quickly the black sheep." He killed Aelite, the woman he was involved with.
HaptRec
Recon 1
- A unit of Marines outfitted with haptics that enable them to
coordinate their movements on the battlefield.
Hefty
Mart
- A large chain of stores suggestive of Costco or Wall-Mart with
headquarters in Delhi.
Homes - Homeland Security.
Hong -
Owns Sushi Barn.
Jackman
- A sheriff in the pay of Corbell.
Jackpot - Civilization "dying of its own discontents," according to Lowbeer. Androgenic and multicausal "with no particular beginning and
no end." See the
Heinlein short story, "The Year of the Jackpot."
Janet
- Friend of Flynne, makes socklike things for Conner.
Janice
- Friend of Flynne, helps look after Ella, married to Madison.
Jimmy's
- A bar & grill.
Klein
Cruz Vermette -
A law firm out of Miami working to keep Flynne and Burton safe.
Klept
- Russian oligarchs.
Leon
- Cousin of Burton and Flynne. An Army vet, he aids Burton by
accepting a $10 million prize via a state lottery rigged by the
future.
Lev
Zubov
- The youngest of a powerful Russian family in London, and a
dilettante who is "a sort of scout for the family."
Looks for things they might invest in as well as "sources of
novelty." Flynne's is his first stub. When it's discovered that
someone else is accessing it via the polt that Wilf gave to Daedra's
sister, he takes steps to block their efforts. Has two older
brothers, Anton and Pavel, and two pet "thylacine analogs"
named Gordon and Tyrenna. Lowbeer thinks he will pervert the economy of Flynne's world.
Lithonia
- Friend of Flynne, spells Janice in looking after Ella.
Lorenzo -
Rainey's cameraperson, he records Daedra's meeting with the Patchers.
Lowbeer
- Detective Inspector Ainsley Lowbeer of the Metropolitan Police in
London and a former spy with global intelligence feeds. Called in by Lev after he heard Flynne's story about the
murder. Has broad shoulders, white hair, and wears clothes "as
ambiguous as she was."
A former spy. See Griff.
Luke 4:5
- A religious group "as much a business as a cult." Hated by Burton.
Macon
- Gay friend of Burton and Flynne, good at math, excels at 3D
fabbing.
Madison
- Playing vintage sims like Sukhoi Flankers,
a main money earner for him and Janice.
Maenads'
Crush
-
a bar.
Matryoshka
- Name given to those opposing Flynne and Burton. "Out of
Nassau, so that's probably where they first came through from the
future." Racing Milagros Coldiron for ownership of the world in
the past.
Medici
- A healing device, in appearance "something like a cross between a bull's balls and a jellyfish.".
Michikoids
- Aka koids, AI-operated androids able to move like spiders when the need arises, and grow extra sets of spider eyes.
Milagros
Coldiron
- A shell company in
Colombia
set up by Lev to facilitate operations in the present.
Mobi
- A blimp.
Neoprimitives
- People
who "either survived the Jackpot on their own or have opted out
of the global system." Some embrace "heritage diseases"
like the common cold.
Operation
Northwind
-
A game played by Flynne before being contacted by the future.
Ossian
Murphy -
Aka the Irishman, named after a fictional Gaelic
poet. He and Ash sometimes
communicate with each other in a synthetic language that sounds like
birdsong. They work for Lev and mind his hobbies for him. He wears a
pigtail and sometimes acts as a butler.
Party
Time
- A chemical that turns people into homicidal sex maniacs.
Patchers -
A small group of Neoprimitives who cleaned plastic from the Great
Pacific Garbage Patch and used it to assemble a huge floating island.
They are into grotesque body modifications. They ate the last two
envoys.
Pharma Jon
- A pharmacy chain.
Polt
- Short for poltergeist. A person operating a peripheral.
Rainey
- Lives in Toronto and works for the Canadian government. She hired
Wilf for Daedra's project, and afterwards tells him that they had
been used to facilitate the deaths, which were an
assassination, a hit.
Remembrancer -
Appears only at the end of the book. A crooked official of the City who collaborated with Hamed. Killed by
Burton.
Reece
- An Army vet and part
of Burton's posse,
forced by Pickett to kidnap Flynne.
Shaylene
- Friend of Flynne, owns Forever Fab where Flynne sometimes works.
She went out with Burton in high school.
Squidsuit - A camouflage suit like "cluttlefish camo, like
Burton and Conner used in the war."
Tarantula
- Conner's trike.
Tommy
Constantine
- Deputy sheriff, an honest cop.
Tacoma
Raeburn-
Red-haired sister of Clovis Raeburn, also a notary and a CPA who works
for Griff and for Klein Cruz Vermette. Claims she's better than
Clovis with a gun.
Vespasian
- A continua enthusiast from Berlin and "a weapons fetishist,
famously sadistic."
Viz
- An eyepiece that
provides views feeds from other sources.
Wheelie
Boy
- A ball with a tractor tire on each side and a mini-tablet on a
stick. Used by Wilf when he visits the present, as no peripherals are
available there.
Wilf
- A
friend of Lev, with whom he went to school,
now a glib
publicist with a drinking problem. Worked briefly for Daedra, and
with whom he'd had an affair. He tried to impress her by mentioning
Lev's stub and offering the use of a polt (Burton), but she wasn't interested.
At her suggestion the polt was
given to her sister. He was fired after the fiasco at the Garbage
Patch in chapter 8.
SUMMING
UP
Rainey
told
Wilf they'd been used by someone
to kill the Boss Patcher and his his entourage."
That
someone could only have been Daedra, with whom Wilf had had a brief
affair. Daedra didn't want the polt that Wilf offered her, and
suggested that it be give to Aelita.
Presumably she was the one who contacted Burton to provide security,
mainly to keep paparazzi drones away from a reception she was
holding. Flynne took Burton's place and witnessed Aelita being killed
by Hamed, who had learned
about the stub from Aelita, as they had been together for quite a
while. Immediately after Aelita was killed, Ash
tells Lev that someone has been accessing their stub: "seems as
though it has something to do with your polt." When Hamed
learned there was a witness to the murder, he went after Flynne
and Burton.
On
page 354 Ash
comments that "it's almost certain that Daedra, or one of her
associates, is our competitor in the stub."
Presumably
one of the associates is the
City Remembrancer, who was involved in the monetization of an island
"that he created," (p. 458), presumably the one inhabited
by the Patchers who, according to Hamed, have "endemic
health issues...of which they aren't yet aware." On page 471
Lowbeer speculates that the Remembrancer "might have suffered
some well-concealed setback in his affairs: a real estate and
development scheme, with resource extraction?" This suggests the
media stunt that Daedra orchestrated sank whatever financial
aspirations the Remembrancer had for the island.
As
soon as he is killed, Lowbeer says to Flynne and Burton, "Sir
Henry's death has deprived your competitor of the sort of advantage
that Lev and I afford you now."
In
the end Hamed gets away with murder, as "he's too well-connected
to be bothered by any of this" (p.
474). Daedra is tormented by Conner for a while but isn't
harmed, so she too
gets away with murder, for she
had obviously set up the confrontation with Hamed,
who was pretending to be the Boss Patcher. (He wasn't killed but some
of his followers were.) Daedra "was covered with a hypersonic
weapons-delivery system...something orbital, ready to drop in"
(p.32).
The
final two chapters are saccharine, probably because Gibson figured
we'd had enough nastiness with the revelations about Hamed, Daedra,
and the Remembrancer, and with the worst of the Jackpot still to
come (but
then again, maybe not in this stub).
UPLOAD
William Gibson makes a very brief appearance in this humorous series on Amazon, in which people can be uploaded to a virtual afterlife. In Season 3, Episode 5, he appears as a hologram in a San Francisco library and offers a few words about "AI-generated characters."