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The Peripheral

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The Peripheral

By: William Gibson
Narrated by: Katie Leung
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About this listen

The Peripheral by William Gibson is a thrilling audiobook about two intertwined futures, from the bestselling author of Neuromancer

In the near future in a broken down rural America, Flynne Fisher scrapes a living as a gamer for rich players. One night, working a game set in a futuristic but puzzlingly empty London, she sees a death that's unnervingly vivid. Soon after she gets word that it isn't a game after all—the future she saw is all too real, she's the only witness to a murder and someone from that unreal tomorrow now wants her dead. The story of a young woman caught between two worlds, The Peripheral interweaves two futures—pre-apocalypse USA and post-apocalypse London—to tell a story which gets right to heart of the way we live now.

“Wild, richly satisfying . . . big-screen, popcorn-chewing thrills. What a glorious ride” - Guardian

©2014 William Gibson (P)2023 W. F. Howes Ltd Cyberpunk Fiction Hard Science Fiction Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense Technology Thriller Exciting England Game

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All stars
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the concept of the story is brilliant and even though the narration and character accents were masterfully executed, something was off with the pace or flow, which couldn't get me immersed in the story somehow. I could understand what the story was about in a broad sense, but it felt like I lost connection with the characters and zoned out of the story on multiple occasions (the stuff I'm doing while listening, like driving my car or even my own thoughts overruling the narrator)

what did I just read?

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something about the voice doesn't work..
i persevered for 12 chapters but found i had to re-listen.. but couldn't get it. couldn't take it in.
not sure if it's a pitch/ tone thing..
but it sure didn't work for me.
audio book dnf.. I'll go old school and read this one.

the story is good... narrator not so much

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this version compared to the previous adds some depth to the characters thanks to the use of accents.

I really enjoyed the Scottish accent

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The character voices are fine, but there's just no life and odd, stilted pauses that really ruin the flow for me

Great book let down my flat narration

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As prescient as Neuromancer was in the 80s - love the Amazon series - a crime it was cancelled. Gibsons prose is poetry

Brilliant narration - incredible accents bravo

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This is Gibson’t best post sprawl novel in my view. The time travel without it being time travel is a cool concept.

Narration is good, but narrator does a better job with other characters than the main one and Flynn comes over flat and emotionless at times.

TV series based on this novel is well worth checking out.

Great!

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Got the book after watching the show as season 2 was cancelled and left me wanting to find out what happened. The book didn't help with this, they are two different stories with some similarities. I struggled with following the story in parts and had to re-listen to some sections to figure out what was happening. I thought the narration was a bit slow with some long pauses during conversations so I sped up the playback but accents were good. Still hoping a season 2 will happen!

Struggled in parts but a good story.

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Razor sharp rapid fire writing in Gibson's usual style. It took me a little while to really get into the story, but once settled it was obvious how deft the storytelling is. With a sci-fi plot like this it could've very easily become totally incomprehensible, but it was honestly fairly easy to follow. You're given tidbits of info along the way so that you can feel turning points coming, but not so much so that you can see every twist coming a mile away. The voice acting is about as good as it gets. Plenty variety in voices, and nothing that sounds annoying. Easy recommend.

Strong voicing and writing

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I've only ever read one other Gibson book and that was Neuromancer which I generally enjoyed, but struggled with in sections. This was much the same.
The premises of the book is superb: namely we have a future post-apocalyptic society using tech to out-source work to the past, but in doing so create divergent pasts. Connection between the two allows the future to manipulate the past from a financial/resource/political way, as they have subsequent knowledge of events to use to their advantage. The past groups can access the future several ways: normal communication methods; via drones, initially in this through a computer game; or via controlling organic constructs remotely, called Peripherals. These constructs normally run via AI which is then superceded if another enters and controls. The Peripherals are used by people within the same time as well as a clever narrative device to bring the past characters into the future setting.
I can't fault the innovative world building. Both the 'past' (a moderator dystopian near-future of tech, drugs, and corruption, mainly in the middle of US mid-west) and the 'future' (a post-apocalyptic hi-tec London) are well detailed and immersive. The plot is okay- essentially a murder mystery, and there's some interesting twists thrown in. But the pacing is utterly askew, it never really seems to gain momentum for me, and the finale kind of went like a damp firework. The strange chapter structure didn't work for me either.
I'd listened to the audiobook, and must say the narrator Katie Leung was perfect. The varied accents helped distinguish characters in an, at times, convoluted narrative.

Great concepts, average execution

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A fantastic story that the TV series very loosely follows. Great voice actor to boot who helped to bring the audible narration to life.

Enjoyable, informative and entertaining.

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