Agency

"William Gibson builds bombs – beautiful clockwork architectures of plot and pressure disguised as science fiction novels. In Agency, he introduces us to Verity Jane, just coming off her 15 minutes of fame as the (now ex-) girlfriend of a venture capitalist billionaire, who finds a gig beta-testing a new artificially intelligent digital assistant named Eunice. At the same time, she is noticed by a cast of near-future Russians and Londoners who vie for control over various historical “stubs,” of which our current tomorrow is one. Agency oscillates between future London and Verity Jane’s present, ratcheting up the tension. Verity and Eunice are the rabbit. The hounds are contract assassins, military contractors, tech-bros in over their heads. And Gibson just keeps winding the wire around his explosive core, looping in gig-economy surveillance applications, a barista, a time-traveling robot and a housewarming/launch party complete with helicopter assault until Agency’s timer finally ticks down to zero."