The Peripheral
Date
2014
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
G. P. Putnam's Sons
Abstract
A science fiction novel, Peripheral follows two main plot lines, one centered on Flynne Fisher, living in a small rural American town in the near future, and another one that focuses on Wilf Netherton, a London publicist from the distant future. While filling in for her brother, a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Haptic Recon unit with brain trauma caused by cybernetic implants and working as a security guard in a virtual world, Flynne, who notices that the game world looks like a futuristic London, witnesses a murder, despite not knowing if what she saw was real or not. However, she quickly realizes that it was and that the virtual world that she visited is the future from which Wilf comes, set in the 22nd century and where about only twenty percent of the world’s population was able to survive an apocalyptic event known as Jackpot, which began during the 21st century as a result of climate change. Flynne is eventually contacted by Ainsley Lowbeer, an inspector from the future who is investigating the disappearance of Aelita, to whose murder Flynne was the sole witness, and who gets Flynne to visit her 22nd century London via a peripheral, a sort of cyborg that users can connect to from another location.
Description
Keywords
climate change , cyberspace , cyberpunk , science fiction , time travel , speculative fiction
Citation
Gibson, William. The Peripheral. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2014.