![]() ![]() ![]() He says his job is to interrogate the present under the guise of imagining the future – the only thing, he contends, that science fiction is really good for – and that he hasn’t yet fully processed everything he channelled into Agency. “I’ve never been in it to promote solutions or possible directions,” he says. Read more: 25 of the best science fiction books everyone should readĭespite his reputation as a seer, Gibson’s fiction has always been more about presenting the sheen and shape of the future than making credible predictions. ![]() ![]() Agency walks a fine line between glamourising the Silicon Valley mentality – with the protagonists’ needs met via a succession of price-no-object, just-in-time solutions – and satirising it. All you can do is go on to the mean streets, find your corner, pretend you’re in a film noir and give up,” said Kim Stanley Robinson, whose own books strike a more progressive tone. “It was basically saying finance always wins. So should we just accept that as our fate? Cyberpunk, the genre Gibson is credited with pioneering with his 1984 novel Neuromancer, has been criticised for fetishising consumerism and techno-capitalism rather than presenting potential alternatives. The climate is mostly under control, with nano-bots keeping things comfy for the surviving bourgeoisie – although Gibson points out that their comfort is possible only because everyone else is dead. Grim though that might sound, it’s not a wholly unattractive future. ![]()
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