The Peripheral

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by William Gibson

Flynne Fisher lives on a remote road in a rural near-future America where employment are rare, unless you include illicit drug manufacturing, which she tries to stay away from. Burton, her brother, survives (or attempts to survive) on money from the Veterans Administration due to neurological injuries he sustained while serving in the Marines' elite Haptic Recon squad. Flynne supplemented her income by constructing products at a nearby 3D printer. She made more money as a combat scout in an online game for a wealthy client, but she had to give up the shooter games.

Wilf Netherton is still alive and well in London, seventy years later, on the other side of a long period of slow-motion disaster. For the haves, things are looking up, and there aren't many have-nots left. Wilf, a high-powered PR and celebrity manager, sees himself as a romantic misfit in a culture where going back in time is simply another pastime.

Burton has been working as a secret security guard in a game prototype, a virtual city that resembles London but is a lot weirder. He's had Flynne covering shifts, and he told her the game wouldn't be a shooter. Nonetheless, the act she witnesses there is heinous.

Wilf and Flynne are ready to meet for the first time. Wilf's world will be forever changed, and hers will discover that some of the past's third-world types can be tough, despite its opulence and power.

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Because people who couldn’t imagine themselves capable of evil were at a major disadvantage in dealing with people who didn’t need to imagine, because they already were.

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Because people who couldn’t imagine themselves capable of evil were at a major disadvantage in dealing with people who didn’t need to imagine, because they already were.

— William Gibson, The Peripheral