''Agency'' is a science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

, released on January 21, 2020. It is a 'sequel and a prequel' to his previous novel ''

The Peripheral ''The Peripheral'' is a 2014 science fiction mystery-thriller novel by William Gibson set in near- and post-apocalyptic versions of the future. The story focuses on a young rural-town American woman who lives in the near future, and on a London ...

'' (2014), reusing the technology from the novel to explore an alternative 2017 where

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

won the 2016 Presidential Election. The story line further explores the concept of the "Jackpot", a back-story element of ''The Peripheral''. One plot is set in the alternative 2017, with a young woman named Verity testing a new form of

avatar Avatar (, ; ), is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means "descent". It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, goddess or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearanc ...

software developed by the military, for a start-up in San Francisco. A second plot line involves people in a post-apocalyptic 22nd century meddling with 2017. ''

CBC Books CBC Arts (french: Radio-Canada Arts) is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that creates and curates written articles, short documentaries, non-fiction series and interactive projects that represent the excellence of Canada's div ...

'' listed ''Agency'' on its list of Canadian fiction to watch for in spring 2020. It had originally been planned to be published in January 2018.

References

Novels by William Gibson American alternate history novels Novels set in San Francisco 2020 American novels {{2020s-ah-novel-stub