This is a very informative book about the Hispanic role in North American history, from the first arrival of the Spanish in the western hemisphere, through their colonization of what is today Florida, Texas, California and much of the rest of the American West, to the U.S.’s wars with Mexico and Spain and its troubled relationship with Puerto Rico, to the role of Hispanic culture in the U.S. and the treatment of Hispanic citizens and immigrants. At 437 pages of text (followed by endnotes etc.), it covers a lot, though it also has to keep moving fairly quickly to get through it all. It’s written to be accessible to the general reader, though I found it more interesting when I was able to devote larger amounts of time to keep all the facts straight.

There are a lot of facts here, and not a lot of analysis, which is a little bit too bad because I have the feeling the author has a lot more to say but was trying to keep her opinions out of it. It’s definitely a big-picture approach, a view of all of post-contact American history side-by-side with the history of the nearest Spanish-speaking colonies and countries, but with a fair amount of detail about key events and players. The author also accomplishes a rare feat in a book focused on a particular disadvantaged group in American society, which is that she doesn’t forget about the others: some of this history overlaps quite significantly with the U.S.’s treatment of Native Americans and African-Americans, which Gibson doesn’t shy away from (and treatment of Asians is touched on as well). While little of the history was entirely new to me, I was still struck by, for instance, the extent to which southern slaveowners hoped to take over Cuba, several Mexican states, and possibly other southern neighbors in order to extend slavery. My biggest complaint is that the book could have been clearer about the implications of how the Mexican-American War got started. But I particularly appreciated the way the author relates the history of Mexico side-by-side with the U.S.; although we're neighbors, I'm not sure I've actually seen these histories in the same work before.

Overall, this is an interesting and accessible history that provides as comprehensive a view of the long history of Spanish-speaking people and their descendants in the U.S. as I’ve ever seen. It’s a useful perspective and a worthwhile read.

This book caught me by surprise. I'd expected an inventive, plausible, fast-paced techno-thriller. What I got was a gentle meander through the politics and technologies of multiple versions of our world which was entertaining but never thrilling or even tense.

The first book in this series, "The Peripheral", was much more of a page-turner, was crammed with new ideas and kept me engaged and guessing all the way through.

That was five years ago, which is a long time in technology terms so Gibson now has a whole new set of techno trends for us to play with. Most of the fun I had with the book was trying to guess what the technology is and what the gap is between it and current capabilities.

At one point, Gibson's character mentions Boston Dynamics as a starting point for innovation in robotics. These guys make great videos. Wanna see a bipedal robot run a Parcourt course or a robot dog open doors and do a dance? Take a look at this video

It's fun and cute at first. Then it sinks in and it's scary as hell.  Gibson builds on this to produce some truly threatening tech. He also gives us an updated view of AI, this time as the convergence of attempts to upload human skillsets into expert systems with a concept of distributed, autonomous decision making.

Once I accepted the relaxed pace of "Agency" and allowed myself to let go of the "Thriller" tag, I enjoyed the book as an accomplished exploration of the concept of agency as we fall into a kleptocratic world. What can we do to limit the damage done by greedy, corrupt autocracies, unwilling and perhaps unable to think beyond short-term self-interest? It also looked at the impact of emerging AIs and augmented humans in creating a partially post-human world.

Part of the leisurely pace of the book comes from the fact that "Agency" sticks with the concepts of The Jackpot and of Stubs from "The Peripheral". (If you haven't read *The Peripheral", go back and read it first, it's well worth it or follow this link to read a summary) and uses characters we know well from the first book. What I liked most about this was the opportunity to re-cast what Lowbeer was doing as being an attempt to colonise the Stubs, at least culturally, and or, a means of reducing the power of the Kleptocracy in all timelines.

If you decide you want to take this leisurely stroll through Gibson's imagination, I suggest you listen to the audiobook and let the talented Lorelie King be your guide. Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear a sample.

It's been almost five years since the first book in this series, "The Peripheral" came out. That's a long time in technology terms so Gibson gives us a whole new set of techno trends to play with. Most of the fun I'm having with the book is trying to guess what the technology is and what the gap is between it and current capabilities.

At one point, Gibson's character mentions Boston Dynamics as a starting point for innovation in robotics. These guys make great videos. Wanna see a bipedal robot run a Parcourt course or a robot dog open doors and do a dance? Take a look at this video

https://youtu.be/hMtABzjslXA

It's fun and cute at first. Then it sinks in and it's scary as hell.