Over the past four decades, science fiction master William Gibson has become a world-renowned "great prophet", accurately depicting the World Wide Web (WWW) and predicting what will happen when Internet celebrities are deified. Of course, the "father of the cyberpunk movement" (cyberpunk is a subcategory of science fiction) has humbly stated many times in public that he, like other science fiction writers, "almost all wrong about the future" ".

William Gibson

Adapting William Gibson's work into a film and television series has always been a daunting task. But such a challenging job has attracted many Hollywood giants, but so far, most adaptations have been unsuccessful, such as "Defending the Confidential" (1995), based on his earlier work "Sprawl trilogy" (1995) and "The New Rose Hotel" (1998), although star-studded and William Gibson participated in the screenplay, is basically in a state of flooding whether it is word of mouth or box office. For this reason, although the copyrights of masterpieces such as "Count Zero" and "Mona Lisa Reboot" have been bought early, the film adaptation plan has always been at an early stage.

William Gibson probably understood the difference between science fiction literature and science fiction film and television script after participating in the adaptation of film and television dramas several times. The "X-Files" he later participated in was a great success. He also played a role in the drama. The role of a walk-in character who flashes by and takes a lunch when he comes up.

"Edgeworld" poster

"The Peripheral", which was launched on Amazon's streaming media this time, is another film and television adaptation of William Gibson's work. Judging from the two episodes that have been launched, it seems that the critics still do not buy it. It is on Rotten Tomatoes , its professional score was only 64%, but fortunately, the general audience gave a quasi-high score of 89%.

On Rotten Tomatoes, Edge World has a professional score of just 64%

Amazon, which believes in a "good money" strategy, has launched a number of high-budget dramas this year, such as the indescribable version of "The Lord of the Rings", as well as "Edge World." Critics can accuse "Edgeworld" of being cryptic and clichéd, but they can't criticize the production itself, whether it's the action scenes or the visual effects, it's just new.

For the problems of routines that some audiences and drama critics criticize, it still needs to go back to the novel itself. The original novel was published in 2014. Although it is not too long in terms of time, there are some settings in the book. Looking at it now, It is indeed a bit of a big deal-parallel worlds, the mutual influence of world A and world B, the blurred area between virtual and reality, let's put it this way, if you are interested in taking a look at the starting point, you can find N similar works in minutes.

"Edge World" stills

However, in today's streaming media era, "Edge World" still maintains a weekly single update rate (the first two episodes will be launched on October 21, and one episode will be updated every week from October 28), which makes some suspense. It was announced after artificial delay, such as which war the heroine's younger brother participated in to get PTSD because of it, and what kind of disease the heroine's mother had, and the more intersecting the 2032 timeline and the 2099 timeline. , the more the audience has doubts from the perspective of God, that in theory, people in 2099 should be "all-knowing" about 2032, but they appear to be "ignorant"...

In order to clarify the plot, the author took a quick look at the novel, and first came to a conclusion that the episodes have so far been quite restored to the original, and the two episodes currently broadcast have basically completed the first 50 or so pages of the book.

Here is my overview without spoilers as much as possible:

The 2032 timeline in which the heroine Flynne is located can be said to be the doomsday moment of modern human civilization.

The 2099 timeline is the post-apocalyptic era of hybrid technology and monarchy after the restart of human civilization. This storyline basically takes place in a place similar to London (let’s call it New London).

"Edge World" stills

The virtual world that Flynne enters through the VR game is in New London. The future she encounters involves nanotechnology, robotics, and more.

Between 2032 and 2099, there is a point in time - the destruction of civilizations caused by climate change, epidemics, wars, etc.

Can "Daughter of Heaven" Flynne change the fate of mankind?

In short, this is a Ready Player One skin with a core of The Matrix.

"Edge World" stills

British drama critic Rachael Sigee commented on "Edge World": This drama is directed by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, who produced "Westworld". You should not forget the "Westworld" high Is it a matter of driving low?

In the author's opinion, compared to "Westworld", "Edgeworld" has at least one completed original novel. Of course, whether the happy ending of the family in the book is satisfactory or not is another matter. There is no spoiler here, the author has only one sentence - there is a logical bug at the end of the novel, which can be described as "there are too many slots and no mouths".

"Edge World" novel book shadow