Another of the ever-growing number of things that will likely be notable to future historians studying the decline and fall of the US.

I thought it was fine.

I read it before this sub started circle-jerking over how much they hate it, so I had no particular expectations either way. And I thought it was just sort of pleasant, if a bit shallow.

I think Agency is the worst book he's published, and it's not even close.

It was doubly strange to me, because I thought The Peripheral was the best thing he'd done since Idoru at least.

That's the only thing I might disagree with you on - I thought the Blue Ant books were pretty good, but not great. Pattern Recognition was definitely my favorite of the three, but still, aside from some of the characters and some of the set pieces, it just didn't impress me all that much. And by the time he'd recycled the characters yet again for Zero History, I was bored.

But then The Peripheral came along, and I was caught entirely off guard. Everything about it impressed me, and most notably, the character of Flynne. She's easily one of the best protagonists he's ever written.

And I emphatically agree with one of your points - I too noticed, and thought it was oddly ironic, that the entirely milquetoast protagonist of Agency (whose name I can't even remember) essentially had no agency at all. She barely even had any presence.

The right to not care at all about anything other than the book itself.

Trust me - just do it. Don't worry about what to do with the books in the long term - just put the book down and go on and pick out your next book, just like you would've done if you'd finished it.

Do that a time or two and it actually gets surprisingly easy. And it's a wonderful sense of freedom to just walk away from a book you're not enjoying.