This was hard work but worth it. I found the first, maybe, fifth of it just incomprehensible but apparently it was all world-building because I just started to get what everyone was talking about and what was going on, after what felt like a very long time of neither.

As such, any specifics I talk about on this, including a loose synopsis, would spoil something. If you like sci-fi, and a difficult read (certainly compared with what I've been reading lately!) I emphatically recommend The Peripheral. Stick with it though!