Burning Chrome

Gibson continues to show how special he is as a writer. Truly unlike any other author. A style and voice that are so clear and unique to himself, and the themes that he plays with suit that style so much that he pushed a sub-genre into the mainstream. At a time when SF had exhausted itself, Gibson pushed out in a new direction and made the genre better for it.

From my understanding, this is a collection of Gibson's short works from mostly before he wrote the iconic Neuromancer in 1984. In some ways these works feel like Gibson turning ideas over in his head, trying to arrive at what would eventually become Neuromancer. Several of these stories, Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome are literally set in the sprawl, and read very much as an extension to that universe. But there's also a lot of stories that I wouldn't even necessarily call cyberpunk, though they deal with many of the same themes and generally have a dark, gritty, noir feel to them. Whether there are schizophrenic visions of an alternative art-deco America from the pulps (The Gernsback Continuum), horrific explorations into an alien trasportation network to steal technology (Hinterlands), or gambling with games that are played with hardware inserted directly into your brain stem (Dogfight), all of these stories feel unique to themself while having enough overlapping ideology that they fit together well in series. It's remarkable how fresh and lucid this writing is. Never a dull moment in this urban decay.

What I can say for sure is that Gibson requires your full attention while reading. If you aren't focused, it's easy to skim past the density of his prose and end up not understanding anything at all about what's happening, because he doesn't waste his words to explain anything explicitly. If you have that capacity, it's a thrill to see the sharpness, the hard edge and unrelenting tone that Gibson writes with. I also love that the characters in Gibson's work are the worn and beaten down. Hackers, deadbeats, addicts and criminals provide the perfect point of view to see the decaying yet technologically advanced world that Gibson imagines.

This is one of the rare books that I took my time to savor. Generally I prefer a novel over a short story, but when the quality is this high, short stories are great because you can take a break between each one to reflect on it and get the same level of satisfaction that you do at the end of a longer novel. These are the type of stories that slap you awake and make you remember why you love SF.