Burning Chrome

Burning Chrome is a collection of 10 short stories by Cyberpunk Master William Gibson. It includes many of his most famous stories: including Johnny Mnemonic, Gernsback Continuum, Belonging Kind, and Burning Chrome. These are tightly written adventures jam-packed with science fiction invention. The style of writing is tense, crisp, and clear and definitely pulls you into the world of these tales. If there is anything to complain about, it is that Gibson has been so influential in the genre that many of these don’t impress upon the reader the originality that they held upon publication.Burning Chrome is rated 90%.8 good / 2 average / 0 poor.Johnny Mnemonic.Good. This is probably the best story in the collection. Far superior to the awful film of the same title. The story crackles with excitement, razor sharp writing, and lots of speculation about the future. It is great first cyberpunk story for any reader as you follow Johnny with a secret trapped in his brain that he can’t access and many people want to kill him for.The Gernsback ContinuumGood. A fantasy fable of science fiction’s past as Hugo-Gernsback-era design bleeds enticingly into the present world.Fragments of a Hologram RoseAverage. A little scattershot as the main character reminisces about a girl he knewThe Belonging Kind. By John Shirley and William GibsonGood. A dreamlike fantasy story as a man follows a mysterious woman through a hypnotic cityscape.HinterlandsGood. Atmospheric tale of the horrible price of space explorationRed Star, Winter Orbit. by Bruce Sterling and William GibsonAverage. Mutiny aboard a Soviet-controlled space station.New Rose HotelGood. Enough invention here for another writer’s trilogy of novels. This is a crime story and spy story and a love story - within a complex cyberpunk world.The Winter MarketGood. Another spectacular story. This one tells about a man who writes dreams in to VR entertainment and an artist genius of a \ woman at the end of her rope.Dogfight. by Michael Swanwick and William GibsonGood. The dogfights here are the airplanes of world wars past. A transient man with dreams of winning money from virtual dogfights meets a privileged college girl and begins a friendship. Visceral and heartbreaking.Burning ChromeGood. Another classic. A deep run in the Matrix against a brutal mob figure. A beautiful girl caught up in transhuman technological upgrades. Love, betrayal, and greed.From ShortSF

Admission -I did not like the Neuromancer. I usually remember the plots, and even whole sentences from books and short stories that I liked, but with Neuromancer I draw a blank. That's why I thought Gibson's short stories would be interesting to read. And initially they were, at least most of them. Gibson's technical writing skills are awesome and deserve five stars for sure. After a few stories, however, I felt uneasy. There are two weighty problems about the basic designs of the story - 1. Gibson describes, or better, wallows in his futuristic universe of software-hardware-biowere interfacing with added accents on psychoactive design drugs. His descriptions create a hype throwing various words that create atmosphere without really trying to get to the nitty-gritty and explain (at least some of it). Moreover, he creates an atmosphere in which an iconoclastic reader who might say "Come on. What did you really mean by that? Is it remotely possible or likely?" is posed as ignoramus and unbeliever. In a word, if you do not swim with this current, you're an old fuddy-duddy out of touch and out of grace. 2. Although the setting is 'the future according to Gibson', the skeleton underneath are the deathless motifs. Boy meets girls, boy loses girl, boy loses friend, greed is bad for your soul, etc, etc, etc. The tension is created not by waiting breathlessly for the hero's synapses to snap, but by a question as old as the world, will he/she score? I felt cheated when I realized that all that cyberspace is just a window dressing for our old spy story. Just substitute multinational behemoths or crime syndicates for evil government - and its Dr. No with electrodes. All said, I liked 'Fragments of Hologram Rose' best with 'Hinterlands' a close second, while 'Burning Chrome' is only so-so and 'Red Star' Winter Orbit' is definitely the last on the list and in my opinion shouldn't be in this anthology at all.

i first read this when it was new. i was nervous about rereading it now, afraid it wouldn't stand up to time. But the stories are still as good as they ever were. Highly recommended.

I read this years ago when they first came out and just re-read the whole series, just as good now as it was then, Incredible set of stories, just buy them all it's worth it :)

I love this book, and I recommend it strongly to anyone who has already read Neuromancer. Neuromancer is also amazing, and as a continuous novel has better continuity, world building and consistency compared to this collection of short stories. The strength of Burning Chrome is also the inherent weakness of a short story collection, that the stories cover a broad swath of Gibson's career and give glimpses into different themes and aesthetics he works with and is fascinated by.I've read this book at least 5 times over the past 10 years, and at different points in my own life almost every individual story has been my favorite story from the collection at one point or another, as my own perspective and interests change over the years. This is the highest praise I can give a short story collection.

Being an avid fan of Gibsons' work, I avoided reading this collection of short stories for quite a while. I've read short story collections from other authors, where one or two pieces in the collection meet expectations, but where a number are poor to the point of exasperation.I'm glad I took the bait on this collection, however. Gibson gives us a variety of writing styles, with my anticipated jumps into his trademark Cyberpunk genre (Johnny Mnemonic, New Rose Hotel Burning Chrome) with other stories in universes not unlike our own, though always with an edge that makes the book very difficult to put down.I first came across Gibson in the Omni Magazine, a publication that is sadly no longer with us, feasting on the dark world presented to us in  Johnny Mnemonic. Years later, I read through all his early Cyberpunk (Sprawl Trilogy) work, becoming a huge fan in the process.The Difference Engine was the next publication I found, which puzzled me.  A completely different style, which I must admit, took me several attempts over many months before I finished to book. It’s still not a favorite, I’m afraid.Virtual Light was different again, and I started to appreciate that Gibson’s skill set was much wider than I had first appreciated.  For me, Gibson reverts back to a far more readily absorbed idiom, and I quickly became absorbed in the characters and storylines that are compelling and absorbing.More recently, The Peripheral was another book I found very difficult to read initially. It took me three attempts to read it, finally managing to comprehend the language and piece together a vision of the story.  I’m so glad I persevered too.  The story is stunning, with well-maintained consistency to a complex multi-dimensional storyline and a thoroughly engaging group of characters.  I must have re-read that five or six times now and I get something new from it every time.In conclusion, Gibson is an amazing author, with the skills to render his compelling characters in a stupefying collection of different worlds/ages/environments with a narrative that's consistently gripping and emotive.  If you’ve not read any of his work before, or if you have and just want more, then Burning Chrome is a fabulous introduction/addition to a collection of William Gibson novels.  I can’t recommend his work highly enough.

First read this on paper a few decades ago. I didn't enjoy it fisrt time; having come right from Neuromancer I thought it was another novel in the series.Just done with the collection this morning and as a proper grown up I loved it. I have grown up reading Gibson and his own fiction has developed in parallel. This collection of short stories shows no sign of being first published in 1986, his ideas are still bleeding edge today. It informs and deepens the world of the sprawl so is required reading for anyone wanting to understand Gibson's fiction. When I got to the end of the book I have realised I need to revisit the sprawl yet again for th 'nth' time. Time to settle the trodes on the temples and jack in methinks...

William Gibson's collection of short stories are a gripping take on the possiblities of the future, some of which have come true today. If, like me, this is your first experience of science fiction stories you are also in for a treat. Many of his stories have been adapted into movies and he inspired the cyber punk culture.

Pretty awesome book. Now these stories are obviously not as well developed as his later novels, but they are fascinating and show us how he developed the characters, ideas etc that later pop up in his various novels. Must read for Gibson fans.

This is an absolutely classic work of cyberpunk literature. Some of the stories are on the more obtuse side stylistically, but are worth reading nonetheless. Some others are more straightforward and utterly inspired—Johnny Mnemonic makes excellent usage of the surreal conceit of a drug-addicted ex-Navy dolphin who communicates using Christmas lights. If that doesn't sell you on this collection, I don't know what will.