Burning Chrome is an anthology of William Gibson’s short stories. Overall I enjoyed the collection. All of the stories were good, but there were 2 or 3 standouts that seemed exceptional.
Johnny Mnemonic is the first and probably most famous of the stories in the collection. The story is a precursor to Neuromancer and the other Sprawl trilogy books. I enjoyed the story, although having read Neuromancer beforehand made is somewhat less interesting. I think reading Gibson's short stories first would have been the best way to proceed.
The Gernsback Continuum is a compact but extremely compelling story, concerning a photographer who begins to experience flashes of an alternate reality in which the world imagined by techno-futurists of the early 20th century came to fruition. Think Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, flying cars, atomizing ray guns, Metropolis, that sort of thing. This story was interesting particularly because of its hauntological nature. Gibson comes very close to using the language that Derrida or Mark Fisher might have used, of “canceled futures”. Gibson calls it a “lost future.” I’m curious whether Gibson and Fisher ever discussed the topic, or if the story was at all inspired by Derrida? Perhaps Fisher mentions it in his work? A quick Google search shows 3-4 papers containing both phrases, so it seems safe to say that connection has already been made.
Fragments of a Hologram Rose is fairly uninteresting, not much besides Gibson’s take on the post-apocalyptic genre. It’s essentially a man reminiscing about a female love interest of his, in a post-apocalyptic setting.
The Belonging Kind is a jarring departure from the subject matter of the rest of the collection. Rather than discussing futurism or sci-fi, this story is possibly set in the present day, and details a man who discovers a race of creatures adapted to fit in with humans socially. In other words, these creatures are the perfect assimilators, able to freely move through social circles by saying exactly the right things, wearing exactly the right clothes, and generally behaving in the right way at all times. It’s an interesting topic, and quite different for Gibson. It seems to be a commentary on the naturalness of feeling “outside”, of being socially awkward.
Hinterlands is an interesting thought experiment about humans being sent through some sort of wormhole and returning after an indefinite period of time, sometimes with treasures or scientific marvels, including a literal cure for cancer. The catch is that the passage leaves all the travelers so psychologically scarred that they inevitably commit suicide or die before they even return. It’s kind of like an amped up philosophical thought experiment about what scientific progress is worth. How much are we willing to sacrifice?
Red Star, Winter Orbit is a well-written, enjoyable story about an old and enfeebled Soviet cosmonaut stationed aboard an orbital space station that is being decommissioned. The cosmonaut is unable to return to Earth due to bone deterioration, and the station's impending orbital deterioration is essentially a death sentence for him. The story does have an interesting message at the end, about the necessity of “wanting” a frontier. The cosmonaut remarks that the Soviet space program failed because the Soviets weren't actually interested in dwelling in space. Rather, they simply wanted the distinction of having a space program. The cosmonaut concludes that space is for the free and uninhibited, rather than the imperial and bureaucratic. It’s an interesting and poignant little story. Reminds me of The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
New Rose Hotel was a very bland story of corporate espionage and betrayal, only remarkable in its predictability. Two dudes attempt a stunning corporate coup de grace, only to be betrayed by the woman they've paid to sleep with their target. How original. The story is told from the viewpoint of one of the men, who is ruminating on both his impending death and how he loved the lady. The woman they paid to do a sex instead did a betrayal. Women sure are fickle, even though us men love ‘em, can I GET AN AMEN FELLAS???
The Winter Market was a very interesting exploration of love and loss in the face of technological advancement. An editor of live neural experiences encounters a truly revolutionary artist of the medium and sort of falls in love with her. I say sort of because it's described as something between love, awe and respect. She is paralyzed with a mysterious illness that is possibly responsible for her amazingly vivid powers of imagination. In the end, rather than die or continue in her difficult real-life existence, she chooses to entirely upload her consciousness to a computer and let her physical body die. The main character grapples with this. An overall enjoyable story, and a female character who for once exercises some real agency. Lise is a bad bitch who doesn't need your sympathy.
Dogfight. Possibly the worst of the stories. A drifter develops a relationship with a brilliant college student. She helps him by giving him a piece of technology which gives him a competitive advantage at a holographic video game. Faced with a professional competitor he doesn't believe he can beat, he threatens his partner into giving him a dose of a performance enhancing drug that she was saving for a pivotal job interview. He then goes on to defeat the champion, who lives only for the game. Rather than being cheered, the onlookers give him death glares. In the end, he reflects on his actions, realizing he's alienated everyone. I don't particularly like this kind of story because it often reads like “morality porn”. Someone does something heinous and awful to make the audience think about it. That sort of thing can be good, as in Crime and Punishment, possibly the best example of the genre. But usually it just seems to be an excuse to have characters do bad things.
Burning Chrome is another precursor to Neuromancer and centers on the backstory of Bobby Quine, referenced as one of the “cowboys” Case learned the trade from. It’s a fun read, but again, more of the same if you've already read Neuromancer.