Burning Chrome

by William Gibson

A collection of short stories by William Gibson. Some based around the Neuromancer world, others unrelated. I found a few quite abstract and unclear, making it hard to understand the story. Others were great.

Johnny Mnemonic

A great read - they made a film of this one, starring Keanu Reeves. It's about a person who can securely store other's private data in his brain so that only they can access it. This one is based in the same universe as the Neuromancer triology.

The Gernsback Continuum

An odd one. Somewhat tricky to follow.

Fragments of a Hologram rose

A very short story, again rather abstract.

The Belonging Kid

About aliens mingling amongst humans on earth. An interesting read.

Hinterlands

A really interesting story about a sort of tunnel to another galaxy or universe. One of my favourites in this collection.

Red Star, Winter Orbit

Another fascinating story about a Russian space station inhabited by civilians called Kosmograd. One of them, the first person to walk on Mars, has been in space for 20 years and can't return. Then Russia decides to pull the plug.

New Rose Hotel

Back in the Neuromancer cyberpunk world, dealing with gloabl corporations figthing for scientists at the very "edge" of research into bio technology. Two spies help these scientists in dealing with these corporations. It deals with the exact same topic of the Neuromancer trilogoy and was released at the same time. It seems like he was testing the water with this one.

The Winter Market

This story deals with making recordings of people's thoughts and then selling them as entertainment.

Dogfight

About a loner with a criminal past wanting to make his next million by beating the top dog at a computer game that is played through being jacked into a headset type thing.

Burning Chrome

The story that started it all, where the term "cyperspace" was first coined. It only uses the term once, in the second sentence of the first paragraph. It does so almost in passing and it is otherwise unremarkable in the context of the story. But there it is: "cyberspace".

The story itself is an interesting one, setting the scene for Neuromancer and it's two follow up stories. It deals with two guys essentially doing a bank heist. One to impress a girl, the other to get the money. The clue is that term coined by William Gibson. The heist happens in cyberspace!

Started 13/02/2024. Finished 19/02/2024.