The great thing about anthologies is that if one story isn't hitting, you don't stay with it for too long. And if a story hits, it doesn't overstay its welcome.
This is a collection of short stories, completely independent, without any overarching story line or unified setting other than being dystopian in nature.
Despite being hailed as the progenitor for the Sprawl series of classic cyberpunk novels, not all the stories in Burning Chrome are cyberpunk. There's quite a number which is more traditional sci-fi.
Themes, narrative, and writing quality vary quite a bit too, so on average it comes out quite meh, even when there are very solid entries with engaging stories and distinct characters.
Even though I started this for Johnny Mnemonic story, the real highlight for me was the penultimate Burning Chrome, which undoubtedly served as a foundation for many cyberpunk stories that came afterwards. All the underpinnings of what we consider a cyberpunk now, were right there, painted with thick neon colors: the nonsensical yet plausible computer jargon, virtual reality visualization of cyberspace, the ICE firewalls, the cybernetic implants, the broken lives.
Kobo edition is alright but has some annoying formatting issues like zero margins between sections and weird headers.
I read #Neuromancer , #CountZero , #MonaLisaOverdrive , and #BurningChrome before the internet, when we were first fumbling around with dial up modems. Thank you, sir for imagining cyberspace, cowboy deckers, and biomods. Those are some of my all-time favorite reads.
cat K.
MathiasTCK.bsky.social
Drew Despereaux
13xforever
cat K.
Kevin Davidson
Star Pilot 🛰️📡🏴☠️🥽⚛️☕🧷