Burning Chrome

by William Gibson, Bruce Sterling · 1986 · Sprawl #0 · 204 pages

★★★★★Read Jan 1, 1992

For the longest time I refused to read "cyberpunk", I was pretty snotty and self-righteous about it. Frankly, I feel like half the time I live that stuff. The graphics aren't as cool, the world isn't as exciting, but I'm doing the sort of work that the Wired set is fauning over. It gets a bit tiresome to hear how glamourous it is, because it's not.

Anyway, that's the snottiness. Now I regret it, because I've missed some really great writing. Burning Chrome is a collection of incredible short stories, tight and colourful. The stories themselves are good, but it's the way Gibson communicates that is the strength here. I read Neuromancer several years ago and it didn't make an impression, why I'm not sure. Burning Chrome definitely did, though - maybe Gibson's just more at home in short stories?

Goodreads readers give it 4.05★, from 43,782 ratings. I gave it 4★, −0.0, where I'm usually −0.9: I liked it more than most.

Readers call it Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Short Stories, Dystopia, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, American, Anthologies.

Nominated for Hugo Award 1987, Nebula Award 1982, Locus Award 1987, SF Chronicle Award 1987.

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