A sparkly little collection of short stories by Gibson at the height of his neuromantic period. Bruce Sterling has an ego far larger than his talent, and his attempts early in his introduction to bracket himself with Gibson made it easy to skip the rest of it. Moreover I'd read their collaboration Red Star, Winter Orbit in Mirrorshades, and here it really jangles against the purely Gibson efforts.
Stand-outs were:
- Johnny Mnemonic. Was the movie really all that bad? I guess I had better find out.
- Hinterlands. Provincialism.
- New Rose Hotel is much better than the movie, more's the pity.
- The Winter Market is Gibson observing Vancouver, keenly. I wish he'd do more social commentary in general. (As well as, not instead of.)
- The titular Burning Chrome is a dry run for Neuromancer, and is fine for all that.