Burning Chrome

Rating:
Summary: Darn good cyberpunk
Review: If you've only read William Gibson's novel-length stories such as NEUROMANCER, you're missing some of his best works. Not all of the short stories in BURNING CHROME fall within the cyberpunk genre, but all of them deal with a future gone haywire, populated by high-tech low-lifes, corporate headhunters, cyberspace cowboys, and even astronauts facing some unusual challenges. Two stories, JOHNNY MNEMONIC and NEW ROSE HOTEL, have already been made into full-length features; the rest should definitely entertain careful review from Hollywood producers, especially the title story itself. Don't pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Ground-breaking book
Review: This was the first book I ever read in the 'cyberpunk' style, and my what an eye-opener it was. Creative. Stimulating. Thought-provoking. Tour de force. And a great read!

As in any short story compilation, there are stronger and weaker stories. But over all, this book introduced me to a radical new style of science fiction that changed the way I thought of SF. It's a collection of short stories that had appeared elsewhere, including Omni magazine.

It's hard to imagine now, but when Burning Chrome and Neuromancer (Gibson's first cyberpunk novel) came out (in 1986 and 1984, respectively), there was nothing else like it. I suppose Philip K. Dick came closest to it in my mind, but Gibson took everything one or two or three steps farther. I think it's because the world had really changed from the time of Dick's most fruitful writing period. Yes, we had rockets, space travel, time travel, etc. then, but not the internet, and other radical new technologies coming into their own such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc. Gibson brought all of these new technologies and stuffed them in worlds that were a bit degraded from our own, as if humanity had traded the bright optimism of the late 20th century for a harder, colder, more desperate time.

I highly recommend this book, whether you're a devotee of cyberpunk or not. Neuromancer, too, is an excellent read and undoubtedly better known. But Gibson is also at his finest here, in my opinion, and equally impressive as in his novel.

Rating:
Summary: Hmm....
Review: I couldn't get into the stories or the characters....

I like short stories and novellas, and was hoping for something in the vein of Ray Bradbury or Stephen King...or Robert Heinlein...

...I found none of that in Gibson's "Burning Chrome"...

Rating:
Summary: Why did I wait this long?
Review: I've had this book sitting on my bookshelf for over 10 years. Now I have to wonder why I waited so long to read it! I guess maybe I had Gibson locked into my images of cyberspace, Shadowrun, the Matrix, and so on. The short stories in this book showed me that he has much more range that that.

I can see where his writing style could be off-putting to some. Tech terms abound, and you don't come away from most of the stories feeling good about life. On the plus side, when I let myself get into the story, Gibson's words took me into his world like few authors ever have. Definately an excellent read, and I'm glad I started with this book.



Rating:
Summary: Technodrivel
Review: Rarely if ever do I feel the need to put a book away before i even get through half of it. This was ridiculous

Rating:
Summary: Too short.
Review: All of the stories in this brief collection were astounding. Never very involved with hard science, opting more for dark, intense noir shaded by futuristic technology, Gibson creates a variety of worlds that amaze you with their detail and imagery. He is one of the few writers who approaches science-fiction this way, giving his reader a view of society from the ground up. He doesn't try that often to explain why things have happened, or why the world is a certain way; instead he drops you into his stories and forces you to come to terms with his reality.
The Sprawl series, prefacing his first three novels (Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive) are the clearest standouts in this collection, even though I thought "Johnny Mnemonic" tried to do too much in too little space. "New Rose Hotel" and "Burning Chrome" are absolute classics of cyberpunk, moreso than most books that find their way into the genre.
"The Gernsback Continuum" is uncommonly lighthearted for Gibson, and whether or not you believe Bruce Sterling's comments in the introduction, it's a great story. It's barely science fiction, but since the "cyberpunk" label was invented after Gibson's debut, this isn't surprising.
Gibson's collaboration with John Shirley, "The Belonging Kind", is also incredible. It's interesting to try to figure out each writer's influence. Like the previous story, it's more surreal than scientific.
"Fragments of a Hologram Rose" and "The Winter Market" are fantastic stories that combine complex plots, characters, and romance with vivid near-future settings. These are some of the most powerful statements of the effects of technology on humanity in any field of literature.
All of these are intense stories; the only real problem is there aren't more of them. It saddens me that Gibson slowed down his writing after "Neuromancer" - the sequels never measured up to the original, and his later books were like diluted versions of his earlier work.

Rating:
Summary: I can't believe all the positive reviews
Review: Look I know this book has a new cover, well it's had a few, the one I read had a different cover to the old mass market paperback too. The point is even with a new cover this book is still terrible. I had to read this for a university subject called New Technology Studies and let me tell you I wasn't alone in thinking this was bad. The online forum for that subject was the complete opposite of amazons reviews, only a few people had positive things to say about this book. I wondered why at first amazon reviewers would give this so many stars. Is this because you can't get decent literature in the USA. I think not, there's heaps of quality stuff on Amazon. Then I started to read the comments and worked it out.

Most positive reviews are reviewing the author not the book. Maybe Gibson is great, maybe Neuromancer is a great novel, I don't know, but that has nothing to do with the qualitiy of this collection of short stories. You're supposed to review the book the page is about so people thinking of purchasing know if they should or not. It's not a Gibson fan club chat page.

This is a terrible book. The stories don't flow and in some cases don't even make sense. If Gibson has learnt to write brilliantly by the time he wrote Neuromancer he certainlty hadn't when he wrote this. If you think these stories are great you are in for a huge treat when you expand your reading to other authors.

I have read other books in university subjects which have been excellent such as Maxx Barry's Syrup which is a must for any Marketing or business student. I notice someone else recommended his novel Jennifer Government in their Amazon review which was allright, I didn't think it was that great compared to Syrup but it is a lot better than Burning Chrome. Well anything is.