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A review by grogu_djarin
Burning Chrome by William Gibson
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Overall Thoughts:
It's hard to rate this collection since some short stories I enjoyed more than others. Johnny Mnemonic, The Belonging Kind, Hinterlands, The Winter Market, and Burning Chrome were the better ones while the other half were more forgettable. Overall it's a somewhat challenging read, there is a lot of technobabble thrown at you and it takes a while to get used to terminology and Gibson doesn't hold your hand at all. He treats terms as if they're things you should already know, with the meaning inferred by subsequent paragraphs or pages. While this helps create an immersive world, it also pulls you out of it slightly. That said, the stories themselves are fairly brief and so you can get through the less enjoyable ones quicker and each one brings something different.
It's hard to rate this collection since some short stories I enjoyed more than others. Johnny Mnemonic, The Belonging Kind, Hinterlands, The Winter Market, and Burning Chrome were the better ones while the other half were more forgettable. Overall it's a somewhat challenging read, there is a lot of technobabble thrown at you and it takes a while to get used to terminology and Gibson doesn't hold your hand at all. He treats terms as if they're things you should already know, with the meaning inferred by subsequent paragraphs or pages. While this helps create an immersive world, it also pulls you out of it slightly. That said, the stories themselves are fairly brief and so you can get through the less enjoyable ones quicker and each one brings something different.
Likes:
- It was nice to read some of the foundational work in the cyberpunk genre, especially with how different stories played with the ideas in different ways.
- There is a range of stories, some more straight science-fiction, some more speculative, some dark, some tense, others eerie and mysterious, etc.
Dislikes:
- Gibson throws a lot of made up technobabble at you and in a longer novel this would be easier to follow, but by the time you start getting used to terminology the short stories are almost over.
- There's a lot of drug references that made some of the stories unrelatable to me.
Other Notes:
- Some stories have frequent references to real world brands or stores. While some still exist, others don't. Similarly, several stories directly reference the future of the USSR as a superpower despite its real world collapse. This makes some of the stories feel strangely dated despite the futuristic setting but the anachronisms have a certain charm and make the stories feel even more like an alternate Earth.
Would Recommend To:
- Anyone interested in science fiction, especially the cyberpunk genre and short stories.
Do Not Recommend To:
- Anyone who doesn't like science fiction or finds it difficult to read books with a lot of technobabble.