Burning Chrome by William Gibson Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Burning Chrome
Book Review: Ground-breaking book
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Book Review: I can't believe all the positive reviews
Summary: 1 Stars
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.
Book Review: Intro to cyberpunk
Summary: 4 Stars
This short story collection is a good introduction to Gibson and the cyberpunk genre which deals with technology and those using it in the near future. The book is inexpensive, the stories are short, what do you have to lose?Book Review: Like a cd
Summary: 4 Stars
Like a cd, where there are the tracks you really like and listen to over and over again among others that are just adequate, this book contains a few diamonds in the rough. It's been a while since I read it, so I don't remember the titles of the two stories I liked, but they both got me feeling and thinking hard.
One is about a lonely man who discoveres a new species of demi-humans while hanging out in a bar. It's freaky.
The other is about a space station whose sole mission is to comfort and welcome back astronauts from their extremely taxing trips through an alternate dimension.
These may sound like stupid themes, but Gibson really treats the subject matter well.
Book Review: Mixed Bag - Read for Atmosphere, not Characters
Summary: 4 Stars
How does one talk about a collection of short stories such as this? Simply, it is a mixed bag. Fortunately, if you know to read it for the atmosphere that he creates, both emotionally and as he talks about physical surroundings, you can become thoroughly engrossed. This much he keeps in common with the vast majority of his other works. If you are reading it however for character development, you will likely be disappointed.
It opens brilliantly enough with the short Johnny Mnemonic. Johnny introduces or reintroduces you to characters from his Cyberspace or Sprawl trilogy of novels. This is its strong suit. It leaves one wondering about how the characters stay so one-dimensional. Change, in this case, would be bad.
Throughout his middleworks, Fragments of a Hologram Rose, The Belonging Kind, etc, you are left with emotional points, but nothing truly wrenching. The only constant is the fact that when he describes a scene, he places so much detail into it that you can all but see it through the eyes of his characters. Yet again, typical of his style overall.
The closer, Burning Chrome, is early Gibson at his finest. Atmosphere, poetic verse written as prose, and emotional tension that grabs you. All in all, it is the fact that he can write a dystopian world that is so much a parallel of our own that we are forced to suspend disbelief just long enough to get lost in it. The beauty here is that you can cover this fine point over the course of a portion of a lunch hour.
One reads Burning Chrome as a collection, not to read about characters, but rather to experience parts of their world, and in the end, get glimpses of the visionary that was an early William Gibson. If you read for the characters you will be disappointed. If you read to experience a world defined as poetry hidden in lines of prose, you will find something pleasant, but far from perfect.