Burning Chrome by William Gibson; 9/10

Go figure, this is actually the best book I have read by Gibson to date, in my opinion, and it is his collection of early short stories. The first and last of these stories, Johnny Mnemonic and Burning Chrome, formed the foundation for Gibson's most famous work, the Sprawl Trilogy, by creating some of the important characters, exploring the technology and society of the near-future, and creating the Sprawl itself. Burning Chrome also coined the term "cyberspace" and introduced it to a world of noobz in 1982.

Johnny Mnemonic is a story of a man carrying a very important data chip in his head, which places him at odds with Japanese mafia types. Meet Molly, the razorgirl assassin of Neuromancer, and the general world of the Sprawl, with its "blank, tv-set" sky! Burning Chrome, on the other hand, contains much of the hacker element that provides the other plot/technology half of the Sprawl trilogy. Between these two stories you have a young Gibson essentially plotting out the work in an experimental way that would define his career.

But wait, there's more! Those two stories aren't even the best ones here, if you ask me. My favorite was called Hinterlands. I won't spoil it except to say that it creates a space mystery of horrific degrees and proportions, and it boggled my mind. It is worthy of becoming a larger story (like a novel or a movie) if it is ever revisited, though much of its strength lies in what it leaves to the imagination.

The Belonging Kind, a story co-written with fellow Cyberpunk writer John Shirley, has a very Lovecraft-meets-cyberpunk feel to it, and had an excellent conclusion. Loved it. Dogfight was a marvelous story of emotionally damaged people having a heck of a time, a theme running through much of Gibson (and cyberpunk). Its protagonist is a fellow named Tiny Montgomery (Basement Tapes, anyone?). The Winter Market is an early exploration of mind-transfer and artificial immortality, a concept I personally find very intriguing (for more on which, see Altered Carbon).

All in all, a brilliant collection, which represents the very cradle of Cyberpunk. You'll have to have your thinking caps on, because these stories are complex and twisted and highly intelligent. But they are all the more rewarding for that. Johnny Mnemonic agrees: it's mindblowing!