Burning Chrome
by William Gibson · first published 1986
40% recommend58% neutral2% critical
Why HN recommends it
Gibson's early cyberpunk short stories, with dense prose, sharp ideas and a hard, angry edge. Many call it his best work, even over Neuromancer, and a good entry point for fans of hacker and retrofuturist fiction.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Burning Chrome collects Gibson's early short fiction from the late 70's and early 80's. Contents: Preface / by Bruce Sterling -- Johnny Mnemonic -- The Gernsback continuum -- Fragments of a hologram rose -- The belonging kind / by John Shirley and William Gibson -- Hinterlands -- Red star, winter orbit / by Bruce Sterling and William Gibson -- New Rose Hotel -- The winter market -- Dogfight / by Michael Swanwick and William Gibson -- Burning chrome.
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…(http://www.amazon.com/American-Essays-Charles-B-Shaw/dp/B000...). If you enjoyed the books on Steve Jobs, you might enjoy "The new new thing" by Lewis (on the founder of SGI and Netscape). I don't know if you've read any William Gibson, if not, at least read "Burning Chrome" (and everything else he's ever written ;-). Finally, you should read "The Code Book" by Singh.
on “My Summer Reading List” ↗…stands alone. P.S. Gibson and Stephenson. Gibson's Neuromancer and the two subsequent; after that, I couldn't continue (so, another "Card-esque" experience?). Also Gibson's collected short stories, Burning Chrome. I've quite enjoyed several Stephenson novels -- I guess they might tend to be his "older" ones. I tried The Baroque Cycle and could not stay with it.
on “R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, Author of Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles ” ↗The trilogy of Neuromancer, Burning Chrome, and Mona Lisa Overdrive is still my favorite work of fiction, and also, to my mind, exemplifies the kind of taut, awesome writing that I would want to do if I wrote novels. It the only series of 3 books…
on “Ask HN: What literature do you read?” ↗Yup. Read the Sprawl trilogy, the Bridge trilogy, and Burning Chrome, and you're done.
on “William Gibson’s Never-Filmed Aliens Sequel” ↗Gibson's excellent collection of short stories, 'Burning Chrome', contains a story called 'The Gernsback Continuum' which is very explicitly a retrofuturist work, I think. Maybe one of the best! In the first few paragraphs of the story he also uses the term 'raygun…
on “Retrofuturism” ↗…brilliant ideas play out rapidly. Check out “The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson”, “Stories of Your Life and Others” and “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang, “Pump Six and Other Stories” by Paolo Bacigalupi, and “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson.
on “Neal Stephenson – Announcing Termination Shock” ↗…Unfortunately, none of these developments were compatible with Windows. Finally, if you enjoy alternative history, you'd probably enjoy The Gernsback Continuum from William Gibson's book of short stories, Burning Chrome ( http://project.cyberpunk.ru/lib/burning_chrome/ ).
on “Internet Software Patents” ↗…Rider by John Brunner. Not the greatest book but it's about a hacker trying to change things for sure. And some of the details and concepts are exceptional. Best black-hat hacker short story goes to "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson (last story in the anthology of the same name).
on “Ask HN: Recommend any good business/hacker fiction?” ↗…(particularly, for me, The Next Generation), is now on or coming to Netflix P.S. And of course, William Gibson's Neuromancer and, was it the next one or the next two novels? His short story collection, "Burning Chrome", fits well into these two or three. And as for a certain pragmatic perspective on human psychology, behavior, and possible near term societal/political developments, the classic Heinlein ouvre, while…
on “The Tomorrow Project: science fiction commissioned by Intel” ↗…best is bracingly bleak. Cyberpunk was a marketing term for publishers and critics who couldn't get their heads around him. Early Gibson is pure punk. Even more than Neuromancer, read the stories in Burning Chrome for their hard, angry edge.
on “Snow Crash Revisited: Grokking a Satire of Mimesis” ↗The Burning Chrome collection by William Gibson is always worth a read. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burning_Chrome_(short_story_co...
on “Ask HN: What's a favorite short story of yours?” ↗Usually things I get inspiration from; Dream Park series William Gibson Stuff: Difference Engine, Burning Chrome, Neuromancer Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy Series Hackers - Steve Levy Graphic Idea Notebook & other pasteup era graphic design books Greetings from Route 66 Old Travel Guides Old Issues (50s-60s)…
on “Ask HN: Which books have you re-read the most?” ↗William Gibson's "Burning Chrome". (Provided the rough skeleton for the movie "Johnny Mnemonic".) Appears in a collection of Gibson stories also titled Burning Chrome.
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite (sort) sci-fi stories with twists?” ↗…the virtual dolphin from the movie Johnny Mnemonic The dolphin was named Jones not Flipper. And Jones was also a part of the short story that predated the film adaptation by several years. Check out "Burning Chrome," William Gibson's collection of short stories, for this and others. Well worth the read.
on “Feds want to ban the Flipper Zero – Experts say it's a scapegoat” ↗Interestingly, I'm actually a huge fan of Gibson's prose (reading Idoru rn, finished the Sprawl Trilogy and Burning Chrome last year), and even though I've been reading his stuff with the same neurological disorder I have now, I've never felt like I struggled to understand what he was saying.
on “Cormac McCarthy's Sideline: Freelance copy editor” ↗