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"Burning Chrome" is a collection of short stories written by William Gibson. Three of the stories take place in Gibson's Sprawl, a shared setting for most of his early cyberpunk work. Many of the ideas and themes explored in the short stories were later revisited in Gibson's popular Sprawl trilogy.
The short story that gives the collection its name was first published in Omni in July 1982. Gibson first read the story at a science fiction convention in Denver, Colorado in the autumn of 1981, to an audience of four people, among them Bruce Sterling (who Gibson later said "completely got it").[1] It was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1983.[2]
Summary[]
IT WAS HOT, THE NIGHT WE BURNED CHROME.
Best known for his seminal SF novel Neuromancer, William Gibson is also a master of short fiction. Tautly-written and suspenseful, Burning Chrome collects 10 of his best short stories with a preface from Bruce Sterling, co-cyberpunk and editor of the seminal anthology Mirrorshades.
These brilliant, high-resolution stories show Gibson’s characters and intensely-realised worlds at their absolute best. Contains ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ (filmed starring Keanu Reeves) and the title story ‘Burning Chrome’, in which Gibson first coined the term ‘cyberspace’ – both nominated for the Nebula award – as well as the Hugo-and-Nebula-nominated stories ‘Dogfight’ and ‘The Winter Market’.
Plot[]
"Burning Chrome" tells the story of two freelance hackers who hack systems for profit. The two main characters are Bobby Quine who specializes in software and Automatic Jack whose field is hardware. A third character in the story is Rikki, a girl with whom Bobby becomes infatuated and for whom he wants to hit it big. Automatic Jack acquires a piece of Russian hacking software that is very sophisticated and hard to trace. The rest of the story unfolds with Bobby deciding to break into the system of a notorious and vicious criminal called Chrome, who handles money transfers for organized crime, and Automatic Jack reluctantly agreeing to help. The break-in is ultimately successful, but Rikki decides to leave the group and go to Hollywood, to the grief of Quine and Jack who have grown to love her.
Content[]
| Title | Co-author | Original publication date | Original publication |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Johnny Mnemonic" | May, 1981 | Omni | |
| "The Gernsback Continuum" | June, 1981 | Universe 11 | |
| "Fragments of a Hologram Rose" | June 21, 1977 | Unearth | |
| "The Belonging Kind" | John Shirley | 1981 | Shadows |
| "Hinterlands" | October, 1981 | Omni | |
| "Red Star, Winter Orbit" | Bruce Sterling | July, 1983 | |
| "New Rose Hotel" | July, 1984 | ||
| "The Winter Market" | November, 1985 | Vancouver Magazine | |
| "Dogfight" | Michael Swanwick | July, 1985 | Omni |
| "Burning Chrome" | July, 1982 |
Reception[]
Dave Langford reviewed Burning Chrome for White Dwarf #83, and stated that "this was a collection which had to appear—even if three collaborations and an over-arty first published story are needed to fill it out. They're strong, punchy tales which his glittering 'technosleaze' trademark: some are obvious precursors of the novels, and the fine title piece's hair-raising cyberspace jaunt is echoed all too closely in Neuromancer."[3]
J. Michael Caparula reviewed Burning Chrome in Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer No. 82. Caparula commented that "This is vital reading; harsh, gritty, complex, visionary."[4]
One line from this story — "...the street finds its own uses for things" — has become a widely-quoted aphorism for describing the sometimes unexpected uses to which users can put technologies (for example, hip-hop DJs' reinvention of the turntable, which transformed turntables from a medium of playback into one of production).
Trivia[]
- The word "cyberspace", coined by Gibson, was first used in this story, in reference to the "mass consensual hallucination" of computer networks.[5] The story was the first of Gibson's to be set in the Sprawl, and functioned as a conceptual prototype for Gibson's Sprawl trilogy of novels.[6]
- Bobby Quine is mentioned in Neuromancer as one of the mentors of the protagonist. The Finn, a recurring character in Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, makes his first appearance in this story as a minor figure. The events of the story are referenced in Count Zero, the second entry of the Sprawl trilogy.
- Gibson wrote a screenplay for a mooted film adaptation to be directed by Kathryn Bigelow, but the project did not come to fruition.[7]
References[]
- ↑ Mark Neale (director), William Gibson (subject) (2000). No Maps for These Territories (Documentary). Docurama.
- ↑ The Locus Index to SF Awards. Archived February 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Langford, Dave (November 1986). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf (83). Games Workshop: 8.
- ↑ Caparula, J. Michael (July–August 1988). "Book Reports". Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer (82). Diverse Talents, Incorporated: 47–48.
- ↑ Prucher, Jeff (2007). "cyberspace". Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Oxford University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-19-530567-8. OCLC 76074298.
- ↑ Wills, David (1995). Prosthesis. Stanford: Stanford University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-8047-2459-3.
- ↑ Gibson, William (May 1994). "William Gibson Interviewed by Giuseppe Salza" (Interview). Interviewed by Giuseppe Salza. Cannes. Archived from the original on 2011-10-11.