Mirrorshades

I tracked this collection down because I was interested in Cyberpunk beyond William Gibson. There are a couple of Gibson stories that I already had read in his Burning Chrome collection, “Gernsback Continuum” which is one of my favorites, and “Red Star, Winter Orbit.”

The best new (to me) story in this collection was “Petra” by Greg Bear which isn't a Cyberpunk story at all. It's a Weird Fiction apocalypse where reality and rationality break down. Dreams and nightmares become real. Stone statues and gargoyles come to life and buildings become trees, etc. A new world order develops among the new half-stone and half-gargoyle beings. Very imaginative and compelling.

One I liked that was a bit more Cyberpunk in nature was “Stone Lives” by Paul Di Filippo, about a blind man from the slums who is chosen to receive eye implants and an unusual job. It reminds me a lot of all those Gibson stories where a poor underdog gets involved in a mystery and is exposed to how the other half lives.

The most humorous tale is “Mozart in Mirrorshades'' by Bruce Sterling and Lewis Shiner. An unscrupulous company robs, corrupts, and exploits alternate timelines of resources like oil, art, and Mozart for example. I've seen things like this done before in films and other books but this little story was funny and well done.

The other stories were fair to good but it was worth my time to explore a few more authors from the genre.

A very good book, these people can really write.

Of all the stories, I especially enjoyed "Petra", "Stone Lives", and "Red Star, Winter Orbit". The other stories were fine. I typically think anthologies are helpful for getting an idea of whether one wants to read more of a particular author's work. Interestingly, I enjoyed William Gibson's contributions in this anthology far more than his other works. In the co-authored "Red Star, Winter Orbit", I finally found the Gibson I've been wanting to read.

The blurbs before each story are well done and I walked away wanting to read more from Greg Bear and Paul Di Filippo.

The stories range in length from ~30 pages to 110+ (the first "Freezone" piece).

I am quick to DNF books I don't enjoy. I considered marking this DNF: the stories I liked weren't enough to make the entire anthology compelling reading. Ultimately, I read it all because it's on my r/fantasy bingo card and I have just over a week to go.

This anthology starts with yet another clumsy Gibson story... (sorry, I know he's a God to some people, but I find his writing style boring). Thankfully, the second story, “Snake-Eyes” by Tom Maddox, was very interesting and grabbed me in with its used-up war vet who got an AI stuck in his head.
Some of my other favorites were:
“Solstice” by James Patrick Kelly – I think this was my favorite of them all. Drugartist and a dude who is in love with himself.
“Freezone” by John Shirley – The main character reminded me of Johnny Silverhand from CP2077. I plan on reading the book series this was an excerpt from.
“Stone Lives” by Paul Di Filippo – The tech and the dystopian corpo world is always an excellent depressing time.
“Mozart in Mirrorshades” by Bruce Sterling/Lewis Shiner – I love a good alt-history story.
The rest were okay, and some didn't seem to be cyberpunk at all.


Rock On by Pat Cadigan — DNF
Tales of Houdini by Rudy Rucker - why was this story included...
400 Boys by Marc Laidlaw – Interesting enough. It felt more “punk” than cyber. I liked it though.
Petra by Greg Bear – I don't remember much from this one. Take that as you will
Till Human Voices Wake Us by Lewis Shiner – I thought this one was fairly humorous. It was enjoyable and kept my attention. Not very “punk” though.
Red Star, Winter Orbit by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling – Despite Gibson being involved, Sterling helps make this book interesting enough that I wanted to keep reading. However, Gibson's clumsiness does show off from time to time.

Very hit and miss.

For every seminal work ala ‘The Gernsback Continuum' or the aggressively imaginative powerfictions of ‘Solstice' and ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades' there are piles of forgettable poorly written copycats that are properly relegated to banal obscurity.

Fun read though, probably a great choice for a book-club who wants to hate-read some corny cyberpunk.