Rating: 
Summary: A central text of SF's most telling sub-genre
Review: A gorgeous collection bursting with imagination. Eerie extrapolation on biotechnology, space migration and other staple SF fixtures. "Mirrorshades'" stories handle the future in intimate detail. This is a great guide to some of the best writers working today--a telling indication, since "Mirrorshades" is over a decade old. Bruce Sterling's introductory essay is fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Basis Element
Review: Essentially, you can measure your susceptibility to cyberpunk by reading this book. I would say it's a *basis* for this sub-genre of science fiction.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as expected...
Review: Finishing this book, I get the feeling that the main features of cyberpunk are obscure plotting and flashy hi-tech terms. The only story that made any attempt at a straightforward plot was "The Gernsback Continuum". Unfortunately, it was the first story, and the book quickly dissolved into a mix of tenuous tales, the meanings of which are beyond me. I'm not sure what the editor was trying to say by using these stories to represent the "cyberpunk" field.In short, this one's going to the used bookstore.
Rating:
Summary: A good beginning for those interested in CP lit...
Review: Mirrorshades is a superb collection of works by some of the artists that set the foundation for what would become known as "cyberpunk" literature. (I do wonder why one or two of the stories are there, though.) Since its publication, other writers not included in the anthology have made great strides to further the sub-genre, so this is really just a good place to start. Another great read, though some these stories will overlap with it, is Gibson's Burning Chrome.
Rating:
Summary: A good beginning for those interested in CP lit...
Review: Mirrorshades is a superb collection of works by some of the artists that set the foundation for what would become known as "cyberpunk" literature. (I do wonder why one or two of the stories are there, though.) Since its publication, other writers not included in the anthology have made great strides to further the sub-genre, so this is really just a good place to start. Another great read, though some these stories will overlap with it, is Gibson's Burning Chrome.
Rating:
Summary: A necessary primer for understanding the "cyberpunk" genre..
Review: Mirrorshades offers a host of short stories that notonly give a good read but will acquaint you with the verybeginnings of the cyberpunk genre. Included is "Johnny Mnemonic", the short story story that was the inspiration for a somewhat disappointing film adaptation in 1995. The crowning jewel of the collection is "Mozart in Mirrorshades" by Sterling himself. Picture Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ("...call me Wolf, okay?") writing pop music, time travel to paralell universes, mongol warriors on Harleys, Thomas Jefferson catching the hypersonic VTOL to discuss oil drilling in Texas, and Marie Antoinette in a leopard skin bikini screaming for burritos and pizza... This while the Freemasons organize for guerrilla war in Europe to drive out the invaders from the 21st century. "Mirrorshades" is a must-have for anyone interested in science fiction written after 1979.
Rating: 
Summary: A decent anthology, yet highly politically motivated
Review: Now, I'm not saying that Mirrorshades was bad. Not only did it contain one of the most definitive PR essays on cyberpunk (Sterling's introduction) but it also conains some very good stories. On the other hand, it could have been much, much, MUCH better. Bruce Sterling, who edited Mirrorshades and similarly hand-picked the stories, clearly has his own agenda to the particular stories...at least, in some cases. Sterling assembled this almost as if it were an extension of his short-run newsletter, Cheap Truth (which he wrote under an assumed name of Omniveritas). In Cheap Truth, he attacked the existing science-fiction structure. He continues this trend in Mirrorshades. The clearest example would be his choice of Gibson short work. Of the possible short stories, he picked The Gernsback Continuum and Red Star, Winter Orbit. Gernsback Continuum is, simply, not cyberpunk. It is Gibson's attack on Gernsbackian science fiction (Hugo Gernsback was really to blame for the "fantastic" science-fiction which used amazing gadgetry and no actual ideas). Sterling's view of the Movement (cyberpunk lit) was to erase the old Gernsbackian sf and replace it with real life rather than daydreams, so he picked this story as Gibson's contribution. This is absurd. The definitive cyberpunk short story is Burning Chrome. It is clear that Sterling chose to further his own political ends as opposed to providing a good overview-the best of the best-of cyberpunk fiction. I could also have done without Sterling's final story, Mozart with Mirrorshades. This was, of course, an attempt to weave in the token item of the genre, the mirrored sunglasses. Sterling would have been much better off to include one of his Shaper-Mechanist stories, especially Spider Rose or Swarm. These stories are much better realized-and much more cyberpunk-than his choice. I would also have liked to see a more appropriate Rucker story...Rucker is great, but Tales of Houdini just wasn't appropriate. Still, there are some great stories in here. Cadigan, Shirley, Shiner, Bear, Maddox, and others all contribute great works. If anything, Mirrorshades should be a starting point; find authors you like here, and then read the really groundbreaking stuff by them; John Shirley's Eclipse trilogy, everything by Gibson, Bear's Blood Music, Cadigan's Synners, Mindplayers, and Tea from an Empty cup, Rucker's Software trilogy, Sterling's Schismatrix, Maddox's Halo, and so forth. However, if you want to simply read good cyberpunk short fiction, get the short story collections by the individual authors. As I said before, this is just a jumping-off point.
Rating:
Summary: A decent anthology, yet highly politically motivated
Review: Now, I'm not saying that Mirrorshades was bad. Not only did it contain one of the most definitive PR essays on cyberpunk (Sterling's introduction) but it also conains some very good stories. On the other hand, it could have been much, much, MUCH better. Bruce Sterling, who edited Mirrorshades and similarly hand-picked the stories, clearly has his own agenda to the particular stories...at least, in some cases. Sterling assembled this almost as if it were an extension of his short-run newsletter, Cheap Truth (which he wrote under an assumed name of Omniveritas). In Cheap Truth, he attacked the existing science-fiction structure. He continues this trend in Mirrorshades. The clearest example would be his choice of Gibson short work. Of the possible short stories, he picked The Gernsback Continuum and Red Star, Winter Orbit. Gernsback Continuum is, simply, not cyberpunk. It is Gibson's attack on Gernsbackian science fiction (Hugo Gernsback was really to blame for the "fantastic" science-fiction which used amazing gadgetry and no actual ideas). Sterling's view of the Movement (cyberpunk lit) was to erase the old Gernsbackian sf and replace it with real life rather than daydreams, so he picked this story as Gibson's contribution. This is absurd. The definitive cyberpunk short story is Burning Chrome. It is clear that Sterling chose to further his own political ends as opposed to providing a good overview-the best of the best-of cyberpunk fiction. I could also have done without Sterling's final story, Mozart with Mirrorshades. This was, of course, an attempt to weave in the token item of the genre, the mirrored sunglasses. Sterling would have been much better off to include one of his Shaper-Mechanist stories, especially Spider Rose or Swarm. These stories are much better realized-and much more cyberpunk-than his choice. I would also have liked to see a more appropriate Rucker story...Rucker is great, but Tales of Houdini just wasn't appropriate. Still, there are some great stories in here. Cadigan, Shirley, Shiner, Bear, Maddox, and others all contribute great works. If anything, Mirrorshades should be a starting point; find authors you like here, and then read the really groundbreaking stuff by them; John Shirley's Eclipse trilogy, everything by Gibson, Bear's Blood Music, Cadigan's Synners, Mindplayers, and Tea from an Empty cup, Rucker's Software trilogy, Sterling's Schismatrix, Maddox's Halo, and so forth. However, if you want to simply read good cyberpunk short fiction, get the short story collections by the individual authors. As I said before, this is just a jumping-off point.
Rating: 
Summary: A mixed bag, but still pretty good
Review: This book is a collection of cyberpunk stories assembled by Bruce Sterling. It is supposedly the definitive cyberpunk fiction collection. There are some really good stories in the book such as the Gernsback Continuum, Solstice, Freezone, Till Human Voices Wake Us, Stone Lives, and Mozart with Mirrorshades. These tales had advanced technological concepts and more importantly, good stories. The stories touched on gene engineering, time travel, cybernetics, and other popular cyberpunk themes. Some of the other stories were pretty interesting, but some just didn't seem to fit. For example, Tales of Houdini and Petra seemed out of place in this collection. Though they were both sci-fi tales, they didn't seem to be cyberpunk.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good collection
Review: This is a collection of short stories by authors associated with the "cyberpunk movement" within the science fiction field. I enjoyed the book overall, but I wouldn't necessarily call this a representation of cyberpunk. In fact, three of the stories to me (and more among others) absolutely do not qualify as such, and two of them actually seem to be more rooted in the fantasy field than anything else. However, it's a good read, definitely worth it for the stories by Willam Gibson, both solo and collaborative. Interestingly, my favorite was "Petra" by Greg Bear, which is one of the fantasies I referred to: a very original idea and superbly written. One final thing: if someone understands "Tales of Houdini", please contact me and explain. I just don't get it!
|
