Digital Dreams

by David V. Barrett (Editor), Garry Kilworth (Contributor), Ben Jeapes (Contributor)

You can't escape from computers. Staring-eyed hacker, programmer, executive, secretary, scientist or student - casual user or techno-freak, you use them...

...or they use you. Even if you've done no more than buy a bar-coded tin of baked beans or queued in the rain at a cashpoint.

Your life is on their files. Soon you'll be having Digital Dreams.

Comprising:

Bronze Casket for a Mummified Shrew-Mouse by Garry Kilworth
Digital Cats Come Out Tonight by Ben Jeapes
What Happened at Cambridge IV by David Langford
The World of the Silver Writer by Anne Gay
Forgotten Milestones in Computing No. 7: The Quenderghast Bullian Algebraic Calculator by Alex Stewart
# ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time" by Terry Pratchett
The Great Brain Legend by Josephine Saxton
The Reconstruction of Mingus by Phil Manchester
Twister of Words by Michael Fearn
The Mechanical Art by Andy Sawyer
Last Came Assimilation by Storm Constantine
Virus by Neil Gaiman
Measured Perspective by Keith Roberts
Where He Went by Paul Kincaid
The Coleridge Bombers by Paul Beardsley
Dependant by David V. Barrett
Nad and Dad adn Quaffy by Diana Wynne Jones
The Machine It Was That Cried by John Grant
The Lord of the Files by Ray Girvan and Steve Jones
Speaking in Tongues by Ian McDonald

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies

347 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Ketan Shah · Rating 2 out of 5]

A largely lacklustre series of stories with one or two passable ones. From Terry Pratchett and John Grant. The rest were largely gimmicky and forgettable. A bit of a slog to get through

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit of a historical curiosity now, seeing how some of the best of British Science Fiction and Fantasy writers handled emerging computer proliferation in 1990. None of the stories are break out hits or exemplary for the authors but none are awful either. A reasonable middling collection full of great names.

[Andy]

1ST EDITION. COLLECTION OF STORIES BY BRITISH AUTHORS INCLUDING ONE BY TERRY PRATCHETT

[Earl Truss · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that most of the stories were mediocre at best. Some I didn't even get the ending. The one I thought stood out was "The Machine It Was That Cried".