Hackers

by Jack Dann (editor), Gardner Dozois (Editor)

In the tradition of Mirrorshades—stories from the virtual frontier…

A collection of short stories from the virtual frontier follows the exploits of the world's most notorious hackers and includes contributions from Greg Bear, William Gibson, Robert Silverberg, and Bruce Sterling. This wide-ranging collection of cyberspace tales, featuring the most cutting-edge writers in science fiction, goes beyond the stereotypes of computer rogues and delves into the true heart--and art--of hackerdom.

“Burning Chrome” by William Gibson
“Spirit of the Night” by Tom Maddox
“Blood Sisters” by Greg Egan
“Rock On” by Pat Cadigan
“The Pardoner’s Tale” by Robert Silverberg
“Living Will” by Alexander Jablokov
“Dogfight” by Michael Swanwick and Willia Gibson
“Our Neural Chernobyl” by Bruce Sterling
“(Learning about) Machine Sex” by Candas Jane Dorsey
“Conversations with Michael” by Daniel Marcus
“Gene Wars” by Paul J. McAuley
“Spew” by Neal Stephenson
“Tangents” by Greg Bear

At the publisher's request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management).

Genres: Cyberpunk, Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1996

Reviews

[Philipp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember when the Internet wasn't a scrutinized, surveillance-laden, SEO-borked content-marketed network of walled garden with more echo chambers than common sense? Remember when the Internet had promise?

From the time when connecting to the Internet meant that you had to listen to the 56k modem make its best impression of a rat being slowly crushed to death, back when computers where large uniform gray towers and still had Turbo buttons, back when the collective unconscious thought that going online meant navigating a 3D animation of towers, back from the 90s comes this collection of early to mid cyberpunk stories about hackers. There are some hackers in the "new" sense (someone who illegally accesses computers or databases), and some hackers in the "original" sense (someone who creatively bends any system to his/her own advantage).

Recommendations:
- The Pardoner's Tale, in which a hacker freely travels an earth subjugated under alien invaders
- (Learning about) Machine Sex, sex and power in an age where simulated sex is possible
- Spew, a prophetic tale about highly targeted advertising
- Tangents, in which a genius boy learns how to make contact with four-dimensional beings (lots of fun Flatland links)

Some famous names here like William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Greg Bear and Greg Egan, I've never read anything before by the others. I have to get more from Candas Jane Dorsey...

[Adam Goss · Rating 3 out of 5]

Anthologies, especially those by multiple authors, are almost always a mixed bag of good, bad, great and meh. As I worked my way through this one I was getting a sinking feeling of overwhelming meh, even halfway through, and though I was determined to finish the book I was growing more and more certain that I would not keep it.

I have just finished it moments ago and my opinion has been changed. For one thing, some of the stories I found underwhelming I have come to decide were very good after all. Not necessarily gems, but still quite good. I think I had initial bad feelings about them because they were not what I was expecting.

I expected the book to be a collection of sci fi stories about hackers doing, you know, typical computer hacking stuff, and not in any one single particular genre (i.e. it could have had stories about hacking via computers into fairyland, or a hacking superhero, or a hacker trying to stop WWIII, etc). I was not expecting strictly cyberpunk, which this book is (the authors' names should have been a big clue for me, but I was not familiar with them all and some of the ones I do know I don't associate with cyberpunk fiction), but that would have been fine too... except the stories were largely NOT what I would have normally considered to be cyberpunk.

In some of the tales the "hacking" is barely there at all, or it is there but its descriptions, terms and meanings were unclear or confusing to me (1 or 2 stories had endings that made little sense to me, one of them "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson - I had to read the synopsis on Wikipedia to understand what the heck was the point of the story's plot). But as I kept reading through the book I came to realize some of the stories were better than I had initially given credit for.

The second half of the book was more recognizable to me as cyberpunk, and it does contain two gems. One is by Bruce Sterling (of whom I have a less than flattering opinion, both of his writing and frankly his personality, but the story by him here, "Our Neural Chernobyl", was shockingly terrific), and the other is the last story of the book, "Tangents" by Greg Bear. For years I swore off Bear's work after his novel The Forge of God gave me actual nightmares. But I took a chance and WHOA this was a wonderful story! Not just a gem but a whopping big 100 karat diamond of a story.

So if you like cyberpunk, including cyberpunk that doesn't always necessarily focus on hardware, street hackers, drugs and weird futuristic slang, if you can handle some stories that deal with surprisingly tender subjects for the genre (Alzheimer's, medicine legality, and grief therapy, for examples), then I actually do recommend this book. If it struggled to impress me, then I imagine it will have even greater appeal to others more heavily into the genre.

[Bastian Greshake Tzovaras · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of cyberpunk short stories about hacking in the larger and narrower sense of the word. This means creatively using technology for ones own end just circumventing security measurements. And technology is goes from computer systems to genetics and biology.

Sure, there are 1 or 2 stories I didn't enjoy as much, but gems like The Pardoner's Tale, Tangent, (Learning About) Machine Sex and Living Will alone make it a worthwhile read.

[Jeremy Walton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Days of future passed
This book (published in 1996) appears to be currently out of print, but I went to some trouble to track down a copy because I was interested in the snapshot that it promised to offer of the state of SF and cyberpunk writing in the early 90's. This promise is, for the most part met, with a handy selection of stories focussed on the theme of hacking computers and biosystems. Naturally enough, it's a mixed bag, with the standout contributions being those of Robert Silverberg, Neal Stephenson and William Gibson. The latter is represented by the now-classic "Burning Chrome" (making its first appearance in an anthology here), which contains the first usage of the word "cyberspace", as well as the memorable aphorism "the street finds its own use for things".

The other tales are less ground-breaking, but they're all interesting for the contemporary vision they present of the technological future. That's also incidentally demonstrated in the editors' somewhat breathless but prescient introduction [p203] to a story which first appeared in Wired magazine: "in what may be a Sign of Things to Come, we read it online in Wired's Internet website, HotWired, and downloaded a copy of the story for use in this anthology without ever physically *touching* the issue of Wired magazine in which it originally appeared."

Originally reviewed 25 November 2009

[Bari · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is something so magical about sci fi written prior to the advent of the World Wide Web becoming so ubiquitous. The authors were able to explore a world in which we are all connected in some way without being corrupted by seeing what that has actually come to look like in the 21st century. Some of them predicted worlds very similar to ours, that seem almost like a warning for the path which we are walking.

[Adam Becker · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun collection from a star-studded roster of authors. Some great characters and some really fun ideas. I can always count on anything edited by Gardner Dozois to be of great quality.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection includes two stories that have left permanent impressions in my mind:
* Tangents, by Greg Bear
* Living Will, by Alexander Jablokov

[Askur · Rating 5 out of 5]

peak fiction

[Mills College Library]

Fiction H118 1996