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Infinite Detail #1.5
Ghost Hardware: Three Infinite Detail Stories
Three short stories set in the near-future dystopia of Infinite Detail, The Guardian's Pick for Best Science Fiction Book of 2019.
After an act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the internet, causing global trade, travel, and communication to collapse and modern luxuries to become scarce, life in the Croft and beyond... carries on.
In “Ghost Hardware,” we meet Anika, an artist who uses VR to uncover layers of street art in pursuit of the work of another elusive artist. In a desolate future, she is chasing the past. “Limited Edition” takes us to a time before the crash to introduce us to Grids, College, and Melody - a tight-knit, sneaker-obsessed South Bristol crew. When a new pair of limited-edition trainers drops, they won't let a little thing like being broke get in their way - even if they have to do some VR hacking to pull off an IRL heist. And in the pre-internet-crash world of “Gulls” we meet Mary, who lives in the Tip, where Gulls like her dig through landfills in search of treasure. But Mary wants out. And the strange, glowing pair of glasses she found in a dead man’s jacket pocket just might be her ticket.
Expanding on Tim Maughan’s vision of a world disconnected in Infinite Detail, the stories in Ghost Hardware give a closer look at the End of the Internet, the End of the World as We Know It.
After an act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the internet, causing global trade, travel, and communication to collapse and modern luxuries to become scarce, life in the Croft and beyond... carries on.
In “Ghost Hardware,” we meet Anika, an artist who uses VR to uncover layers of street art in pursuit of the work of another elusive artist. In a desolate future, she is chasing the past. “Limited Edition” takes us to a time before the crash to introduce us to Grids, College, and Melody - a tight-knit, sneaker-obsessed South Bristol crew. When a new pair of limited-edition trainers drops, they won't let a little thing like being broke get in their way - even if they have to do some VR hacking to pull off an IRL heist. And in the pre-internet-crash world of “Gulls” we meet Mary, who lives in the Tip, where Gulls like her dig through landfills in search of treasure. But Mary wants out. And the strange, glowing pair of glasses she found in a dead man’s jacket pocket just might be her ticket.
Expanding on Tim Maughan’s vision of a world disconnected in Infinite Detail, the stories in Ghost Hardware give a closer look at the End of the Internet, the End of the World as We Know It.
65 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 5, 2020
43 people are currently reading
238 people want to read
About the author
Tim Maughan
22 books187 followersTim Maughan is an author and journalist using both fiction and non-fiction to explore issues around cities, class, culture, technology, and the future. His work regularly appears on the BBC, New Scientist, and Vice/Motherboard. His debut novel INFINITE DETAIL will be published by FSG in 2019. He also collaborates with artists and filmmakers, and has had work shown at the V&A, Columbia School of Architecture, the Vienna Biennale, and on Channel 4. He currently lives in Canada.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 1, 2024
Infinite fucking detail
I've read two of these already, in an excellent, defunct electronic magazine that I probably can't read the issues of anymore. Figures.
Dark, streetwise, character-driven but tech-centred, cyberpunk for the coming world. Infinite detail indeed.
I've read two of these already, in an excellent, defunct electronic magazine that I probably can't read the issues of anymore. Figures.
Dark, streetwise, character-driven but tech-centred, cyberpunk for the coming world. Infinite detail indeed.
August 8, 2020
Though these stories didnt grab me as much as Infinite Detail did, it was nice to revisit some of its main characters. And as in Infinite Detail I was really interested in the speculations on AR.
May 5, 2020
Three awesome short stories, pitched as fan service after Infinite Detail, with "infinite f***ing detail" as the repeated motif, as were the Gibson references: there rent-a-cop turns into a rent-a-fed with Gregg's sausage rolls, the rubbish tip has "strange of compacted ethylene monomers", and indeed that whole third story can be read as a re-telling of three opening of Virtual Light in Maughan's Bristolian universe (in which container shipping is the intersection with Gibson's).
My favorite, though, was the middle one. All the expected features - AR, gaming, music - but with a twist reflecting on rampant consumerism, which set up the last story perfectly.
My favorite, though, was the middle one. All the expected features - AR, gaming, music - but with a twist reflecting on rampant consumerism, which set up the last story perfectly.
November 16, 2020
Three nice short kind-of-origin stories (of Anika, Grids and Mary) set in the same world timeline as Infinite Detail. If you haven't (yet) read Infinite detail, imho you would still enjoy these stories.
May 29, 2021
A nice trio of stories set in the world of Maughan's Infinite Detail world. While they seem like they could stand on their own, I'm not sure how much somebody would enjoy them without reading Infinite Detail. Ghost Hardware and Limited Hardware both are cool takes on near-future technology while Gulls is more of a pure backstory about a character from Infinite Detail.
August 19, 2024
Interesting little semi-origin stories for three of the characters in Infinite Detail. I would probably not recommend this to anyone who hasn't read that book, BUT I'll recommend Infinite Detail to anyone who will listen.
May 8, 2020
3.5 stars
Infinite fucking detail.
Infinite fucking detail.
June 26, 2020
Fun if you like the novel
Three short glimpses into the Britain of Maughans mind, expanding and revisiting themes from Infinite Detail. Great to get the mind going between other books or summer activities.
Three short glimpses into the Britain of Maughans mind, expanding and revisiting themes from Infinite Detail. Great to get the mind going between other books or summer activities.
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May 19, 2020More! ;o)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews