Stephen King says that a short story should be like a ‘kiss in the dark from a stranger’. It certainly fills that criteria. Most of the stories take place in The Sprawl - Gibson fans will recognise Molly Millions, The Gentleman Loser, Operation Screaming Fist and Tally Isham. But there’s more than a writer creating his fictional universe (most of the stories predate Neuromancer). But there’s such rich, dark, text here: ‘Red Star, Winter Orbit’ sees the first man on Mars deciding whether to come home to a show trial or stay in orbit. ‘Hinterlands’ is interstellar travel as solving humanity’s problems, whilst making it’s travellers either dead or insane. Perhaps the most startling is ‘The Belonging Kind’ - a Lovecraftian horror story about loneliness. Science Fiction is never about the future, it’s a projection of what we feel now. ‘Burning Chrome’ may be thirty-five years old, but is still ahead of it’s time.