General disclaimer up top – I was given access to an e-copy of this book from the editor, and we are generally internet friends. However, all opinions expressed in this review are my own, and I am notoriously bad at finishing books I don’t like.
Cyberpunk always seemed to me to be a flashy but ultimately passé genre. A curiosity I intended to indulge some day, but not a genre I’d seriously engage with. I’d not read any of the luminaries, perhaps because of my aversion to the stereotypical aesthetics of cyberpunk (shades, arrogant hackers with silly nicknames, noir neon cityscapes). So I approached The Big Book of Cyberpunk, edited by Jared Shurin, with trepidation – a 100+ story, 1000+ page monster of a book. Surprisingly, I devoured it, coming back for story after story until none were left.
The Big Book of Cyberpunk is an anthology that attempts to encompass all aspects of the sub-genre, and does a bloody good job of it, fielding early precursors, classic staples and more modern takes on the genre. Authors chosen go beyond the stereotypical old white men (although those talented authors still grace these pages) to a diverse range of authors, including many stories originally published in other languages. And many of these stories push the envelope of traditional cyberpunk, varying in tone and aesthetic but ultimately featuring the same themes, along with a delicious undercurrent of rebellion that suffuses every tale in this anthology (keeping the punk in cyberpunk).
The stories are mostly split into five sections – Self, Society, Culture, Challenge and Post-Cyberpunk. Each section then begins with a “pre-cyberpunk” story before going chronologically through the picks in that section, building up to stories published in the last few years. As is expected with anthologies, not every story is a hit (accounting for each reader’s personal preference is impossible) but there was only one I found myself unable to finish, and beyond that the general low bar was set pretty high. The peaks were high indeed, with a good amount of the stories causing me to immediately look up the author and their other works once I was done.
Jared does a good job of pitching his interpretation of cyberpunk, with a lengthy introduction outlining the criteria behind his choices – and each section also has its own introduction which briefly outlines how each story fits within the theme. (For a taste of Jared’s views on cyberpunk, check out his blog post debunking the common myths around cyberpunk fiction).
It’s quite hard to pick out standout stories in such a large collection, but I thought the stories by Lavanya Lakshminaraya, James Tiptree Jr., Aleš Kot, qntm, Lavie Tidhar, Bruce Bethke, Greg Egan, Paul J. McAuley, Minister Faust, Yun Ko-eun, Arthur Liu, E. Lily Yu, Nancy Kress, Steve Beard, Corey J. White, Erica Satifka, Sam J. Millar, E. J. Swift, Beth Cato, Eileen Gunn, Victor Pelevin, Brandon O’Brien, Rudy Rucker, Nisi Shawl, Bruce Sterling, Janelle Monae/Alaya Dawn Johnson, K. C. Alexander, and Saad Hossein were all really special in their own ways. This anthology really runs the full gamut of emotion, and there’s a lot of stories here that made me think about elements of the world differently.
It’s a special thing to read a book that inspires you to engage with an entire genre or sub-genre. The Big Book of Cyberpunk was to me a revelation, a showcase of what I’ve been missing, a suggestion that maybe I’m a cyberpunk guy now (or have I been all along?). Well worth a read for fans of the genre, those who’ve barely touched upon it and most people in between.
Really enjoyed this collection. Exhaustive and quite complete.
AI-written stories? Nope.
What stories in this anthology are you suggesting were AI written? The vast majority were written five years or more ago, and I don’t recall any mention of any of the other stories being written with the assistance of ai, although it’s certainly possible one or two might have been, in this collection of over a hundred.
I’m not a fan of the idea of AI written fiction, but if there’s a place for experimenting with it in a non-exploitative way, Cyberpunk is certainly it.
A few AI-written stories are included at the end, according to the only 3-star review on ‘good reads’. Saw this stated somewhere else as well, also some of the human-written stories were originally on reddit.
Thank you for clarifying what you mean and where you got your information from.
As for the stories originally on Reddit – short story anthologies and collections usually republish stories (paying for the right to do so) that were and even are currently available elsewhere. Especially so for books purporting to be ‘The Big Book of X’. The collecting together of these stories into one package/place is valuable in itself, and the hands of a skilled and insightful editor in this case gives colour and background to where the stories fit into the genre.
Usually reprinted stories have been gone through a formal editorial process whereas the reddit stories haven’t. Really hate this anyone can do it self-publishing thing we have now. Disappointing that comments are being deleted.
I can still see all the comments you’ve posted, so unless you’ve tried to post something else that is considerably more inflammatory, you need to stop spreading nonsense.
Obviously you have a bee in your bonnet, but I’ve done enough to make sure this review and the book being reviewed isn’t going to be sullied because someone who hasn’t even read it decided it was bad for nebulous reasons.
Apologies, I had a comment similar to my previous disappear and then could only post using a different device, perhaps some sort of technical hitch. Regarding the book, it is true I haven’t read it, much as people who haven’t read the book but have read your review may form a positive opinion of the book, and subsequently buy it. However, I think that some people may not wish to buy a book which has even a small number of AI-generated stories(what does it say about literature’s meaning if an AI can produce stories as good as or better than a human author?), and even fewer amateur stories from reddit, on the grounds that when one buys a book one assumes its contents are from professional authors. For me it would be a little like buying a big book of British poetry featuring poems from execrable instagram poet Atticus, and poems from a random person’s reddit post, alongside genuine poets such as Milton, Wordsworth etc. That said, I do intend to buy the book, as it appears to contain mostly professional authors, and frankly the UK 2 volume edition is very attractive in appearance.
I think that having ai written stories in a cyberpunk anthology is actually a genius choice. Very thematic