Hands down for me, "The Winter Market". The familar industrial wastelands. The technical guy stumbling upon success. The underlying despair and weariness. The ghost-in-the-machine. The recurring idea of dream recording (I'd become addicted in nothing flat to that). The exoskeletal character's dance-like movements (well, those I've seen in my mind; and she could very well be the proto image for so many anime characters). The open finale. "But sometimes I like to watch".

My favorite short-story (perhaps my favorite story of all), actually isn't written by Gibson. It's called "Repent Harlequin said the Ticktockman." It's by a little fella named Harlan Ellison, who (unfortunately) belongs to that whole "Kick Piracy" movement.

Gibson-
The Belonging Kind

Non-Gibson-
Before the Law, Kafka
Dreams in the Witchhouse, Lovecraft
If Sharks Were People, Brecht

I liked almost everything from Burning Chrome (the compilation) but Dogfight springs to mind first. I typically don't enjoy tragedies that much but something about this one keeps me reading it again and again even though I know the ending will leave me feeling kinda depressed...

expedition team crashes down on a planet and later finds out that it is inhabiting an intergalactical zoo.

I cannot remember the title nor the author and I am not able (or too lazy) to locate the book (any hint?).

Though not Gibsonian.

Yes, and there were these Galloway Gallagher stories

erm - when I was younger,

CC.

All that we C or Scheme is but ...

> Hands down for me, "The Winter Market".

I agree. That bit about "You're the kind who always reads the handbook" has stuck with me over the years... I guess I can sort of relate to the protagonist, which is always a plus as far as favourite stories are concerned (as opposed to a "best" short story, which would be a whole other kettle of fish).

It's the evocative details; the "spavined truck-thing" and the greasy samosas and poisonous espresso for breakfast.

"The Winter Market" is for me an easy number one. It's the story I *always* go back to when I start wondering what a perfect short story should be like. The technology is pervasive and essential, but never intrusive and Lise is the penultimate "Mystery Girl" that we've all briefly encountered or heard about. The story reads very passionately and very real with an insightful yet flawed narrator.

But the other short stories in "Burning Chrome" are equally worthy of mention.

Recently re-read "Hinterlands" and was struck by how "Anti-SF" it almost seems in that the forces at work there are so incomprehensibly cosmic that humanity is forced to only worry about how it can profit from the anamoly. Brilliant stuff.

"Dog Fight" is also just an elegant, vicious piece of writing that leaves you feeling very thoughtful about what it is to have ambition and hope and be willing to burn anyone that gets in the way of it, without full appreciation of the consequences.

And of course, "Burning Chrome" itself, which more or less solidified the foundations for the entire "Sprawl" series. That, for me, is where it all came together; the Cyberspace, the hacker ethos, the trademark writing, characterization and "tech portrayal" that was going to put Gibson on the map... it's amazing to kind of look at that story (And "Johnny Mnemonic," "New Rose Hotel"...) and see what came of it.

Gibson, whether alone or in collaboration, writes startlingly good short fiction, and while I respect that he doesn't really want to dabble in it much anymore, it's still a bit of a shame. His bite versions of his writing are often the quickest way to punch someone in the literary nose, and I always dig out a copy of "Burning Chrome" as prep work whenever I start my WG conversion process on a new initiate...

--Shoeless Wayne Santos, Stranded in Singapore