US pbk (amazon.com) UK pbk (amazon.co.uk)

The Ultimate Cyberpunk edited by Pat Cadigan, (ibooks, 2002). Aldred Bester Fondly Fahrenheit Cordwainer Smith The Game of Rat and Dragon Philip K Dick We Can Remember It For You Wholesale James Tiptree Jr The Girl Who Was Plugged In Rudy Rucker The 57th Franz Kafka William Gibson Burning Chrome Greg Bear Blood Music Lewis Shiner Till Human Voices Wakes Us John Shirley Freezone William Gibson and Michael Swanwick Dogfight Bruce Sterling Green Days in Brunei Pat Cadigan Patterns Paul J McAuley Dr Luther's Assistant

A thick book called 'The Ultimate Cyberpunk', edited by the 'Queen of Cyberpunk' Pat Cadigan. It can't fail to hit the target, can it?

Having just read and reviewed Mirrorshades, the Bruce Sterling edited anthology from 1986, I noted that Sterling's book, almost 20 years on, benefits from an excellent introduction, but suffers slightly from the stories, in that Sterling chose not to put in some stories which were widely anthologised elsewhere. So this volume has the opportunity to provide a retrospective on cyberpunk, and to provide an 'ultimate' collection.

Cadigan's intro rather rains on the parade in taking issue with the word 'ultimate' in the title, pointing out that it is a publisher's whimsy, and that constraints of space mean that the volume can't be a definitive selection. And she owns up to not attempting to provide a definitive history, and, with the absence of any editorial intros to the stories in the collection, rather leads the reader wondering just what role she had in putting the anthology together.

So what of the stories?

Aldred Bester. Fondly Fahrenheit.
Originally in F&SF, August 1954.

Previously included in 'Robert Silverberg's Worlds of wonders', which was republished by ibooks as Robert Silverberg's 'Science Fiction 101' and which I reviewed here. In that review I said of this story:

From the outset you know that you are reading a thing of beauty created by a master. The rhythm of the story is in your face right from the start, and, as with the first story, you feel you have to check the date again - and yup, 1954.

Not that long after Asimov was writing his fairly ponderous robot stories, we have here something quite different. A dubious character and his android flee the scene of brutal murder after brutal murder. But the opening words set the scene: "He doesn't know which of us I am these days.."

A story which dizzies the reader as POV is changed (or not!), and the chilling, murderous refrain of 'All reet! All reet! Be fleet be fleet' sticks in the mind long after the story.