Review of 'Chasing Shadows: Visions of Our Coming Transparent World' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a collection of short stories and essays (mostly stories) so as usual with any collection the quality is varied. Some were excellent, others less so, but on the whole they're a good assortment of stories looking at the ways technology and privacy concerns may shape the way we live in the future. If you're familiar with Brin's "Transparent Society" then you have an idea of the kind of discussions happening in this book. It includes stories/essays by Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, William Gibson, and David Brin, which seems exciting, until you realize none of them are new. There ARE some new stories in the collection, but not from these four that I consider the "big names" and especially in the case of David Brin that's pretty disappointing since he PRESENTS this collection. Couldn't even be bothered to write something new for it? (Brin's short story, "Insistence of Vision", …
This is a collection of short stories and essays (mostly stories) so as usual with any collection the quality is varied. Some were excellent, others less so, but on the whole they're a good assortment of stories looking at the ways technology and privacy concerns may shape the way we live in the future. If you're familiar with Brin's "Transparent Society" then you have an idea of the kind of discussions happening in this book. It includes stories/essays by Neal Stephenson, Vernor Vinge, William Gibson, and David Brin, which seems exciting, until you realize none of them are new. There ARE some new stories in the collection, but not from these four that I consider the "big names" and especially in the case of David Brin that's pretty disappointing since he PRESENTS this collection. Couldn't even be bothered to write something new for it? (Brin's short story, "Insistence of Vision", was originally published in 2013 and I strongly suspect is the basis for one of the season 2 episode of Black Mirror called "White Christmas".) So ... interesting stories, and if you don't follow these authors closely you may not have already read their included works, but if you do already follow this type of fiction closely you will already have read a fair part of this book.
