Altered States is a terrible cyberpunk anthology. I had to read it off and on with Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume 2 to offset how terrible it was. The writing was bland, elementary, undeveloped. There were two—maybe three—good stories in this collection: "Better Than Everything", "Meerga", and perhaps "Extra Credit". The rest ended stories without going anywhere ("Extremum", "Attention Whore"), treated its readers like idiots, or did nothing particularly interesting. A good idea is nothing if

I decided to read this collection because the first story is by C.J. Cherryh, an author I have been reading since DAW first published her work. Her story is predictably good. What surprised me is the quality of the other stories. I will be looking for additional work by several of the other authors. I am not familiar with cyberpunk, but whatever it is or isn't, these stories should appeal to any aficionado of science fiction.

There are a couple of standout stories that deserve way more than 3 stars (Meerga, The Electrified Ants), but most of the other stories simply aren't cyberpunk, or anything close to it.

There are some good stories in here. but they're not cyberpunk. Some aren't even Sci-fi. There's only 1 story that comes close to cyberpunk. Some of the stories are more like ghost stories influenced by science.There are some enjoyable tales, but if you're looking for cyberpunk, this isn't it.

A clear-cut case of false advertising – the majority of these stories are not even remotely cyberpunk. That said, some of them were enjoyable nevertheless.

I really wanted to like this anthology, but there were only about five or six "excellent" stories out of a collection containing seventeen stories. Also, some of these stories aren't actually cyberpunk. One was basically horror (The Walk) and another a highly sexual romance story (The Electrified Ants). My actual cumulative rating for the stories themselves is three stars, but I'm reducing the rating to two stars because of the book's editing, which I found to be severely lacking.Some stories, l...

I had looked forward to reading this volume, unfortunately it did not live up to expectations. In the main a re-print of previously published short stories, most of which refresh established (or worn out) themes, the volume is book-ended by two quite good ones from DJ Cherryh and Paul Levinson, with far less engaging ones filling up the intervening pages.An ok read, but not one that will stay in my mind for very long.

It's a mixed bag. There were some good stories by some old reliables -- CJ Cherryh, John Shirley, and William F Wu, notably. The contributions of Terry Faust and Jetse de Vries were very nice. Jorge's story was pretty good, and a few others weren't bad. But there were about five stories here that I thought had serious defects of plausibility -- as in, I accept the fantastic premise, but I can't accept that people would react to it in the way these characters do. It's a problem I see often from b...

While there are no really bad stories there are also none that top shelf. Several of the stories do not seem to be related to cyberpunk. In addition, most if not all are reprints.

What is Cyberpunk?What better way is there of getting your head around the genre, than to read an anthology by respected authors in the field? To have a variety of takes, rather than the one? This is a collection of previously published short stories and flash fiction.Here we have cyberwars, teen angst, the criminal underworld and domestic noir. For me, the nearest of future dystopia work the best: the nightmare of our current world, rather than a different world entirely. On the whole, the writ...

It was okAn anthology of tech based sci-fi stories. It didn't hit the cord for me. It wasn't bad but if wasn't great either. At least I managed to finish it.

Altered States is a testament to cyberpunk, speculative fiction. This anthology offers the reader seventeen possible views of a dystopic impersonal future. A gut wrenching anthology that pushes the reader to explore the boundaries of what the human mind is capable of coping. These stories, some many years old still resonate with the reader today as they lead one to ask what the basic social needs of humans are, and highlight all our basic fears of the future. As technology becomes more and more

Brainycat's 5 "B"s :blood: 4boobs: 2bombs: 4bondage: 1blasphemy: 3 Stars : 3.5 Bechdel Test : PASS Deggan's Rule : PASS (with a non-literal interpretation of the test that preserves the intention) Gay Bechdel Test : PASS Please note: I don't review to provide synopses, I review to share a purely visceral reaction to books and perhaps answer some of the questions I ask when I'm contemplating investing time and money into a book. To be honest, I'm not sure I'd call most of the include

A few really good stories here and a bunch of OK ones. Some of the stories weren't exactly cyberpunk, but what does cyberpunk mean these days, anyway?

I enjoyed the stories. They each made me think.

Great collectionThis has a good breadth from a variety of very good authors. This is a fun ride for the sci-fi enthusiast.

EnjoyableThere were a lot of great stories in here. Often I wished I could read a full length novel to give me more details about the setting. Sometimes it seemed like the story was part of a greater work, or could be. Its useful for me to find new authors to read.

Solid LineupEvery story was well done and engaging. Not a clunker in the bunch. The 5th star is for editing. I'm not sure why but spelling and punctuation can make or break a book for me. Well done

Altered States is an anthology containing a number of excellent science fiction stories. I was recommended this anthology by the good folks at the Cyberpunk Science Fiction and Culture. There's a number of great stories in this book with my favorite being "Meegra" while others aren't really great. Even so, it's good to have fiction which falls squarely into the genre. Too often, people try to write outside of the genre and attempt to pass themselves off as cyberpunk just because there's a bad co...

There were a few good stories in here ("Better Than Everything", "Cotner's Bot", "The Electrified Ants") but mostly pretty amateurish.