“A collection of eight stories, Digital Extremities shines a spotlight on ordinary people in a callous yet hopeful future.”
Filled with equal parts heart and hurt, Digital Extremities is a Black Mirror-esque collection of eight cyberpunk sci-fi short stories that span decades, continents and many different minds. It’s thrilling yet quiet, hopeful yet cautionary, soothing yet gut wrenching, but most of all, it’s an extraordinary exploration of what it means to be human in a world that grows increasingly alien.
From my (admittedly limited) experience with the cyberpunk genre, I was fully expecting this collection to prioritise themes over character work, but the opposite couldn’t be more true. Bassett takes a very character-driven and almost slice-of-life approach to the storytelling in Digital Extremities, which gave each of these stories a strong emotional core that made them all the more impactful and engaging to me.
Right from the very first story, Alone / Together, I realised that Bassett was not afraid to mess with my emotions, and I was so here for it. Each story instantly pulled me in and offered different things to ponder and reflect on, and I really appreciated the brutally raw yet gently soothing exploration of themes of love, loss, fear, family, friendship, hope, sacrifice, humanity, transhumanism, and the dangers of progress.
Seeing how the world and technology progressed from the first story set in 2089 till the last story set in 2166 was both slightly terrifying and morbidly fascinating to me, especially through the eyes of so many different yet equallly relatable people with authentically diverse backgrounds and with the refreshing backdrop of such remote and small town environments. Moreover, I was pleasantly surprised by the subtle connectivity of these short stories, which brought Digital Extremities into an unexpectedly satisfying and cohesive whole.
For me, the stories Alone / Together, 36 Broadway Avenue, and Fireworks Above the Badlands packed the biggest punch, but I think different readers will resonate with different stories depending on their preferences and the baggage they bring into the reading experience. Some stories admittedly ended a bit abruptly and left me a bit wanting by the end, but at the same time I can appreciate that Bassett didn’t tie everything into a neat little bow and left so much room for interpretation. Real life, after all, doesn’t bother with satisfying closure and perfect conclusions.
Between Bassett’s emotionally engaging storytelling and the exceptionally immersive audiobook performance from Joe James and Aven Shore, I was truly hooked from start to finish. Even if you think you don’t enjoy short story collections or the sci-fi/cyberpunk genre, I would highly recommend Digital Extremities, because this is just human storytelling in all its most tragically beautiful messiness.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
