Good to see Shirley still producing cyberpunky stories. His The Kindest Man in Stormland in Interzone #249 a couple of years ago was a standout story. This isn’t quite up there, but still impresses.
It’s a near future, with climate change and economic ruin affecting us all. The story progresses through intercuts between Charlie Venter, a reluctant ‘weedkiller’ who is a state-authorised bounty hunter, who is tasked with culling a number of societal ‘undesirables; and Sharon de los Santos, an erstwhile programmer who is addicted to, and spending most of her life, in virtual reality computer games. As Charlie closes in on his targets, the two are brought together, and both get a resolution to their current situation and state of mind.
More from this issue here.
