TAKLAMAKAN by Bruce Sterling

As far as I know, which is not much at all, “Taklamakan” is the third and final story in The Chattanooga Stories. I have enjoyed these stories immensely. They are the kinds of stories that I really want to write. My fiction seems so little in comparison. The Chattanooga Stories have such a cultural depth that I wonder why I’m not even more of a social critic than I already am.

Anyway, “Taklamakan” follows Spider Pete, a Shadowrun like punk techboy spy want-a-be. Spider Pete loves his toys. He has all the latest military grade stealth and spy gear needed to get in and get the picture. See, the Spiders are a street organization that use guerrilla like tactics to disrupt or document government functions, blunders, and secrets.

However, this particular mission Spider Pete is working with the military to uncover the truth about a strange valley. This valley has never seen humans. It is inhabited solely by robots. Or that is what it seems like at first look.

Spider Pete discovers that the valley, an industrial waste dumping yard, is also a cover up for strange kind of ethic relocation program designed and implemented by Sphere. Deep beneath the surface there are three enormous space ships. Each ship contains a specific ethnic minority that would not join the 21st century. Sphere had promised to send them into space in a desperate search for a new home. Instead, they were buried deep and forgotten.

There is a lot more to this story as there is to any Sterling adventure. My advice is finding them and read them. I can’t really do justice to The Chattanooga Stories here.

Enjoy!

Sterling, Bruce. “Taklamakan.” Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling. Burton: Subterranean Press, 2007. p 409 - 445