From the author of Infinite Detail, The Guardian's Pick for Best Science Fiction Book of 2019!Three short stories set in the near-future dystopia of Infinite DetailAfter an act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the internet, causing global trade, travel, and communication to collapse and modern luxuries to become scarce, life in the Croft and beyond . . . carries on.In "Ghost Hardware," we meet Anika, an artist who uses VR to uncover layers of street art in pursuit of the work of another elusive artist. In a desolate future, she is chasing the past."Limited Edition" takes us to a time before the crash to introduce us to Grids, College, and Melody—a tight-knit, sneaker-obsessed South Bristol crew. When a new pair of limited-edition trainers drops, they won't let a little thing like being broke get in their way—even if they have to do some VR hacking to pull off an IRL...

A timely and uncanny portrait of a world in the wake of fake news, diminished privacy, and a total shutdown of the InternetBEFORE: In Bristol's center lies the Croft, a digital no-man's-land cut off from the surveillance, Big Data dependence, and corporate-sponsored, globally hegemonic aspirations that have overrun the rest of the world. Ten years in, it's become a center of creative counterculture. But it's fraying at the edges, radicalizing from inside. How will it fare when its chief architect, Rushdi Mannan, takes off to meet his boyfriend in New York City—now the apotheosis of the new techno-utopian global metropolis?AFTER: An act of anonymous cyberterrorism has permanently switched off the Internet. Global trade, travel, and communication have collapsed. The luxuries that characterized modern life are scarce. In the Croft, Mary—who has visions of people presumed dead—is sought out by grieving families seeking connections to lost...