Ascendancies
"Sterling (Visionary in Residence: Stories), the godfather of cyberpunk, demonstrates his full range, from far future to forgotten past, in this well-stocked career-spanning collection of his finest SF pieces. His blend of uncompromising realism and irrepressible optimism shows up wherever his protagonists do, whether working for a stranded alien in Crusader-era Palestine ("The Blemmye's Stratagem"), investigating a mock space journey inside the cavern left from a Chinese H-bomb test ("Taklamakan") or just hanging around (literally) in 2037 Chattanooga, fixing bikes and foiling a black ops agent out to protect her senile senator boss ("Bicycle Repairman")" -- B&N website Editorial Reviews (October 2007).