Award-winning author Charles Stross is one of today's most exciting and entertaining writers. This collection, Toast, brings together some of his best short stories originally published between 1989 and 2001, including his Hugo, Nebula, and Sturgeon Award nominated work "Lobsters", the first of his many near-future cyberpunk Accelerando stories. Bruce Sterling on speed? The imagination of Sterling squared? All of the glitz, glibly tossed-off newly invented, or hybrid tech-terms thrown at the reader like an info blizzard at hurricane force, but with more core storyline than in some of Sterling's "Deep Eddy" stories. Contents: * Introduction: After the Future Imploded (2002) • essay by Charles Stross * Antibodies (2000) / short story by Charles Stross * Bear Trap (2000) / novelette by Charles Stross * Extracts from the Club Diary (1998) / short story by Charles Stross * A Colder War (2000) / novelette by Charles Stross * TOAST: A Con Report (1998) / short story by Charles Stross * A Boy and His God (1997) / short story by Charles Stross * Ship of Fools (1995) / short story by Charles Stross * Dechlorinating the Moderator (1996) / short story by Charles Stross * Yellow Snow (1990) / short story by Charles Stross * Big Brother Iron (2002) / novelette by Charles Stross .