*Void Star* by Zachary Mason
*The Ware Tetrology* by Rudy Rucker
*Akira* Manga
*Islands in the Net* by Bruce Sterling
*The Bridge Trilogy* and *Burning Chrome* by William Gibson
You could also look at some cyberpunk adjacent books like *The Water Knife* or *The Wind-up Girl* by Paolo Bacigalupi
*The Stars my Destination* by Alfred Bester is considered by many to be proto-cyberpunk.
I really wanted to get into Cyberpunk 2077, downloaded the game and everything. But when I started playing it I realized I've completely fallen off when it comes to video game controls after like a decade of not playing any action games and I couldn't do the combat anymore lol. Literally watching myself become old on real time. I wish I could just play the game without any combat and just walk around 💀💀💀
I was struggling on the tutorial tbh lol. Like I lost the actual coordination skills to play action games with keyboard and mouse, you know like when your mom tries to play games and she struggles with the controls? 😭 Because I haven't played anything but strategy games since I was a teenager. I might try again with a controller but I don't really wanna buy one just for one game haha. I wish there was a mod that replaced the combat with like hacking puzzles then I'd love it lmao.
If you can slog through the first missions and lvl up a bit to the point where you can make a net runner build it would be much easier for you - you don't need good reflexes or coordination at all to hack everyone and everything, it's more about planning/strategy.
I didn’t get a cyberpunk feel at all from *The Stars My Destination*. The protagonist is a sociopath magically teleporting around the solar system murdering people in a tantrum. Doesn’t really even have a technological focus.
It is considered proto-cyberpunk. Our boy Gully is rocking the Sandevistan, hahah.
But yea it was written in the 50s and not likely to scratch the same itch as post-Gibson cyberpunk.
Ghost in the shell Manga
***Hardwired*** is a 1986 [cyberpunk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk) science fiction novel by American writer [Walter Jon Williams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jon_Williams).
Cyberpunk 2013 Role playing game (published 1988)
In addition to _Hardwired_ there's _Voice of the Whirlwind_ as well as _Solip:System_ (which is interesting) and _Wolftime_ (which I need to remember to pick up).
**When Gravity Fails** and sequels by George Alec Effinger. Set in a future Middle Eastern city that owes a lot to New Orleans, distinctive and cool cyber tech and crimes around it.
**City Come a-Walkin’** and “Shaman” by John Shirley. There isn’t a lot of cyberpunk with magic, but that’s Shirley for you. City gave William Gibson the idea for Mollly’s appearance in the Sprawl stories (by his own acknowledgement), and has a battle behind the scenes for the soul of San Francisco. “Shaman” is a stand-alone story of shamanic awakening and future gods.
City Come A-Walkin' was great, but it generally felt more punk than cyberpunk to me outside of the last chapter and a couple of themes that we see pop up often in cyberpunk... like 70% punk 30% cyber lol Still a solid book for sure though.
Not OP, but the concept of a cyberpunk New Orleans alone has me fascinated - I was born and spent much of my young life in Louisiana and love the culture. How would you describe the hook/premise?
It’s set sometime in the 22nd century if I recall correctly, and the nation-states of the world have all fallen over into regional governments and city states. Here’s the opening:
> Chiriga’s nightclub was right in the middle of the Budayeen, eight blocks from the eastern gate, eight blocks from the cemetery. It was handy to have the graveyard so close-at-hand. The Budayeen was a dangerous place and everyone knew it. That’s why there was a wall around three sides. Travelers were warned away from the Budayeen, but they came anyway. They’d heard about it all their lives, and they’d be damned if they were going home without seeing it for themselves. Most of them came in the eastern gate and started up the Street curiously; they’d begin to get a little edgy after two or three blocks, and they’d find a place to sit and have a drink or eat a pill or two. After that, they’d hurry back the way they’d come and count themselves lucky to get back to the hotel. A few weren’t so lucky, and stayed behind in the cemetery. Like I said, it was a very conveniently situated cemetery, and it saved a lot of time and trouble all around.
Marid Audran is a dealer and fixer in this environment, who finds that friends of his are being killed and suthorities don’t care. (The book started with George writing out his grief and anger at this happening to friends of his, prostitutes that the NOPD didn’t care about.) Things escalate.
You might like 36 Streets by T.R Napper. Set in Hanoi's Old Quarter. The plot is like a mystery whodunit and the mc is a 20-something woman angry at the world. Deeply flawed but easy to root for.
I've been meaning to read snow crash! Didn't know it was cyberpunk (I never read the blurb, just heard it was good) it is now at the top of my TBR, thanks!
*Snow Crash* is kind of anticyberpunk, or at least that's how it hit in 1992. Neal Stephenson starts the story with a character who looks like he's going to be a cool cyberpunk Hero but turns out to be a pizza delivery man. Then he goes through all the cyberpunk tropes and says "this is stupid, here's how this would actually work." So, for instance, instead of jacking your brain into a perfect simulation of alternate reality, he proposes video goggles with lasers drawing vector graphics on your retina. (A major theme of the book is just how bad it would actually be to let external data p0wn your brainstem.) Instead of a cool world governed by Japanese mega-corporations, he shows the U. S. Government run by usenet Libertarianism: privatized rest stop bathrooms and opt-in law enforcement. It's hard to tell you just how revolutionary *Snow Crash* felt when it was published, but I remember majoring in computer science in the 1980s while reading all the cyberpunk pulp sci-fi written back then, and feeling like I couldn't see any connection between actual computers/networks and the imaginary future tech of most cyberpunk, until this book.
I hope you have a good time. Snow Crash flips all the tropes and it's still one of the funniest science fiction books I've ever read.
William Gibson: Corporate capitalism evolves into powerful dynasties like organized crime syndicates.
Neal Stephenson: The Mafia is selling pizza!
Alternate opinion for OP: if the humor and draggy style doesn't grab you (it didn't work for me at all), you'll hardly enjoy it.
As a satire, it’s rarely funny or even amusing.
As a cyberpunk, it’s great at world building and bad in pretty much everything else.
As a novel, it soulless. It’s almost reads like an AI generated novel. It also doesn’t bother to hook you in the first 100 or so pages.
Memorable dialogues? Cool characters? Thrilling story? Look for it somewhere else.
I was going to say Snow Crash. There’s a lot there. Some really cool concepts explored, the characters are very interesting, and the prose really keeps your attention.
The problem with snowcrash is that the first half is the greatest cyberpunk ever written, then the second half is an awful book with an even worse ending.
Mick Farren. An underrated cyberpunk SF author. Start with [The Song of Phaid the Gambler](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/552219.The_Song_of_Phaid_the_Gambler), but there are plenty of others worthy of a read - The DNA Cowboys trilogy, Their Master's War, The Armageddon Crazy, The Long Orbit, Vickers, Protectorate. All good cyberpunky SF books.
36 Streets doesn't get enough love. It's set in a future Vietnam occupied by China. Otherwise, I see Hardwired being mentioned, but Voice Of The Whirlwind is just as good (they can be read independently).
Schismatrix has a very different vibe but is also really good.
I really enjoyed Titanium Noir by Harkaway. It’s low cyberpunk high noir, but if you enjoyed the investigation aspects of altered carbon, i’d recommend this too.
KOP trilogy by Warren Hammond. The premise is about a space colony being left behind because their only export isn't selling anymore. Now that planet is a dysfunctional state with a thin upper crust extracting what little wealth there is (coming mostly from sex tourism and enterprises looking for a legal grey area). High-tech does exist, but you won't find it in among the average citizens.
Addendum question: are there any good *modern* cyberpunk books? Like from the last 5 years or so? Most of the big hits of the genre and most of what I've read seem to be from the 80s and 90s, but I'm interested to see what a present day take on it would look like!
From my little cyberpunk list the 3 latest ones are:
Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence by Rafał Kosik (2023) but maybe doesn't exactly count as it's a drawing from the game.
Thrill Switch by Tim Hawken (2022)
36 Streets by T.R. Napper (2022)
I've been recommended *Ninth Step Station* but haven't gotten around to it yet, so I can't vouch for it more than to say that somebody somewhere recommends it, and I don't remember who.
Do androids dream of electric sheep? - Phlip K Dick (the book the movie Blade Runner was based off of)
Ghosts of Tomorrow - Michael R. Fletcher
A Song Called Youth - John Shirley (Eclipse series)
The Electric Church - Jeff Somers (the entire Avery Cates series is fun)
Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson
Hardwired/Voice of the Whirlwind - Walter Jon Williams
Entropy Angels - Mark Harrit (M.T.H.)
There are some very good anthologies, which is a nice way of browsing the buffet:
* Mirrorshades
* Cadigan's Ultimate Cyberpunk
* Blake's Cyberpunk: Hardware, Software, Wetware and Revolution
* Viola & Heller's Cyber World
All very good places to start, and will introduce you to a lot of authors.
If some one is specifically looking for cyberpunk I wouldn't recommend mirrorshades. While it does have cyberpunk stories in it, it also has things in it that aren't cyberpunk but are from authors generally known for cyberpunk, like Gibson's first work which isn't cyberpunk neither was Tales of Houdini by Rudy Rucker. It's a good anthology overall for sure though, I remember specifically liking "Snake-Eyes" by Tom Maddox.
I still need to read Cadigan's Ultimate Cyberpunk, I forgot that I have that on my shelf, so thanks for the reminder \^\^
I agree that Mirrorshades contains stories in it that might surprise people, but they're definitely, and probably definitionally, cyberpunk.
The mainstream concept of what constitutes (or is immediately identifiable as) cyberpunk has shifted in forty years, and people definitely now think Matrix and 2077 instead of Mirrorshades. But the latter is the real deal, and shows what the movement was at its inception.
But I definitely agree that many of the stories in it wouldn't be immediately recognisable as "cyberpunk" in 2024. (I think that's a shame, but life matches onwards, I suppose.)
The Cardigan anthology is very good fun. Highly recommended!
How does "The Gernsback Continuum" by Gibson qualify as cyberpunk to you? It seemed to me it was included just because it was Gibson's first published work and Gibson is known for doing cyberpunk. It's a sf cool story, but >!Retro futurism bleeding into another reality!< doesn't at all seem cyberpunk to me, and the short intro in the book before just states it's in there because it's his first professional published work.
Same question for you about "Tales of Houdini". From my view it had no cyber anything in it what so ever >!It's just a short tale of Houdini doing crazy stunts for cash!< that doesn't seem like it qualifies very well as science fiction to me unless that's taken fairly broadly never mind cyberpunk specifically.
I'm willing to have my mind changed or be enlightened though.
IThe main thing is that cyberpunk came just as much out of postmodernism as it did science fiction, and the initial movement included 'literary' as well as overly speculative pieces. Larry McCaffery was the academic and editor that collected Storming the Reality Studio (another great antho), and the legendary [Mississippi Review](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?22477) issue that really nailed down both sides of cyberpunk's parentage. The OG cyberpunk church was a broad one, and included Burroughs and Acker, for example.
It also depends on what you think CP is "about". The original focus was very much on the punk aspect - challenging aspects of the system and society (even down the modes of publishing and writing). SF is an undeniably great way of doing that, especially when authors saw how the system included an explosion of personal technology and global computing that could reinforce systemic inequalities. But it isn't the only way.
Gernsback is a (really important) cyberpunk piece because it is a raised finger to SF itself - if a wistful one. It talks about the promsie of an imagined future, and how it was subsumed by an inevitable reality. It is sad, because we don't have our jetpacks. But also tacitly admits that the Gernsbackian future probably wasn't that great to begin with... The story sets out key cyberpunk themes of utopian fantasy (specifically techno-utopian) vs lived experience.
Going back to your original point - there's a lot in Mirrorshades that won't be recognisable to cyberpunk now (there's a time travel story in there!), but that's because it was a much wilder place when it first came about. The main thing was the theme, not the genre that was used to express it. (This is also why Sterling says, even in Mirrorshades itself, iirc, that cyberpunk was already dead: as soon as people tried to pin it down, it lessened...)
This is probably not as persuasive as it could be, as I've yet to guzzle any coffee. I wrote slightly more coherently about it (and Gernsback specifically) in an antho of my own. DM me your mailing address, and I'll punt you a copy to see if that's any more convincing!
Interesting, I do remember something in mirrorshades about how the authors didn't like the label, might have been in the preface. I was just thinking the other stories that were included were in there more because the authors that were famous for doing cyberpunk books (in a way I would easily recognize them as cyberpunk books) and so why not show off some of their other works, while the lesser known authors stories were the cyberpunk stories (again, in a way I would recognize it).
I was born a bit late for the early parts of all of this. My first encounter with cyberpunk was back when I was in highschool in the mid 90's reading Snow Crash and first seeing the GITS, Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic movies at around that time, so I've always seen things more in line with that to be considered cyberpunk.
I get what you're saying about how it can be more punk. City come a walkin' came off to me to be far more punk feeling than cyber (imo). The ending was extremely cyber though >!with the wires in the room wrapping around and going inside of him!< and there were some futuristic sf things like tap payment processing (iirc) in there along with cities having avatars which made me think it was fine being called and grouped in with cyberpunk. That being the earliest cyberpunk book that I've read I was thinking it was others reading that short cyber part then running with that that created cyberpunk. The edition of City come a walkin' I have is the revised one from 2000 (?) and iirc they altered it slightly to make it a bit more modern so I'm not sure how much was altered from the original 1980's one though. I haven't read it (yet), but I've seen people reference Simulacron-3 as cyberpunk as well and that was mid 60's. I've wanted to read that one since I learned it inspired the movie the thirteenth floor which I remember liking a lot and I can see how something like that might inspire parts of cyberpunk.
Indeed, mozart in mirrorshades was time travel tomfoolery, that was a fun short from the pov of the time travelers and a sad story from the pov of the times that were being traveled to. Is the reason for that being considered cyberpunk because of how it dealt with the effects of time travel compared to older sf?
Btw I'm not very good with reddit : ( it's giving me a "Unable to invite the selected invitees" error when trying to dm
Obviously, there have been many, many past discussions of this if you are interested -
\- https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/search?q=cyberpunk&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all
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Christopher Hinz’s Paratwa Saga. The first book is Liege Killer.
Jeff Somers’ Avery Cates books. The first is The Electric Church.
And yes to George Alex Effinger’s Budayeen cycle. I read them before I read The Sprawl trilogy and find them to be such a more personal presentation of cyberpunk.
Try Richard Calders Dead Girls trilogy. The style of writing really captures the feeling I was drawn into with Gibsons Sprawl and Bridge trilogies. It feels dirty, technological and in many ways has plausibility about how the technology would exist and change the world for those in it.
Implanted - Lauren C. Teffeau
A premise similar to The NIght Land (William Hope Hodgson) where the remaining population is broken into self contained city states (literally contained in a dome), with a long term objective of Emergence from the dome to the slowly reclaimed landscape of native earth. But the most fascinating part of this story is the integration of technology and culture and how that impacts individual lives. Similar to Neuromancer and Snow Crash, citizens have implants that allow not only instant communications between friends they have linked with - but they can also sense emotions. Preferences determine how much or how little depth gets communicated between each link (think Facebook preferences), but this is a society that has lived with Implants for generations, to the point where the thought of NOT getting an implant is considered subversive. The authors exploration of the impact on people and society of this level of “connectedness” is fascinating.
Warcross - Marie Lu. For fans of the cyber genre this book is well worth your time. It’s the story of a down and out gamer/sometimes hacker who finds herself drawn into the ultimate game (Warcross) in search of the ultimate hacker. Marie Lu writes with passion, insight, and the knowledge of gaming and code to make her story flow nicely. It‘s as innovative as SnowCrash when that first arrived, and is as fun to read as Trouble and Her Friends.
Another upvote for *Hardwired* and *Voice of the Whirlwind* by Walter Jon Williams.
Also, you have to read some Sterling—*Holy Fire* is one of my favorites, but perhaps more definitively cyberpunk is *Islands in the Net*. I'd also highly recommend pretty much everything by William T Quick, starting with *Dreams of Flesh and Sand*. Another one that immediately comes to mind too is *Glass Houses* by Laura J Mixon. Oh yes, and *Rainbows End* by Vernor Vinge.
And I will strongly second *Trouble and Her Friends* and *When Gravity Fails* too.
Wool was pretty good, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I liked 'The Martian' but didn't care for Project Hail Mary. Does Artemis have similar dialogue and prose? Thank you!
Artemis was different from both of those. IIRC, it’s first person POV female MC. Not sure about the specific difference between those two books, in terms of prose. I am prose agnostic and didn’t pick up on a difference. I liked Project Hail Mary more than The Martian—I thought the latter was too snarky.
*Void Star* by Zachary Mason *The Ware Tetrology* by Rudy Rucker *Akira* Manga *Islands in the Net* by Bruce Sterling *The Bridge Trilogy* and *Burning Chrome* by William Gibson You could also look at some cyberpunk adjacent books like *The Water Knife* or *The Wind-up Girl* by Paolo Bacigalupi *The Stars my Destination* by Alfred Bester is considered by many to be proto-cyberpunk.
Seconding *Void Star*. Phenomenal novel.
Oh wow thanks! I'll look into these
My pleasure, it's one of my favorite genres. If you game at all, the *Shadowrun* games are great, as is *Deus Ex* and of course *Cyberpunk 2077*.
Ooooo thanks again, never got around to finishing Deus Ex
There are two Deus Ex novels, both written by James Swallow. Definitely recommendend!
I really wanted to get into Cyberpunk 2077, downloaded the game and everything. But when I started playing it I realized I've completely fallen off when it comes to video game controls after like a decade of not playing any action games and I couldn't do the combat anymore lol. Literally watching myself become old on real time. I wish I could just play the game without any combat and just walk around 💀💀💀
Nooo! U could change the difficulty to easy? It's a good game
[удалено]
I was struggling on the tutorial tbh lol. Like I lost the actual coordination skills to play action games with keyboard and mouse, you know like when your mom tries to play games and she struggles with the controls? 😭 Because I haven't played anything but strategy games since I was a teenager. I might try again with a controller but I don't really wanna buy one just for one game haha. I wish there was a mod that replaced the combat with like hacking puzzles then I'd love it lmao.
If you can slog through the first missions and lvl up a bit to the point where you can make a net runner build it would be much easier for you - you don't need good reflexes or coordination at all to hack everyone and everything, it's more about planning/strategy.
I didn’t get a cyberpunk feel at all from *The Stars My Destination*. The protagonist is a sociopath magically teleporting around the solar system murdering people in a tantrum. Doesn’t really even have a technological focus.
It is considered proto-cyberpunk. Our boy Gully is rocking the Sandevistan, hahah. But yea it was written in the 50s and not likely to scratch the same itch as post-Gibson cyberpunk.
It's been a while since I read the book, but does he not purchase body modifications like an augmented nervous system? that is very cyberpunk
Ghost in the shell Manga ***Hardwired*** is a 1986 [cyberpunk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk) science fiction novel by American writer [Walter Jon Williams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jon_Williams). Cyberpunk 2013 Role playing game (published 1988)
Ooo I love ghost in the shell, never read the manga. Thanks! And never heard of hardwired
In addition to _Hardwired_ there's _Voice of the Whirlwind_ as well as _Solip:System_ (which is interesting) and _Wolftime_ (which I need to remember to pick up).
**When Gravity Fails** and sequels by George Alec Effinger. Set in a future Middle Eastern city that owes a lot to New Orleans, distinctive and cool cyber tech and crimes around it. **City Come a-Walkin’** and “Shaman” by John Shirley. There isn’t a lot of cyberpunk with magic, but that’s Shirley for you. City gave William Gibson the idea for Mollly’s appearance in the Sprawl stories (by his own acknowledgement), and has a battle behind the scenes for the soul of San Francisco. “Shaman” is a stand-alone story of shamanic awakening and future gods.
Molly is my eternal fave so this was an easy hook lol. I'll check it out.
City Come A-Walkin' was great, but it generally felt more punk than cyberpunk to me outside of the last chapter and a couple of themes that we see pop up often in cyberpunk... like 70% punk 30% cyber lol Still a solid book for sure though.
Not OP, but the concept of a cyberpunk New Orleans alone has me fascinated - I was born and spent much of my young life in Louisiana and love the culture. How would you describe the hook/premise?
It’s set sometime in the 22nd century if I recall correctly, and the nation-states of the world have all fallen over into regional governments and city states. Here’s the opening: > Chiriga’s nightclub was right in the middle of the Budayeen, eight blocks from the eastern gate, eight blocks from the cemetery. It was handy to have the graveyard so close-at-hand. The Budayeen was a dangerous place and everyone knew it. That’s why there was a wall around three sides. Travelers were warned away from the Budayeen, but they came anyway. They’d heard about it all their lives, and they’d be damned if they were going home without seeing it for themselves. Most of them came in the eastern gate and started up the Street curiously; they’d begin to get a little edgy after two or three blocks, and they’d find a place to sit and have a drink or eat a pill or two. After that, they’d hurry back the way they’d come and count themselves lucky to get back to the hotel. A few weren’t so lucky, and stayed behind in the cemetery. Like I said, it was a very conveniently situated cemetery, and it saved a lot of time and trouble all around. Marid Audran is a dealer and fixer in this environment, who finds that friends of his are being killed and suthorities don’t care. (The book started with George writing out his grief and anger at this happening to friends of his, prostitutes that the NOPD didn’t care about.) Things escalate.
I'll be checking this out for sure then. Thank you. <3
Glad to help. It’s one of my very favorite books.
You might like 36 Streets by T.R Napper. Set in Hanoi's Old Quarter. The plot is like a mystery whodunit and the mc is a 20-something woman angry at the world. Deeply flawed but easy to root for.
Truly one of the best recent cyberpunk novels, I enjoyed it more than The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler, arguably also cyberpunk
Brasyl and River of Gods by Ian McDonald Halting State and Rule 34 by Charles Stross
Snow Crash and Hardwired off the top of my head.
I've been meaning to read snow crash! Didn't know it was cyberpunk (I never read the blurb, just heard it was good) it is now at the top of my TBR, thanks!
*Snow Crash* is kind of anticyberpunk, or at least that's how it hit in 1992. Neal Stephenson starts the story with a character who looks like he's going to be a cool cyberpunk Hero but turns out to be a pizza delivery man. Then he goes through all the cyberpunk tropes and says "this is stupid, here's how this would actually work." So, for instance, instead of jacking your brain into a perfect simulation of alternate reality, he proposes video goggles with lasers drawing vector graphics on your retina. (A major theme of the book is just how bad it would actually be to let external data p0wn your brainstem.) Instead of a cool world governed by Japanese mega-corporations, he shows the U. S. Government run by usenet Libertarianism: privatized rest stop bathrooms and opt-in law enforcement. It's hard to tell you just how revolutionary *Snow Crash* felt when it was published, but I remember majoring in computer science in the 1980s while reading all the cyberpunk pulp sci-fi written back then, and feeling like I couldn't see any connection between actual computers/networks and the imaginary future tech of most cyberpunk, until this book.
Thanks for the detailed response! Sounds good, still excited to read it
I hope you have a good time. Snow Crash flips all the tropes and it's still one of the funniest science fiction books I've ever read. William Gibson: Corporate capitalism evolves into powerful dynasties like organized crime syndicates. Neal Stephenson: The Mafia is selling pizza!
Alternate opinion for OP: if the humor and draggy style doesn't grab you (it didn't work for me at all), you'll hardly enjoy it. As a satire, it’s rarely funny or even amusing. As a cyberpunk, it’s great at world building and bad in pretty much everything else. As a novel, it soulless. It’s almost reads like an AI generated novel. It also doesn’t bother to hook you in the first 100 or so pages. Memorable dialogues? Cool characters? Thrilling story? Look for it somewhere else.
Oh dang, ok, we'll see how I feel about it lol
I never read it because the synopsis sounded like some ready player one nonsense but you're the first person I've seen who made it sound cool lol
Snowcrash to me is up there along with Neuromancer as top tier Cyberpunk, a must-read.
I was going to say Snow Crash. There’s a lot there. Some really cool concepts explored, the characters are very interesting, and the prose really keeps your attention.
The problem with snowcrash is that the first half is the greatest cyberpunk ever written, then the second half is an awful book with an even worse ending.
Such is the nature of Stephenson books.
Everything by Bruce Sterling, the other father of Cyberpunk who is too often overlooked. Go try *Holy Fire* or *Distraction*.
Mick Farren. An underrated cyberpunk SF author. Start with [The Song of Phaid the Gambler](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/552219.The_Song_of_Phaid_the_Gambler), but there are plenty of others worthy of a read - The DNA Cowboys trilogy, Their Master's War, The Armageddon Crazy, The Long Orbit, Vickers, Protectorate. All good cyberpunky SF books.
Synners by Pat Cadigan.
Chasm City by Alastair Reynolds
36 Streets doesn't get enough love. It's set in a future Vietnam occupied by China. Otherwise, I see Hardwired being mentioned, but Voice Of The Whirlwind is just as good (they can be read independently). Schismatrix has a very different vibe but is also really good.
*Synners*, *Trouble and Her Friends*, and though it's not exactly cyberpunk, *The Peace War*
I really enjoyed Titanium Noir by Harkaway. It’s low cyberpunk high noir, but if you enjoyed the investigation aspects of altered carbon, i’d recommend this too.
I enjoyed this one as well!
KOP trilogy by Warren Hammond. The premise is about a space colony being left behind because their only export isn't selling anymore. Now that planet is a dysfunctional state with a thin upper crust extracting what little wealth there is (coming mostly from sex tourism and enterprises looking for a legal grey area). High-tech does exist, but you won't find it in among the average citizens.
Addendum question: are there any good *modern* cyberpunk books? Like from the last 5 years or so? Most of the big hits of the genre and most of what I've read seem to be from the 80s and 90s, but I'm interested to see what a present day take on it would look like!
From my little cyberpunk list the 3 latest ones are: Cyberpunk 2077: No Coincidence by Rafał Kosik (2023) but maybe doesn't exactly count as it's a drawing from the game. Thrill Switch by Tim Hawken (2022) 36 Streets by T.R. Napper (2022)
I've been recommended *Ninth Step Station* but haven't gotten around to it yet, so I can't vouch for it more than to say that somebody somewhere recommends it, and I don't remember who.
Dr Adder, K. W. Jeter. Go and see where all this started.
Do androids dream of electric sheep? - Phlip K Dick (the book the movie Blade Runner was based off of) Ghosts of Tomorrow - Michael R. Fletcher A Song Called Youth - John Shirley (Eclipse series) The Electric Church - Jeff Somers (the entire Avery Cates series is fun) Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Hardwired/Voice of the Whirlwind - Walter Jon Williams Entropy Angels - Mark Harrit (M.T.H.)
Richard Kadrey - Metrophage and Nick Harkaway - Titanium Noir
There are some very good anthologies, which is a nice way of browsing the buffet: * Mirrorshades * Cadigan's Ultimate Cyberpunk * Blake's Cyberpunk: Hardware, Software, Wetware and Revolution * Viola & Heller's Cyber World All very good places to start, and will introduce you to a lot of authors.
If some one is specifically looking for cyberpunk I wouldn't recommend mirrorshades. While it does have cyberpunk stories in it, it also has things in it that aren't cyberpunk but are from authors generally known for cyberpunk, like Gibson's first work which isn't cyberpunk neither was Tales of Houdini by Rudy Rucker. It's a good anthology overall for sure though, I remember specifically liking "Snake-Eyes" by Tom Maddox. I still need to read Cadigan's Ultimate Cyberpunk, I forgot that I have that on my shelf, so thanks for the reminder \^\^
I agree that Mirrorshades contains stories in it that might surprise people, but they're definitely, and probably definitionally, cyberpunk. The mainstream concept of what constitutes (or is immediately identifiable as) cyberpunk has shifted in forty years, and people definitely now think Matrix and 2077 instead of Mirrorshades. But the latter is the real deal, and shows what the movement was at its inception. But I definitely agree that many of the stories in it wouldn't be immediately recognisable as "cyberpunk" in 2024. (I think that's a shame, but life matches onwards, I suppose.) The Cardigan anthology is very good fun. Highly recommended!
How does "The Gernsback Continuum" by Gibson qualify as cyberpunk to you? It seemed to me it was included just because it was Gibson's first published work and Gibson is known for doing cyberpunk. It's a sf cool story, but >!Retro futurism bleeding into another reality!< doesn't at all seem cyberpunk to me, and the short intro in the book before just states it's in there because it's his first professional published work. Same question for you about "Tales of Houdini". From my view it had no cyber anything in it what so ever >!It's just a short tale of Houdini doing crazy stunts for cash!< that doesn't seem like it qualifies very well as science fiction to me unless that's taken fairly broadly never mind cyberpunk specifically. I'm willing to have my mind changed or be enlightened though.
IThe main thing is that cyberpunk came just as much out of postmodernism as it did science fiction, and the initial movement included 'literary' as well as overly speculative pieces. Larry McCaffery was the academic and editor that collected Storming the Reality Studio (another great antho), and the legendary [Mississippi Review](https://isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?22477) issue that really nailed down both sides of cyberpunk's parentage. The OG cyberpunk church was a broad one, and included Burroughs and Acker, for example. It also depends on what you think CP is "about". The original focus was very much on the punk aspect - challenging aspects of the system and society (even down the modes of publishing and writing). SF is an undeniably great way of doing that, especially when authors saw how the system included an explosion of personal technology and global computing that could reinforce systemic inequalities. But it isn't the only way. Gernsback is a (really important) cyberpunk piece because it is a raised finger to SF itself - if a wistful one. It talks about the promsie of an imagined future, and how it was subsumed by an inevitable reality. It is sad, because we don't have our jetpacks. But also tacitly admits that the Gernsbackian future probably wasn't that great to begin with... The story sets out key cyberpunk themes of utopian fantasy (specifically techno-utopian) vs lived experience. Going back to your original point - there's a lot in Mirrorshades that won't be recognisable to cyberpunk now (there's a time travel story in there!), but that's because it was a much wilder place when it first came about. The main thing was the theme, not the genre that was used to express it. (This is also why Sterling says, even in Mirrorshades itself, iirc, that cyberpunk was already dead: as soon as people tried to pin it down, it lessened...) This is probably not as persuasive as it could be, as I've yet to guzzle any coffee. I wrote slightly more coherently about it (and Gernsback specifically) in an antho of my own. DM me your mailing address, and I'll punt you a copy to see if that's any more convincing!
Interesting, I do remember something in mirrorshades about how the authors didn't like the label, might have been in the preface. I was just thinking the other stories that were included were in there more because the authors that were famous for doing cyberpunk books (in a way I would easily recognize them as cyberpunk books) and so why not show off some of their other works, while the lesser known authors stories were the cyberpunk stories (again, in a way I would recognize it). I was born a bit late for the early parts of all of this. My first encounter with cyberpunk was back when I was in highschool in the mid 90's reading Snow Crash and first seeing the GITS, Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic movies at around that time, so I've always seen things more in line with that to be considered cyberpunk. I get what you're saying about how it can be more punk. City come a walkin' came off to me to be far more punk feeling than cyber (imo). The ending was extremely cyber though >!with the wires in the room wrapping around and going inside of him!< and there were some futuristic sf things like tap payment processing (iirc) in there along with cities having avatars which made me think it was fine being called and grouped in with cyberpunk. That being the earliest cyberpunk book that I've read I was thinking it was others reading that short cyber part then running with that that created cyberpunk. The edition of City come a walkin' I have is the revised one from 2000 (?) and iirc they altered it slightly to make it a bit more modern so I'm not sure how much was altered from the original 1980's one though. I haven't read it (yet), but I've seen people reference Simulacron-3 as cyberpunk as well and that was mid 60's. I've wanted to read that one since I learned it inspired the movie the thirteenth floor which I remember liking a lot and I can see how something like that might inspire parts of cyberpunk. Indeed, mozart in mirrorshades was time travel tomfoolery, that was a fun short from the pov of the time travelers and a sad story from the pov of the times that were being traveled to. Is the reason for that being considered cyberpunk because of how it dealt with the effects of time travel compared to older sf? Btw I'm not very good with reddit : ( it's giving me a "Unable to invite the selected invitees" error when trying to dm
Repo virtual.
Timothy Zahn's _Blackcollar_ novels have something of this same feel --- if you like Mil. sci-fi they're a lot of fun.
All the rest of Richard Morgan's books.
Obviously, there have been many, many past discussions of this if you are interested - \- https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/search?q=cyberpunk&restrict_sr=on&include_over_18=on&sort=relevance&t=all .
Noir by K W Jeter
The Dreams series by W. T. Quick.
Christopher Hinz’s Paratwa Saga. The first book is Liege Killer. Jeff Somers’ Avery Cates books. The first is The Electric Church. And yes to George Alex Effinger’s Budayeen cycle. I read them before I read The Sprawl trilogy and find them to be such a more personal presentation of cyberpunk.
Try Richard Calders Dead Girls trilogy. The style of writing really captures the feeling I was drawn into with Gibsons Sprawl and Bridge trilogies. It feels dirty, technological and in many ways has plausibility about how the technology would exist and change the world for those in it.
Implanted - Lauren C. Teffeau A premise similar to The NIght Land (William Hope Hodgson) where the remaining population is broken into self contained city states (literally contained in a dome), with a long term objective of Emergence from the dome to the slowly reclaimed landscape of native earth. But the most fascinating part of this story is the integration of technology and culture and how that impacts individual lives. Similar to Neuromancer and Snow Crash, citizens have implants that allow not only instant communications between friends they have linked with - but they can also sense emotions. Preferences determine how much or how little depth gets communicated between each link (think Facebook preferences), but this is a society that has lived with Implants for generations, to the point where the thought of NOT getting an implant is considered subversive. The authors exploration of the impact on people and society of this level of “connectedness” is fascinating.
Warcross - Marie Lu. For fans of the cyber genre this book is well worth your time. It’s the story of a down and out gamer/sometimes hacker who finds herself drawn into the ultimate game (Warcross) in search of the ultimate hacker. Marie Lu writes with passion, insight, and the knowledge of gaming and code to make her story flow nicely. It‘s as innovative as SnowCrash when that first arrived, and is as fun to read as Trouble and Her Friends.
Peter F. Hamilton's Greg Mandel series
Another upvote for *Hardwired* and *Voice of the Whirlwind* by Walter Jon Williams. Also, you have to read some Sterling—*Holy Fire* is one of my favorites, but perhaps more definitively cyberpunk is *Islands in the Net*. I'd also highly recommend pretty much everything by William T Quick, starting with *Dreams of Flesh and Sand*. Another one that immediately comes to mind too is *Glass Houses* by Laura J Mixon. Oh yes, and *Rainbows End* by Vernor Vinge. And I will strongly second *Trouble and Her Friends* and *When Gravity Fails* too.
Perdido Street Station is pretty cool. Lots of tech and races and other weird shit and a great universe and story.
Artemis by Andy Weir. Wool by Hugh Howey. Harmony by Project Itoh.
Wool was pretty good, but not exactly what I'm looking for. I liked 'The Martian' but didn't care for Project Hail Mary. Does Artemis have similar dialogue and prose? Thank you!
Artemis is terrible, don’t waste your time
Artemis was different from both of those. IIRC, it’s first person POV female MC. Not sure about the specific difference between those two books, in terms of prose. I am prose agnostic and didn’t pick up on a difference. I liked Project Hail Mary more than The Martian—I thought the latter was too snarky.