Cyberpunk novels, from the ancestors to contemporary authors

[Anarchon]

I'm interested in compiling a list of Cyberpunk novels.

And I am looking for the entire range, from the authors who invented the tropes of this sub-genre (even if they didn't call their work "cyberpunk")

and up to the latest writers.

Who are the best? Who doesn't deserve to be read?

Can the Chrons' Great Hive Mind help me?

Thank you!

 

[Connavar]

Of the authors who had elements of cyberpunk before the subgenre existed i recommend these :

Philip K Dick - Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep?,Now Wait For Last Year
Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination


Newer authors i would recommend is :

Richard Morgan - Altered Carbon
Ian Macdonald - Brasyl



Those are the only ones i can recommend really if i havent forgotten other works. I havent read many cyberpunk books or books with cyberpunk elements pre the subgenre.

Something i will fix since i enjoyed the books i have read of the subgenre. Heh this thread might be helpful for me too since people will prolly recommend books i didnt know of.

 

[Lucien21]

Sci-Fan list 600 odd novels in the Cyberpunk genre.

SciFan: Science Fiction & Fantasy Books by Theme: Cyberpunk - Cyberspace (novels, anthologies, short story collections, non fiction)=

I suppose the obvious ones are:

Bruce Sterling
William Gibson
Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash

You would find seeds of Cyberpunk in JG Ballad, Harlan Ellison and Philip K Dick.

 

[Anarchon]

Thank you, Connavar for your suggestions

and thank you Lucien21 for the very interesting link.

But wow! I've perused the 600-title list. How can a newbie to the sub-genre orient himself?

Those are all the books published in the s-g. Surely they are not on the same level. Some of them are better left on the shelves, I guess.

Where do I begin? Which are the must-read?

Why Sterling, Gibson and Stephenson?

 

[Connavar]

I think you must chance one of the books we recommend and see if it is something you like. After the first book its easy to know what you are looking for. After that you read synopsis of other cyberpunk books to see if it sounds interesting to you.

Philip K Dick - Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep? is the book version of the most famous cyberpunk like movie Blade Runner so you cant go wrong with it.

Alfred Bester book i mentioned is one of the most classic books in all of SF and most SF fans in this forums would agree its a must read too.


About Richard Morgan search for his name and you will see how many threads there are already who recommend Altered Carbon

Other than wait for the others and their recommendations.

Gibson i havent read yet but he is pretty big in the subgenre and Neuromancer is the reason.

 

[Lucien21]

Why Sterling, Gibson and Stephenson?

Well Neuromancer (Gibson) is widely regarded as the daddy of the genre. Gibson coined the phrase Cyberspace so an appreciation of cyberpunk has to include the Sprawl Trilogy of Neuromancer, Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive.

Sterling you should get the Mirrorshades anthology which has a series of cyberpunk short stories by all the best cyberpunk writers of the time and a great into piece about cyberpunk by Sterling. (it's not perfect and there are a couple of stinkers in the bunch, but not bad) Novel wise - Islands in the Net is pretty good.

Stephenson in Snow Crash is possibly one of my favourite books and a great Cyberpunk novel. His other stuff is not cyberpunk (except maybe Diamond Age)

 

[Lith]

I'm sure Wiki has a page for cyberpunk authors...

I've only read one cyberpunk book, and that was Snow Crash. It was awesome. He's funny, well-informed, wild, really it's the most fun I've had reading in a long time.

 

[gully_foyle]

Alfred Bester did shades of early cyberpunk. I think The Demolished Man has the strongest cyberpunk feel for an early novel, and Golem 100, written in the very early eighties, even felt like a Gibson novel.

 

[gil]

Rudy Rucker (Software, Hardware, etc-ware)
Charles Stross

It's hard to categorise. You need a noir future, weak civil government, an expert with an arcane talent - often with computers, some of the action takes place in cyberspace, corporations manipulate the characters.

 

[gil]

Oh, and Johnny Mnemonic was a short story from Gibson's anthology, Burning Chrome, and a far cry from the immensely stupid product that Hollywood produced.

 

[iansales]

Cyberpunk isn't that hard to identify at all. It's basically near-future sf with a gritty, noir feel. Often it incorporates elements of IT, extrapolated or otherwise, such as "cyberspace", or elements of hacker subculture. But niether are required.

A good example is Richard Kadrey's Metrophage (see my review here). It's cyberpunk, but there's no cyberspace in it.

 

[Connavar]

Oh, and Johnny Mnemonic was a short story from Gibson's anthology, Burning Chrome, and a far cry from the immensely stupid product that Hollywood produced.

I was asking Johnny Mnemonic story in Gibson thread, if it was any good. I liked the movie, it was good for a stupid hollywood movie.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Bruce Sterling - I think his earliest was Islands in the Net. Snow Crash is still my favoriteAnd I think Iain Banks did one Fearsome Engine more steampunk than cyber but not quite shure on that one.

 

[iansales]

Sterling: Islands in the Net, The Artificial Kid - yes. And I think one of his Mechanist/Shaper storeis was in Mirrorshades: the Cyberpunk Anthology, which he also edited.

Banks: er, no. Feersum Endjinn is neither steampunk nor cyberpunk.

 

[Sephiroth]

I read Neuromancer years ago and loved it. I..... *cough* ....didn't realise there were two sequels.




I'll have to see if I can get hold of them...

 

[Connavar]

Sterling: Islands in the Net, The Artificial Kid - yes. And I think one of his Mechanist/Shaper storeis was in Mirrorshades: the Cyberpunk Anthology, which he also edited.

Banks: er, no. Feersum Endjinn is neither steampunk nor cyberpunk.

Have you read his book Distraction Bruce Sterling that is ?

Do you recommend it if you have and him if you have read other works of his ?


I was randomly checking out his fantasticfiction page and the synopsis for Distraction appealed to me alot for some reason.

 

[iansales]

I've read all of Sterling's books. Except Ascendancies... but that's a best of collection so I've probably read most of its contents already.

Distraction is good. I preferred Holy Fire slightly more, and Zeitgeist about the same; but disliked The Zenith Angle.

 

[gil]

I found Distraction rather weak, but liked Holy Fire and Zeitgeist.

I have to say that Sterling is at his best as a short story writer. The novels are great, don't get me wrong, and I buy them all, but they haven't the bite of the shorts in e.g. Crystal Express.