Best/most forward thinking cyberpunk novels

[Dinosaur]

Some of the stuff I've read about gated community aynd their own police forces, Snow Crash.

Sadly it's meant to be satire.

 

[Vertigo]

I would second Jon Courtney Grimwood. Though I actually think his Arabesk series is somewhat less cyberpunky than his earlier Cyber Noir series - NewAddix, Lucifer's Dragon and reMix. However the first in that series was also Grimwood's debut and frankly not very well written. Also his End of the World Blues was very good and fairly cyberpunky.

 

[Nerds_feather]

Excellent review Nerds. Sums up the book beautifully.

Thanks! I enjoyed the book, and Gibson has amazing foresight. I'm re-reading Neuromancer now.

 

[Vince W]

Thanks! I enjoyed the book, and Gibson has amazing foresight. I'm re-reading Neuromancer now.

I still love Neuromancer. The last time I read it was interesting to see how certain elements were dated. I remember when it came out 4 MB was an enormous amount of memory. Now my toaster has 4 MB. It came out at a time when even Bill Gates said 640K was more memory than anyone would ever need, mind. However, Neuromancer still holds up as a great story.

 

[Mirannan]

I still love Neuromancer. The last time I read it was interesting to see how certain elements were dated. I remember when it came out 4 MB was an enormous amount of memory. Now my toaster has 4 MB. It came out at a time when even Bill Gates said 640K was more memory than anyone would ever need, mind. However, Neuromancer still holds up as a great story.

Yep. This sort of thing is a good example of why putting specific numbers in an SF story relating to computers is a bad idea.

Apart from all the usual stuff about memory and storage (I still have lying around a hand computer with 128k of memory) I recently found out that my newly-acquired 4G smartphone has better internet speed (on a good day, anyway) than my home broadband connection did only about 5 years ago.

 

[G.D. Lascelle]

Another vote for The Shockwave Rider, by Brunner - Read that in the late 70s when most of its themes were just a distant dream. In fact a great deal of what Brunner wrote is incredibly forward thinking. Someone already mentioned the wonderful Stand on Zanzibar. Another personal favourite of mine is The Stone That Never Came Down, which foreshadows some ideas more recently explored in the film Limitless. There is also the Sheep Look Up, which deals with the impact of pollution on the planet, some time before most people were too worried about it. Of course I don't know that Brunner is exactly cyberpunk, but much of what he wrote is about how new technology has the potential to influence social structures and culture in positive and negative ways

 

[tinkerdan]

I would tend to characterize the Shockwave Rider by John Brunner as being heavily cyberpunk.
But that's just me.

Another vote for The Shockwave Rider, by Brunner - Read that in the late 70s when most of its themes were just a distant dream. In fact a great deal of what Brunner wrote is incredibly forward thinking. Someone already mentioned the wonderful Stand on Zanzibar. Another personal favourite of mine is The Stone That Never Came Down, which foreshadows some ideas more recently explored in the film Limitless. There is also the Sheep Look Up, which deals with the impact of pollution on the planet, some time before most people were too worried about it. Of course I don't know that Brunner is exactly cyberpunk, but much of what he wrote is about how new technology has the potential to influence social structures and culture in positive and negative ways

 

[G.D. Lascelle]

I would tend to characterize the Shockwave Rider by John Brunner as being heavily cyberpunk.
But that's just me.

Yes, just to clarify Shockwave Rider is definitely cyberpunk, but Brunner's other output maybe less so, though there is a certain subversive flavour to some of it that puts it at least in the same chapter if not actually on the same page.