3 ms·
BioPunk? Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" is an interesting take on this. The most concise take I've seen for the core defining aesthetic of cyberpunk is:
by dleslie 6y ago
BioPunk?
Paolo Bacigalupi's "The Windup Girl" is an interesting take on this.
The most concise take I've seen for the core defining aesthetic of cyberpunk is: "high tech, low life."
With that in mind, I don't think it _really_ matters what the tech is, so long as the story is about those on the fringes of society and their interactions with it; how _alien_ the world is to them, and how alien they are to the world.
- nrp 6y agoI would add “Blindsight” by Peter Watts to the list of great biopunk novels.
- jfb 6y ago"Whenever I find my will to live becoming too strong, I read Peter Watts". —James Nicoll
- Apocryphon 6y agoWatts's work is great also as an existentialist hard sci-fi cosmic horror. It's got all of the Plutonian depths, malevolent antediluvian creatures, unfathomable aliens, degenerated humanity, and posthuman body horror of Lovecraft, just not the omnipotent space gods. Plus, he even continues cyberpunk tropes to their natural dystopian conclusions- in Rifters, "N'Am" is a continent governed by the power company that sends PTSD-afflicted veterans and abuse survivors to maintain deep sea geothermal generators, gigacorp execs are literally called "corpses", and the internet is completely swallowed up by A.I. spam bots.
- dymax78 6y agoHow would you rate the Rifters trilogy vs the Firefall trilogy? (I thoroughly enjoyed Blindsight, hobbled my way through Echopraxia, and it's unlikely I'll read Firefall)
- Apocryphon 6y agoI haven’t finished the Firefall trilogy yet, but Blindsight was pretty good up until the last book at least.
- watt 6y agoFirefall is just an omnibus edition of the two. Great hardcover though :)
- dymax78 6y agoThank you for the clarification. In the context of our discussion, your nick begs the question.... Peter?!