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What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and Mona Liza Overdrive)?
by dkns 12y ago
What are some other must reads from cyberpunk genre (beside Count Zero and Mona Liza Overdrive)?
- joezydeco 12y agoStephenson's Snow Crash.
- mindcrime 12y agoIt's closer to "proto-cyberpunk" but I can't recommend John Brunner's classic The Shockwave Rider[1] highly enough. [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shockwave_Rider
- VonGuard 12y agoSnowcrash. I love Buring Chrome, which is Gibson's short stories. True Names. Wetware/Freeware. Basically, start with Gibson, then Neal Stephenson, take some drugs and read Rudy Rucker, then have a mint julep and read some Bruce Sterling. Sprinkle lightly with Vernor Vinge, and end with some Dick.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- rrival 12y agoMore from Neal Stephenson: Diamond Age is good, Cryptonomicon is fantastic. Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire is interesting as well.
- keithpeter 12y agoI found Cryptonomicon a bit shallow and absurdly hyperactive, but then I read it more or less back to back with Le Carre's Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy.
- Ecio78 12y agoI remember having at home Mirrorshades, a cyberpunk antology[1]. It contains short novels by Gibson and others and it was edited by Bruce Sterling. Unfortunately many years have passed so I don't remember if it was good.. [1] http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-Bear/dp/0441533825 http://www.amazon.com/Mirrorshades-Cyberpunk-Anthology-Greg-...
- jamesbritt 12y agoI really liked Mirrorshades, if for no other reason that it showcased a variety of styles. It's been a while since I read it but I recall thinking it pretty good. It might have been what got me to read Rudy Rucker's stuff. You can read all of Rucker's short stories (which I find to be better than his novels) here: http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/ http://www.rudyrucker.com/transrealbooks/completestories/
- walshemj 12y agoHardwired Water John Williams Proto /early CP Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep - Philip K Dick Babel 17 - Delany Fury - Kutner/More Tiger! Tiger! (The stars my destination) - Bester And Arguably Gravity's Rainbow
- bane 12y agoI'm going to echo Snow Crash. It's a bit silly at times when you stop to think about the pictures being drawn, but it's also quite prescient as more and more of the world starts to actually look like the cyberpunk worlds.
- bitwize 12y agoSnow Cradh's silliness is a feature: Stephenson was taking the piss out of Gibson.
- yanowitz 12y agoWhen gravity fails, George Alec Effinger Part 1 of a trilogy. Absolutely fantastic. I hesitate to say more than "read it." If you don't like it after 30 pages, bail, it's not your cup of tea.
- facepalm 12y agoI recently tried to make a list of good virtual reality reads (not all of them cyberpunk, though): Otherland - Tad Williams Ready Player One Daemon - David Suarez Neuromancer - William Gibson Shadowrun - ?? there are lots of possibly varying quality, I only read the ones by Nigel Findley which I liked Snowcrash - Stephenson Reamde - Stephenson Der falsche Spiegel - Sergej Lukianenko (not sure about the english name) Masters of Doom - Story of ID developing the games Doom and Quake - not really a VR story, but it sets the mood. Pollen - Jeff Noon Bruce Sterling is great, too, but I don't remember which of his stories are about virtual reality. I suppose Ian Bank's "The Culture" novels might be a candidate, but I haven't read them yet.
- egypturnash 12y agoIain (M) Banks' "Culture" novels are great fun, but they are (IMHO) in no way cyberpunk, nor do they concern VR. His SF is about people running around in meatspace doing things. well okay there's a decent chunk of VR in 'Feersum Endjiin' but that's very much the exception
- facepalm 12y agoI see - didn't know that. I thought they are about artificial life or a society that chose to withdraw into cyberspace. But as I said, I haven't read them.
- mynegation 12y agoLukianenko's book name in English is "Labyrinth of Reflections". I loved Lukianenko and read all his books (in Russian) until I realized that I am strongly opposed to his political views.
- facepalm 12y agoI must admit I don't really know his political views. Do you mean what shines through in his books, or do you have some other source (like interviews with him or whatever)? I have only read his books, and only the ones that have been translated to German. Have you read "Das Schlangenschwert"? I really liked his reflections on society in that one.
- orjan 12y agoRudy Rucker's Ware tetralogy[1]. I've actually not read the 4th book, though (yet). A fantastic tale, with lots of robots. And icecream trucks... [1] http://amzn.com/1607012111 http://amzn.com/1607012111
- VonGuard 12y agoYou forgot to mention the sentient, shape-shifting, dildos. Seriously. The whole series is focused on them as characters.
- csixty4 12y agoRucker made the Ware books available free online under a Creative Commons license: http://www.rudyrucker.com/wares/#waresdownload http://www.rudyrucker.com/wares/#waresdownload if anyone wants to check them out.
- orjan 12y agoNice, I didn't know that!
- aaronbrethorst 12y agoIt's not cyberpunk, but I enjoyed Altered Carbon quite a bit, which does a good job of capturing a similar noir feeling. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_Carbon
- RBerenguel 12y agoAgreed, had a very similar vibe. Still doubtful about reading the sequels, though. Have you checked them?
- maxerickson 12y agoThey are largely more of the same. I enjoyed them.
- aaronbrethorst 12y agoI didn't enjoy either of the sequels nearly as much as Altered Carbon. I don't think you'd miss out on much if you skipped them.
- ridgeguy 12y agoI think Broken Angels did a good job of carrying the feeling of Altered Carbon forward. I haven't yet read the final trilogy member, Woken Furies.
- bch 12y agoI could hardly put down Neil Stephenson's Snow Crash. Phenomenal.
- dllthomas 12y agoDonnerjack (Zelazny and Lindskold) is an interesting point in the space, though doesn't rise to the level of some of the others (IMO).
- dllthomas 12y agoDoes someone really dislike Donnerjack and not want it mentioned, really like Donnerjack and think I should be praising it more highly, think it doesn't fit in the genre at all, or was it just fat-fingered?
- nrp 12y agoGibson's Bridge trilogy steps a little further from cyberpunk, but they are still excellent reads that are thematically and stylistically similar.
- DanBC 12y agoIf you can get any of the Interzone anthologies there are some excellent examples of cyberpunk short fiction, and other sub-genres. (This is Interzone the magazine, before it went to TTA press. I have no idea what it's like now; this isn't a judgement about what they're doing. But I remember reading some excellent stories way back.) I also strongly recommend Bruce Sterling - a great author and seems a bit under-appreciated. Snowcrash is an amazing book. I dislike the way Stephenson does exaggeration but that's just me. "MirrorShades" was the anthology. I think it was good. J.G. Ballard wrote excellent stories about people and places who are on their way to a cyberpunk future.
- shalmanese 12y agoThe Shockwave Rider by John Brunner is 10 years older than Neuromancer and considered one of the first cyberpunk novels. Amazingly, it still holds up and feels plausibly futuristic, even to this day.
- turbojerry 12y agoI enjoyed these books by Charles Stross, Accelerando, Halting State and the follow up, but not sequel, Rule 34, and of course The Rapture of the Nerds, co-written with Cory Doctorow. Also I've enjoyed his non cyberpunkish books especially The Laundry Files series. I also liked William Hertlings Singularity series, Avogadro Corp, A.I. Apocalypse and The Last Firewall, all about how AGI could accidentally arise.
- philsnow 12y agoI just read Glasshouse by Stross, that was pretty solid as well. One part I enjoyed was there was a tiny bit of the "unreliable narrator" device thrown in (I won't say in what part of the book). Dick is the master of this device, but it worked in Glasshouse.