Quality Cyber-punk novels?

JamesKeenan

So I hear in this area Neuromancer and Snow Crash are the ways to go, but that's all I know.

I don't want to know which you think is #1. Just, which are the elite?

The ones I'd want to read if I wanted to have covered all the genre had to offer.

Atlus Parker

I'm trying to get into cyberpunk novels as well. I was recommended Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan as well as its sequels.

Reznik

Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive are the other two books in the 'sprawl trilogy', of which Neuromancer is the first.

Joe Chemo

Neuromancer, Snow Crash, and Altered Carbon are my trifecta of awesome, but I've only read around a dozen cyberpunk novels. Need to read more.


But seriously, read those.

OremLK

Bruce Sterling is amazing and underappreciated on this forum. I never liked William Gibson's work very much, either. Neuromancer was interesting in some ways, but for the most part I felt it was kind of a chore to get through.

manji

if you're willing to drop into entertaining, but a bit rubbish try games workshop's dark future novels. i really enjoyed them when i was but a youth...

Sol Invictus

I totally recommend Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space novels. It's certainly not 'near-future' but it's around 300-400 years in the future and it pretty much comes under the whole cyberpunk thing. Especially Chasm City. You should read that book.

I'm also gonna have to recommend Richard Morgan's Altered Carbon, and Infoquake by David Louis Edelman.

Bogart

William Gibson's brilliant Sprawl trilogy is probably the highpoint of the genre. Read those before anything else, then try stuff by Bruce Sterling and Rudy Rucker.

Arch Guru XX

They don't get a lot of love anywhere that I've seen, but I really like Gibson's other trilogy of Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties. Altered Carbon was good the first time I read it but man did it seem less good the second time. I think Morgan's work has improved though, and pretty much all his stuff is good enough to merit a read.

VThornheart

Would Diamond Age be considered Cyber-punk?

I would think so. It's by Neal Stephenson, and it's fantastic. A great read.

AresProphet

Arch Guru XX wrote: »

They don't get a lot of love anywhere that I've seen, but I really like Gibson's other trilogy of Virtual Light, Idoru, and All Tomorrow's Parties.

I haven't read the other two but Idoru isn't very cyberpunk. More of a near-future detective story, without all the cool shit that cyberpunk brings to the table.

It's great spec fic, though.

Echo

VThornheart wrote: »

Would Diamond Age be considered Cyber-punk?

Nanopunk. :P

Read it anyway. It's awesome.

VThornheart

lol See, that's what I was fuzzy on

Definitely read it though. But be warned, it's heartbreaking at points.

JohnnyCache

OremLK wrote: »

Bruce Sterling is amazing and underappreciated on this forum. I never liked William Gibson's work very much, either. Neuromancer was interesting in some ways, but for the most part I felt it was kind of a chore to get through.

Man Heavy Weather by Bruce Sterling is a great cyberpunk book that gets no love.

Trouble and Her Friends is a very smart book about internets and laws that is worth a read (as a disclaimer, it has several gay characters in it, although there's no explicit sex)

The recent "Little Brother" by Corey Docterow is technically a "young adult" book but damn if it isn't pretty good

Thirteen, Richard K. Morgan's non-series novel, is pretty kickass.

Crashcourse, by Wilhelmina Baird, is a decent cyberpunk adventure I read back in the day, and then it has two sequals - Clipjoint and Pyskosis - that get further into hard sci-fi territory but are also worth reading.

Echo

JohnnyCache wrote: »

Thirteen, Richard K. Morgan's non-series novel, is pretty kickass.

Addendum: it's called Black Man in the rest of the world.

JohnnyCache

Echo wrote: »

JohnnyCache wrote: »

Thirteen, Richard K. Morgan's non-series novel, is pretty kickass.

Addendum: it's called Black Man in the rest of the world.

Really? that's a much better title, actually.

Sheep

Atlus Parker wrote: »

I was recommended Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan as well as its sequels.

I have this but have yet to start it.

ProPatriaMori

Diamond Age is kind of higher sci-fi but still good. Gibson's cyberpunk is where it's at, in my opinion, even if he is partly responsible for Johnny Mnemonic. And seriously, the Bridge trilogy--All Tomorrow's Parties, Idoru, and Virtual Light, in reverse order (why did I reverse them I don't know)--is wonderful. Gibson's characters are all great.