Suggest me a Cyberpunk book that’s not Neuromancer or the it’s sequels
I’ve been meaning to get deeper into Cyberpunk fiction, since I am a big fan of the tabletop RPGs, but I was not happy with 2077 and have already read Neuromancer, now I don’t know where to go next.
Yukikaze by Chohei Kambiyashi is not traditional cyberpunk, published just a bit before Neuromancer iirc, but as a lover of cyberpunk I do consider it to be in the genre. It deals with transhumanism, AI, technology and how humans interact with it. Just not in the typical city setting.
If you’re a fan of Japanese works like Ghost I’m the Shell or Nier Automata it’s definitely had influence on them. If you haven’t seen Ghost in the Shell (90s film by all means go watch that too.)
glibego on
Burning Chrome was a book of short stories in genre.
Hatherence on
* I second Snow Crash. It’s great fun. The Diamond Age by the same author is also cyberpunk, but set farther in the future than Snow Crash is.
* Ready Player One. It’s like junk food for you brain, not particularly serious or profound, but every now and then you get a glimpse past the pop culture references to see the decaying world this book is set in.
* Blackfish City, a modern book but it has a sort of retro-ish feel that reminds me a lot of Neuromancer.
* Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. This author has written a lot of cyberpunk novels, but I like this one a lot. It’s a mix of *incredibly* outdated geopolitics but a very prescient vision of how people would use the internet.
* Accelerando by Charles Stross.
* Hardwired or Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams (says they are a series, but they are stand alone novels in the same universe). Hardwired inspired the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG that was eventually adapted into Cyberpunk 2077, and while it includes good gay representation, it starts off with a bad stereotype of trans people. It’s also out of print so may be difficult to get ahold of.
* Altered Carbon. I found this book to have too much gratuitous sex and violence to the point I kind of wished the author would get on with the story, but you may like it.
* Trouble And Her Friends. A character driven romance about allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and technology that forces you to be vulnerable being feared by society.
* Synners. About the invention of brain-computer interfaces.
* The Otherland series by Tad Williams, starting with City of Golden Shadow. These are *really* long books and pretty slow paced until the very end.
* These are on my to-read list, I haven’t read them *yet*. Infomocracy by Malka Older, Void Star by Zachary Mason, Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley, and When Gravity Fails.
ye_olde_green_eyes on
Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge is technically cyberpunk (in my opinion).
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Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Yukikaze by Chohei Kambiyashi is not traditional cyberpunk, published just a bit before Neuromancer iirc, but as a lover of cyberpunk I do consider it to be in the genre. It deals with transhumanism, AI, technology and how humans interact with it. Just not in the typical city setting.
If you’re a fan of Japanese works like Ghost I’m the Shell or Nier Automata it’s definitely had influence on them. If you haven’t seen Ghost in the Shell (90s film by all means go watch that too.)
Burning Chrome was a book of short stories in genre.
* I second Snow Crash. It’s great fun. The Diamond Age by the same author is also cyberpunk, but set farther in the future than Snow Crash is.
* Ready Player One. It’s like junk food for you brain, not particularly serious or profound, but every now and then you get a glimpse past the pop culture references to see the decaying world this book is set in.
* Blackfish City, a modern book but it has a sort of retro-ish feel that reminds me a lot of Neuromancer.
* Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. This author has written a lot of cyberpunk novels, but I like this one a lot. It’s a mix of *incredibly* outdated geopolitics but a very prescient vision of how people would use the internet.
* Accelerando by Charles Stross.
* Hardwired or Voice of the Whirlwind by Walter Jon Williams (says they are a series, but they are stand alone novels in the same universe). Hardwired inspired the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG that was eventually adapted into Cyberpunk 2077, and while it includes good gay representation, it starts off with a bad stereotype of trans people. It’s also out of print so may be difficult to get ahold of.
* Altered Carbon. I found this book to have too much gratuitous sex and violence to the point I kind of wished the author would get on with the story, but you may like it.
* Trouble And Her Friends. A character driven romance about allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and technology that forces you to be vulnerable being feared by society.
* Synners. About the invention of brain-computer interfaces.
* The Otherland series by Tad Williams, starting with City of Golden Shadow. These are *really* long books and pretty slow paced until the very end.
* [I made a list of free short cyberpunk stories posted in the Cyberpunk tabletop subreddit here!](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/16vmf8v/cyberpunk_stories_to_get_in_the_mood/) Includes the story called Burning Chrome, but Burning Chrome is also a collection of short fiction by William Gibson which is *not* available free.
* These are on my to-read list, I haven’t read them *yet*. Infomocracy by Malka Older, Void Star by Zachary Mason, Fairyland by Paul J. McAuley, and When Gravity Fails.
Thomas Pynchon’s Bleeding Edge is technically cyberpunk (in my opinion).