printedvelvet asks:
“Aside from stuff Phillip K. Dick and Neal Stephenson, what’s on your must-read cyberpunk novels and comics list?”
Okay. Deep breath.
Cyberpunk, also known as Radical Hard SF or The Movement, was born around 1980 and didn’t survive that decade. (Some people map the end to 1992, with Neal Stephenson’s SNOW CRASH.) Philip K Dick had no affiliation with the movement, and was dead by 1982, two years before William Gibson published NEUROMANCER. People tend to associate Dick with cyberpunk because of BLADE RUNNER, particularly its visuals, which had nothing to do with the novel, but were so strikingly of the speculative zeitgeist that in 1982 William Gibson had to get out of his cinema seat and leave the screening because it looked too much like what was in his head.
Phil Dick was pre-cyberpunk. He, JG Ballard and Alfred Bester were major touchstones for the movement. Ballard’s CRASH and Bester’s STARS MY DESTINATION and THE DEMOLISHED MAN are essential. Also John Brunner’s STAND ON ZANZIBAR, THE SHEEP LOOK UP, and, most importantly for cyberpunk’s ancestry, THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER.
Of the cyberpunk period itself, you will need William Gibson’s first trilogy, NEUROMANCER, COUNT ZERO and MONA LISA OVERDRIVE. Also, Bruce Sterling’s THE ARTIFICIAL KID and ISLANDS IN THE NET. Richard Kadrey’s METROPHAGE. Rudy Rucker’s SOFTWARE and WETWARE. Pat Cadigan’s TEA FROM AN EMPTY CUP. That should keep you going for a bit.
FWIW, I agree with all of what Warren says, and please consider this another vote for METROPHAGE, which is amazing.
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pastorofmuppets reblogged this from wilwheaton and added:
Hmmm…..Metrophage maybe the only one...these I haven’t read. Cripes. Better get on it!
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