Contemporary Cyberpunk?

[Thunderchild]

Can anyone recommend some cyberpunk books that have been written in the last 6 years? I've enjoyed books by Gibson and Rucker but am interested in books that incorperate a more modern perception of the internet and technology into their background now that ive read the 20 odd year old classics

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

You can also read Gibson's new books!


I think Cory Doctorow is just the writer you want to check out - he's totally cued in to the latest tech and net trends, and his books are full of the sort of technology that seems utterly desirable and also seems like it may well be commercially available in a decade or so. His site, www.craphound.com is a good starting point, especially as he allows you to download his novels from it for free.

I suppose his friend, Charlie Stross, also an SF writer, may cover similar ground in his works. I don't think either of them are cyberpunk as much as, well, post-cyberpunk, since th ecyberpunk phase itself seems to have been relatively short-lived.

 

[stencyl]

Yup, Knivesout is right. Pattern Recognition by Gibson is well worth it.

Stephenson is also good. I suggest Snow Crash and The Diamond Age. Misha is a more obscure writer who deals with cyberpunk themes. I also suggest a book called Storming the Reality Studio (Edited by McCaffey). It offers a very nice overview of some of the criticism right along side a nice sample of fiction. Not all of is is net-fiction stuff, but it's well worth a look. I picked mine up cheap via Amazon used book search.

 

[DMZ]

Pattern Recognition is one of his best to me.

 

[Nightender]

I'm a big fan of Walter Greatshell's Mad Skills. It came out at the very end of last year and I am still amazed by it. I thought it was better than the latest Patrick Rothfuss book. Mad Skills is full of excitement, action, great plot, and intriguing twists and turns.

I love this book and I really think that it's the kind of cyberpunk that virtually any audience can latch onto.

 

[Connavar]

Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan is the best version of more contemporary cyberpunk i have read. Cyberpunk or postcyberpunk really its very much similar. Just an update of 80s cyberpunk.

 

[Riselka]

I recently read a book called Halting State, by Charles Stross that would fit nicely into the Cyberpunk category. It had a rather interesting premise to it. I see there's a sequel to it coming out too.

Charles Stross

 

[Coolhand]

I'd second the vote for Altered Carbon, or any of the Tekashi Kovachs books. Broken Angels is more millitary s/f than cyber-punk, but Woken Furies is very much back in the Cyber Punk vibe again.

I've also read Snow Crash and whilst I found it seriously flawed in certain aspsect, it still has enough crazy ideas and cool sequences to be well worth picking up. Plus it has a samurai sword weilding pizza delivery dude as the protagonist.

C'mon, how can you turn that down?

 

[Riselka]

I'll third the vote for Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books.

Richard Morgan

 

[Ian Whates]

Moxyland by Lauren Beukes has all the language and intricacy of classic cyberpunk; it's also a great read.

Charles Stross said of the book: "...full of unselfconscious spiky originality, the larval form of a new kind of SF munching its way out of the intestines of the wasp-paralysed caterpillar of cyberpunk."

Can't say fairer than that!

 

[Waiting]

I'll third the vote for Richard Morgan's Takeshi Kovacs books.

His "Market Forces" was kind of like viewing a dystopia from the point of view of the controlling elite. "Thirteen" was pretty close to cyberpunk. As good as "Altered Carbon", IMO.

2002 and 1995, respectively, so no FaceBook, but check out McAuley's "Whole Wide World" and MacLeod's "The Star Fraction". Both enjoyable.

"Whole Wide World" has a great "feel" to it. As does Stross's "Halting State", though to a lesser degree. The first part of Dick's "Man in the High Castle" had a great "feel", too, if you know what I mean. And much of Gibson's "Pattern Recognition".

Also, check out McAuley's 2007 "Players".

 

[Connavar]

Wonderful thread i didnt know Stross wrote books like this and Lauren Beukes is a fresh name for me.

 

[Ian Whates]

Wonderful thread i didnt know Stross wrote books like this and Lauren Beukes is a fresh name for me.

Charlie writes almost anything genre-related, Con.

As for Lauren, she's lovely. A South African author whose second novel, Zoo City, is currently shortlisted for both the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA Awards for best novel.

I've beem fortunate enough to get a cracking short story from her for the new anthology Further Conflicts, which is being launched with a party at Eastercon this Friday. Lauren's coming over the the convention so will be at the launch.

 

[Connavar]

Charlie writes almost anything genre-related, Con.

As for Lauren, she's lovely. A South African author whose second novel, Zoo City, is currently shortlisted for both the Arthur C Clarke and BSFA Awards for best novel.

I've beem fortunate enough to get a cracking short story from her for the new anthology Further Conflicts, which is being launched with a party at Eastercon this Friday. Lauren's coming over the the convention so will be at the launch.

A South African author ? SF from different parts of the world make her even more interesting to me and not just look at UK/US writers.

 

[Ian Whates]

A South African author ? SF from different parts of the world make her even more interesting to me and not just look at UK/US writers.

Yes, and Moxyland is very much cyberpunk in a future South African setting, with its own unique use of language that gives it a very authentic feel.

 

[hormone]

Definitely read the triology by Richard Morgan
Takeshi Kovacs series
Altered Carbon (2002)
Broken Angels (2003)
Woken Furies (2005)

 

[Stephen Palmer]

A South African author ? SF from different parts of the world make her even more interesting to me and not just look at UK/US writers.

Some of us Brit authors are very happy to do SF set in Africa...

 

[Connavar]

Some of us Brit authors are very happy to do SF set in Africa...

I didnt know that i thought you brits wrote only SF about US

Which struck me always as something weird, i want to read British author like Morgan and his series is set in San Francisco hehe.

Seriously you mean you have written SF set in Africa ?

The only interesting SF set in Africa i have read is written by Mike Resnick.

 

[Waiting]

I'm not sure if Morgan's Kovacs trilogy is "cyberpunk", but since it is cited here I think I'm safe in suggesting Chris Moriarty's "Spin State".

Not "noir-ish" like "Altered Carbon", but many of the elements of Morgan's books are in Moriarty's 2002 book - an enhanced UN Peacekeeper is the main character. She's transported across space by FTL technoogy. The network, virtual reality, sentient AIs. Without revealing too much, other similarities will present themselves as you get into the book.

Highly recommended.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I didnt know that i thought you brits wrote only SF about US

Which struck me always as something weird, i want to read British author like Morgan and his series is set in San Francisco hehe.

Seriously you mean you have written SF set in Africa ?

The only interesting SF set in Africa i have read is written by Mike Resnick.

I always feel slightly uncomfortable about writing SF set in America, I must admit... perhaps the cultural connections are too close...

Yes, my fourth novel Muezzinland is entirely set in the Africa of 2130.