How many people here like cyberpunk?

Agreed about the ending of MLO. After Neuromancer and then Count Zero, it was a big let down. Still, it was heady stuff, especially for a teen.

As for AI, when our robot overlords have taken over, they can write something more appropriate.

I read Nuromancer about 15years ago, liked it But I haven't read anything else by Gibson ,
 
I loved Gibson's books and he re-defined cyberpunk for me. However prior to that there were an number of Philip K. Dick novels (Ubik for one) and even some John Brunner (Shockwave Rider) That paved the way.

I for one would not consider Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Blade Runner) as Cyberpunk. Sure it has the Noir set in the movie--which I honestly did not manage to feel as impressed or oppressive in the novel. But it lacks the inner space-iness that you get in classic Cyberpunk. There are plenty other PKD novels that come closer.

John Shirley has some good stuff--however I started reading him through a recommend of
I didn't really feel that the cyber elements were that prevailant throughout ASCYS however they are much stronger than what you might see in PKD's D A Do E S (once again it is sometimes difficult to get that noir feel--ASCYS was much more war-torn and dystopic. I think the noir shows up as something that civilization settles into after all the war and some dystopic period to become a norm that is accepted by those who are trapped in its center. (And that might color the way I read these.)

Oddly I thing CyberPunk shouldn't be limited with words like dystopic and Noir, because I think that it could all take place in places of the world that try to shield themselves from those elements and still succeed as a CyberPunk. Those two tropes just happen in this moment to be ones that excite the reader imagination.
There's a good chance that that will change.

Rudy Rucker has some good stuff--and it is less noir because he has some of the Singularity stuff going.

Charles Stross has a good number though his tend to be light on the cyber-much like Shirley's ASCYS.

You could almost enter Stieg Larsson's Girl' books in the cyberpunk when considering some of the mainstream work that includes such thinly peripheral development in the cyber arena.

There also seems some bits of parallel to Noir and the darker deeper political thrillers.
 
Yes I've enjoyed "Burning Chrome" and "Dog Fight", I noticed that a SPAD was used, Seven or thirteen I'm not sure but either way their my favorite WW1 fighters!
 
Just one point about this:

Cyberpunk shades more and more into posthumanism the later in the timeline it gets. Even the game Cyberpunk - which embodies just about all the cyberpunk tropes - has a further-future offshoot called Cybergeneration in which the player characters are massively altered by nanotechnology, giving new powers - and disadvantages along with them, of course.
 
The first cyberpunk book i read would probably be The Supernaturalist by Eoin Colfer, when I was very young. Im pretty sure that would qualify anyway. It was a decent read for me back then, though I dont think Colfer ever returned to the universe.
 
Limbo by Bernard Wolfe I think of it as 50's cyberpunk .:cool:(y)
Everyone does know that Cyberpunk originated in the 1950's?
Mainly on the pages of Galaxy Magazine. To wit, The Stars My Destination (1956) Bester, Phil Dick and other authors on those pages.
 
Everyone does know that Cyberpunk originated in the 1950's?
Mainly on the pages of Galaxy Magazine. To wit, The Stars My Destination (1956) Bester, Phil Dick and other authors on those pages.

The Star My Destination , Its a great novel but , I never thought of it as a Cyberpunk novel though . Interesting. :(
 
Just this last week, I got a copy of the old adventure game, Beneath a Steel Sky. It's a post-apocalyptic cyberpunk story, and has a lot of hilarious moments - for example, a couple of guards named Sam and Norville, who act like they're fresh from a British comedy skit. It does suffer the slight flaw that the characters are surprisingly obliging to the person they've never seen before in an area where there's an intruder/saboteur (read: you) on the loose, to the point of not blinking an eye when you ask questions anybody who's supposed to be there should already know (like "Where am I?" "How does the City's caste system work?" "How do I get to ground level?"), but the rest of the game more than makes up for it - and the game also really develops all of the characters; a dead guard, for instance, seen while alive as nothing more than a stereotypical jackbooted soldier (named Reich, because subtlety is key), is revealed to have an award-winning pet fish and a secret liking for banned motorbikes. He's not a nice person by any means, but it does make him a person, rather than just some murderous thug. The game also features a surprisingly accurate prediction of what the internet would be primarily used for, in the form of a video entitled Pussies on Parade:










image-3-beneath-a-steel-sky.jpg


Yes, of course it's cats. Why, what did you think it was?
 
It isn't really cyberpunk, but it is a clear precursor. Fantastic book.

It sure had influence on all the later 'Cyberpunk' authors.
It is sure noticeable how the art , more the interior work in Galaxy Magazine , than the covers influenced Jean Giraud (Moebius) which in turn influenced the design of Scott's Blade Runner.
 
It sure had influence on all the later 'Cyberpunk' authors.
It is sure noticeable how the art , more the interior work in Galaxy Magazine , than the covers influenced Jean Giraud (Moebius) which in turn influenced the design of Scott's Blade Runner.

I never thought of it as being Cyberpunk influence. Hm, might have reread this one at some point.. :unsure:
 

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