So You Want to Read Cyberpunk: Here’s Where to Start
Science-fiction is a predictive genre, with a sometimes wary eye always cast toward the future and what it may bring, both good and bad. Cyberpunk is perhaps one of the most cynical of the bunch. Having risen in the eighties, cyberpunk’s message is more relevant than ever: Our technology is more than a tool, cyberpunk says, in time it will define us, control us, and enable the worst of our impulses. One thing every reader should consider is that as technology has changed, so has our definition of cyberpunk. Bitcoin cyberthefts, and the Arab Spring’s use of Twitter to organize and launch a rebellion are both fairly cyberpunk, for example. Here are a few books suggestions for the new cyberpunk reader, old and new. Some of them are canonical works. Others are cyberpunk-inspired or related as they play with similar themes: technology’s effect on humanity and society, creeping corporate power, and techno-noir criminal schemes.
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Add to BookshelfAltered Carbon
by Richard K. Morgan
Richard Morgan took cyberpunk’s dystopian noir and transplanted it to a post-singularity future where death — at least for the very wealthy — is just another technical problem, thanks to technology that allows them to transfer their consciousness into new, healthy bodies. The story follows former soldier Takeshi Kovacs, who is hired by a man to investigate his own murder: something he has no memory of because his mind is set to backup once every 48 hours.
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$18.99Buy from Other Retailers:
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Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick
This one was the basis for the classic science-fiction “Bladerunner.” Rick Deckard is just another working stiff in San Francisco: a bounty hunter who has been hired to kill six renegade androids roaming the streets of post-apocalyptic San Francisco. Deckard is good at his job — suspiciously good. The book is significantly different from the film, and explains some of the more cryptic elements you might remember, like the importance of the robotic animals and why the streets are so dark and dingy.
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$18.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Neuromancer
by William Gibson
William Gibson’s tale of a burned-out hacker recruited for a high-risk heist in the endless sprawl dystopian Chiba City, Japan is a must-read for any science-fiction fan. Featuring cyber-enhanced “street samurai,” corporate criminals, and adventures in a pre-internet VR network known as “the matrix,” Neuromancer defined the genre. Consider this one obligatory for your journey into cyberpunk.
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$28.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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Snow Crash
by Neal Stephenson
Neal Stephenson’s insanely baroque yet utterly enthralling novel Snow Crash is the story of Hiro Protagonist: a hacker and pizza delivery guy who is drawn into a wild plot involving the mafia, cults, mysterious viruses, and oh-so-much more. Did I mention that it’s set in an anarcho-capitalist hellscape? Imagine a future co-created by Thomas Pynchon and conspiracy monger Alex Jones and you’re halfway there.
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$40.00Buy from Other Retailers:
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The Water Knife
by Paolo Bacigalupi
The Water Knife is more biopunk than cyberpunk, but the two are so close that they’re practically twins. The Southwestern United States has been hit by drought, making life there almost completely inhospitable. Water has become a hot commodity, and private corporations have taken control of what’s left. They rule the parched Southwest like mafia dons, destroying anyone who threatens their monopoly. Protagonist Angel Velasquez, the titular water knife and foot soldier for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, isn’t a good guy, but cyberpunk “heroes” rarely are.
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$19.00Buy from Other Retailers:
