Cyberpunk Recommendations?
The Discriminating Fangirl ::
2008/04/09 11:23 ::
Books, Commentary
I’ve been a fan of science fiction pretty much since before I could walk. My parents took me to see The Empire Strikes Back when I was a toddler, and I grew up on Star Wars, Star Trek, and other science fiction and fantasy staples. The thing is, most of the science fiction I consume is visual. I watch SF movies and TV shows or read comics. I don’t read a lot of SF, and by god, it’s time to change that.
I’ve always been interested in cyberpunk as a genre, though again mostly through films like Bladerunner and The Matrix. I got interested in William Gibson thanks to The X-Files episode “Kill Switch” in season 5. Hell, I’ve even studied feminist cyberpunk in a course on the supernatural in pop culture, but other than a couple of short stories, I’ve never read any.
So, dear readers, here is where I ask you to recommend your favorite cyberpunk books. I’m already collecting Gibson novels (I found The Difference Engine at a used bookstore, and snagged Virtual Light, Idoru, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and All Tomorrow’s Parties off of BookMooch), but which ones have I missed? How about Phillip K. Dick? What are some other awesome cyberpunk authors? I am particularly interested in cyberpunk (or science fiction in general) written by women, so I’d welcome those recommendations, too.
Currently:
Wearing: Nocturne Alchemy’s Tut Ankh Amun perfume oil
Listening to: Foo Fighters - “The Pretender”
Reading: Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
One female cyberpunk author that comes to mind is Pat Cadigan, specifically Synners.
Philip K Dick wrote the basis for “Bladerunner” with “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” There’s also “Minority Report”.
You might also find Bruce Sterling’s Mirrorshades anthology and maybe Neal Stephenson’s stuff.
As far as Gibson goes, Neuromancer and Count Zero compose the same universe as Mona Lisa Overdrive. I think they can be read separately though.
Sounds like you’ve got most of your bases covered. You’re definitely on the right track with Virtual Light: I think it’s one of his best. Gibson started in a pretty distant future with Neuromancer (did you ever read it?), and has progressively worked his way back with each set of stories. His last two, Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, have both been set in the present. Pattern Recognition may not fit the traditional definition of sci-fi or cyberpunk, but it is definitely some of his best work. You might also try Burning Chrome, which is a collection of his old cyberpunk short stories, including the one that (unfortunately) became Johnny Mnemonic
Incidentally, there’s an interesting and little-known movie you might be interested in called “New Rose Hotel,” based on a short story of Gibson’s from Burning Chrome. It stars Willem Dafoe, Christopher Walken, Asia Argento, and (this should raise your nerd antenna) Yoshitaka Amano.
As far as other authors go, heh, there’s always the Shadowrun books. You’ve kinda gotta take the good with the bad on those, but there are some good ones: there’s one you might like called The Terminus Experiment, about what goes on with vampires in the cyberpunk world. The setting alone is nerdgasmic. Vampires, corporate warfare, mafia wars, lesbian elves. Ha ha ha.