I enjoyed Virtual Light by William Gibson, I'll probably read Neuromancer next.

What's good?

The Diamond Age, or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

and

Snow Crash

I'll put a second in for Snow Crash, but I think my favorite was Gibson's first, and the first cyberpunk I read, Neuromancer.

Also, not exactly in the genre, but sharing some traits, if you have not read it, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson should be high on your list.
Anathem is another by Stephenson that is worth a read, as is Seveneves.

Thanks for adding to the queue gentlemen!

Remember reading a bunch of Gibson books that followed and / or were related to Neuromancer when i discovered it. If i were to pick up reading books of the genre i would likely statt again with Neuromancer.

Read other cyberpunk books, none as fascinating.

0-0

quote:

Originally posted by architect:
Also, not exactly in the genre, but sharing some traits, if you have not read it, Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson should be high on your list.
Anathem is another by Stephenson that is worth a read, as is Seveneves.

Neil Stephenson is good…. Especially if you are looking for best value for money spent vs word count. Big ol solid books that just go and go. In a good way.

The Baroque Cycle is a good example. Not really cyberpunk, but sort of an 18th Century Enlightenment Period saga of science mixed with this and that across the world.

Otherwise, just anything by Gibson is good to go!

Bill R

Altered Carbon

Following up, rather than editing my initial post...

Not at all cyberpunk, but perhaps the novel that got SF authors to veer from portraits of an idyllic future to darker themes, is the classic, and in my opinion, one of the most significant SF novels ever is "A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller Jr. Published way back in 1959, it foreshadowed the themes that pervaded the Cold War era of dystopian SF.

A follow-up to cyberpunk is the so-called steam punk, probably best represented by "The Difference Engine" by Bruce Sterling and Gibson, another sub-genre that can be quite entertaining.

Thank you guys. Im a couple chapters into Neuromancer, and it's very good. Gibson has a way of filling a page with prose so meaty, you need to re-read and process what just happened in order to paint a proper mental picture, and when you do, you say "holy shit"!

When I was in high school I played Shadowrun for a while with some other nerds, and it left a relentless impression on our direction as a society and species, along with haunting images that now seem inevitable, much less fantastic. This is all now nostalgic in a fucked up and complicated way.

Likely be one of these? Time to revisit.

Neuromancer by a long shot. I'd say while not entirely cyberpunk, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is thematically similar and quite excellent.

I like Gibson's stuff.
I also like the one that inspired him, Philip K Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep".

So in addition to Gibson's early work, Neuromancer, Count Zero, Monalisa Overdrive I'd recommend Hardwired by Walter Jon Williams.

Altered Carbon, Broken Angel, Woken Furies by Richard Morgan are more "modern" cyberpunk.

When Gravity Fails is another in the 80s style by George Alec Effinger. Excellent bookl

Snow Crash and Neuromancer for me.

- Bret