I just pre-ordered CP2077, and am looking to satisfy some cyberpunk hype with some written materials. I am currently finally finishing 1984, which is amazing. And I have Ready Player One lined up, though I’m not expecting much of it.
Do you have any recommendations for cyberpunk, dystopian-tech-future-type books? Have you been reading anything like that lately? (Bonus points for edgy/transgressive themes and philosophical underpinnings)
Neuromancer by William Gibson is one of the classics. His style of writing sometimes takes some getting used to, but that’s kinda where it all started for the genre.
Neuromancer plus the other two that make the trilogy
Cryptonomicon
Altered carbon
Burning chrome
Do androids dream of electric sheep
There’s graphic novels and comics as well
I did some Google-fu around that book, and found a South-American version’s cover art so cool that I didn’t want to buy any other version, hahah. Problem is that it’s in Spanish. What is it about his style that needs some getting used to?
Gibson is just one of those writers which does world-building without a lot of explicit explanation. You don’t get an explanation for why coins would retain heat from a fruit machine, or what it means to be “tortoise-framed”. You’re just dropped in the middle of it all and expected to keep up.
I like it when writers do that, but it does tend to throw people if they’ve been raised on Twilight or something. Clearly that’s not you considering what you’re looking for. 
Snow Crash
Ware Tetrology
Cannot recommend William Gibson enough. His earlier stuff is hard to get on first read, but it’s worth it. I really like the Bridge trilogy, but the Blue Ant trilogy might be like what you are looking for
I liked The Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson
also Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge 
Isaac azimov, Philip k dick, the afore mentioned William Gibson would be my top choices.
I even liked the films, like Johnny mnemonic and IRobot and blade runner
Daemon is at that pre cyberpunk stage. But the sequel, Freedom 
, is in that setting. I like Daemon better, but both are well worth the read.
Simon Morden’s Petrovitch Trilogy.
@Eden already mentioned
Cryptonomicon
I would add another Stephenson title, Anathem. It starts very slowly and the technological elements don’t emerge until later, but if you enjoy speculative fiction about math and programming the book is worth the time required.
Yoon Ha Lee’s Ninefox Gambit is also good, somewhat similar to Vernor Vinge in its world-building.
Since Gibson has been recommended to death here, I’ll give you a great graphic novel / comic series.
Transmetropolitan
Thank you for the recommendations, everyone!
I decided to start off with Neuromancer, because of how many of you praised Gibson’s work. And the way redocbew described the world-building seemed right up my alley. I happened to be in my country’s capital, so I was lucky to find a book store that actually has it. Turns out it’s rare to find in brick and mortar stores around here.
Cheers to the rest of the recommendations as well, I’ll be sure to move through them as soon as I get the time! I’m especially intrigued by Altered Carbon and Snow Crash.
I have been a fan of the Blade Runner universe since I was a teenager. I actually started out with the old PC game by Westwood Studios. That later translated into loving the movies, PKD’s book that started it all, and now anything properly executed in the cyberpunk genre. I see some book recommendations here that I need to read, Neuromancer and Snow Crash keep popping up in my searches. I also recently wrote and published my own cyberpunk novel if anyone is interested. It’s called Awake Eternal. I wanted to dive into the deeper philosophical ideas hinted at in Blade Runner and also look at things from the perspective of the machine. Let me know if anyone would like to know more or if there are any other book recommendations for me to look into. All & One.
Huge Cyberpunk fan myself and there are loads of great recommendations here … I would also add Ramez Naam’s trilogy (Nexus, Crux and Apex) and Peter Watts Grifters series of books to this list as well … Also Neal Asher and his Polity Series is great as well.
Snow crash is easy to get into, shows you how bad megacorps could make a future.
Neuromancer is gonna give you a Japan/Hacker boner XD
Thanks!
lol. I also found one called Por Vida that looks cool.
I just stumbled upon this thread, and I gotta say, I’m digging your taste in literature. I’m a big fan of dystopian-tech-future-type books myself, so I’m happy to share some recommendations with you. If you’re looking for some edgy/transgressive themes and philosophical underpinnings, you should definitely check out “Neuromancer” by William Gibson. It’s a classic cyberpunk novel that explores themes of artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and the intersection of technology and humanity.
Pretty much the main cultural ressource 2077 used for most things. SR also mixes fantasy elements into the genre but otherwise acts as a good reference point. Corporate storyline and plot is basically your typical SR scenario. You could change corporation names with Renraku, Mitsuhama or Ares, change some details, add elves and magic and it would sell as Shadowrun.
Cyberpunk as a genre is basically just trauma compensation for americans regarding 70-80s rise of industrial Japan, made manifest in books, games, art and music.
2077 isn’t really a good representation of Cyberpunk as it lacks many aspects that defines the genre. But for a mainstream game, you have to make compromises to sell it. I still enjoyed it, but there have been better plots in the past and a lot of has been copy&paste from the best-of
I can recommend playing the three Shadowrun indy titles from Harebrained Schemes. They got Shadowrun and Cyberpunk right despite a low budget. Sadly not much else outside some old console or PC titles of varying quality.
Just make sure to listen to (Dark/Retro) Wave music as a smooth background when reading. Atmosphere is important. It’s about immersion after all. And don’t forget your deck 
