William Gibson is considered by many to be the father of the Cyberpunk genre, as his first novel, ?Neuromancer? was the first mainstream-popular cyberpunk novel, despite coming out in 1982, 14 years after the start of the genre.
Good cyberpunk novels are renowned as being both the most frequent source of inspiration for developers of modern VR systems, and for having predicted a great many technological breakthroughs which have either come true, or parallel modern lab research precisely. Neuromancer, is considered the best of the best of these, and the author has pumped out with gusto, many more cyberpunk works since that.
Neuromancer
Neuromancer was William Gibson's first novel, back in 1984. It was the first of what would become the sprawl trilogy, and one of the most iconic books of all time. This is the one that originally introduced the concept of SimStim, and founded the cyberpunk genre It follows the twists and turns in the life of one-time computer hacker, now low level hustler Henry Case as he moves from near suicidal disability to regain his place in a shadowy, illicit hacking operation under the mysterious Armitage. In the process, the book touches on practically every aspect of VR, augmentation and near future society.
Count Zero
Count Zero was William Gibson?s second novel. Slotting in straight after Neuromancer as the second part of the sprawl trilog, it takes place in the same universe, a few years down the track. The work is a literal wealth of technological ideas, beautiful metaphors and breathtaking script.Action darts between three main sets of protagonists:
A corporate mercenary, Turner. Blown up on the job, and reconstructed from open market body parts, he is sent to retrieve the defecting head of R&D of another corporation
Bobby Newmark, a young, nieve teen from the boredom of Bobbytown, an almost-slum. He thinks he is a hot hacker, but in reality is your typical teenage clueless user, who promptly gets in way over his head.
Marly Krushkhova, an art finder, sent by the world?s richest, and oldest man to find boxes, containing wondrous forms of art, and possibly so much more than that.
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Published in 1988, Mona Lisa Overdrive is the third of the sprawl trilogy, and by far the least substantual. Set 15 years after Count Zero, the plot revolves around Mona, an innocent young prostitute who closely resembles famed Simstim superstar Angie Mitchell. Mona is hired individuals who seek to kidnap the star, and replace her with a puppet they control. Unlike the previous books, this one feels paper thin, and relies heavily on the other two to give the world some form of substance.
Virtual Light
Written
in 1993, Virtual Light is the first of Gibson's second cyberpunk trilogy, The
Bridge Trilogy. Virtual Light features no VR elements at all, but does involve
augmented reality. It is all about the virtual light glasses, and their ability
to restore sight to those without optic nerves. This technology from the book
has been developed for real, for over a decade and a half since its publication.
Idoru
Idoru
is a strange novel in many ways. Written in 1996,It is a William Gibson cyberpunk
novel second of The Bridge Trilogy. It is set in the dark days of the
near future, written by one of the masters of the genre. The book itself is
dedicated to a concept that is not quite with us yet, but may well be here in
the near future ? cyberpunk apes reality. Idoru concerns the marriage between
a human pop star, and an AI controlled, totally virtual woman.
All Tomorrow's Parties
Written in 1999, All Tomorrow's Parties is the final part of of Gibson's second
The Bridge Trilogy. It features three separate but overlapping stories,
with the continual appearance of pivotal characters as narrative anchor points.
The San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge, the overarching setting of the trilogy,
functions both as a narrative link between the three lines of plot and the physical
location of their ultimate convergence and resolution.
Burning Chrome
Burning
Chrome is a collection of ten of William Gibson?s short stories. All published
before Neuromancer, his first novel; these ten mark his early career as a different
type of writer. Whilst not all are cyberpunk, all have that same gritty realism,
that make his work so absorbing.
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